Organizing Faculty for Distance Learning

The process of organizing faculty for distance learning shares characteristics with planning for classroom instruction. It is necessary to understand faculty and their characteristics as a group. This includes knowing and understanding their expectations, their general work conditions, the type and level of education that is typical, as well as the general professional personality and culture of the faculty body. Consider well the faculty-learners’ characteristics, and based on those select the most fitting assessment techniques, media, and methods. There are also co-requisite conditions that must be satisfied to successfully mobilize faculty to teach via distance. These include the provision of equipment: hardware, software, and any other necessary technology. The faculty must be capable of and inclined to use the technology. There must be an overt expression of the expectation that teaching online is an institutional priority. Faculty, in turn, need to be aware of, understand, accept, and endorse the expectation. There must be incentives for teaching online, and they must be of the sort that will motivate faculty.