Helping Your Online Faculty Succeed: Q&A with Kaye Shelton

August 10, 2009

By: Christopher Hill in Online Education

While many online programs struggle with student retention issues, Dallas Baptist University has achieved an impressive 92% student course completion rate across its 34 fully online degree programs. Kaye Shelton, Dean of Online Education at Dallas Baptist University, shares some secrets for success.

Q: How can we turn teachers who were initially reluctant recruits to teaching online into regular consumers of the latest knowledge, research and best practices in the field?
Shelton: First of all, I believe that support specialists are critical factors in the success of online education. We are the distance education experts, not the faculty, and we have more time that we can devote to searching for resources. It is our job to provide as many tools and resources as possible to support excellence in teaching and help the teachers remain current as well as efficient. Actually, I believe that by providing the latest knowledge, research and best practices in the field and making them easily accessible often encourages those instructors who are reluctant because we are assuring them constant support and reminding them they are important to us and to the online classroom.

Some of my best success stories are regarding instructors who we bring in ‘kicking and screaming’ but leave our office with a positive outlook and with much less trepidation. As faculty support specialists, we should also try to make it fun during the professional development opportunities. For example, during our annual online faculty workshop, in a drawing, we give away prizes such as flash drives, iPods, and Flip video cameras which are items that can help them as online instructors. For those faculty who cannot attend, we mail them the resources and archives of the workshop.

Q: What are some motivating factors we can offer our best instructional designers and support specialists in addition to salary to make them stay with the program?
Shelton: One of the best incentives would be to provide professional development opportunities which help them remain more confident in their support of faculty teaching online. Offering opportunities to work from home and offering flexible work hours can be good incentives as well. I also try to remind my staff of how important they are to the overall process. Sometimes, those behind the scenes are less noticed, but in reality, instructional support staff can be critical to online success.

Q: What are the most important things we can do to help the faculty’s first online experience be a positive one?
Shelton: Teaching online is different from teaching in the classroom. Prior to the first online teaching experience, it is important to help the faculty understand those differences. We provide ePedagogy training for every first time instructor which offers tips and tricks for teaching online such as methods for saving time and keeping their email inbox down to a minimum. Instructors need to understand student expectations as well as institutional expectations, such as how often they are expected to be online with the students.

Q: Do you have to train your technical support people in the interpersonal aspects of support, the “human factor”?
Shelton: I am fortunate to have an incredible team of online course developers and don’t really need to spend time training on the “human factor.” They greatly respect our faculty and are patient with their learning process. We always tell the faculty, “There are no silly questions, so ask away!” I do sometimes need to encourage them though because it can be frustrating when our timetable doesn’t always match the faculty’s timetable and expectations. But being flexible, understanding and focused on the ultimate goal–which is excellent faculty support–is the most important thing we can do, because we are partnering with them to deliver quality online education.