Section 7 Innovations in Distance Learning

I found this article Web-Mediated Faculty Professional Development: Improving Learning, Building Community and Assessing Outcomes by Robert W. Fulton, Paula E. Noonan and James M. Dorris at http://www.league.org/publication/whitepapers/1004.html This was of particular interest to me both at the Community College and for the Hospital Community. Time and distance are such obstacles for anybody to attend Professional Development Offerings even though they are contractual requirements. Surveys were given to 28 faculty members who took an on-line offering. In brief the comments elicited from one of the questions on the survey were: "better learning experience", "more flexible", "more interactive", "more focused, scholastic and professional' "less traveling", less leaving normal duties". The comment that there was "access regardless of status, workload of employment level" and "leveled playing field" really impacted upon me - there have been classes that I have been to where there are the dominators and I felt restricted to get into the discussions. We at the hospital, in particular, are looking at several web-based courses (Health Streams) to reach more employees, tap into the various learning styles and of course what the hospital is primarily interested in is cutting the cost of orientation and staff development.