Innovations in online faculty development: an organizational model for long-term support of online faculty.

Abstract

In 2008, Penn State University’s online delivery organization, Penn State World Campus, established a dedicated faculty development unit to improve online instruction. The Online Faculty Development (OFD) unit was designed to prepare faculty for online teaching through a large and varied curriculum of asynchronous online training courses built on the theory and research of best practices for online instruction. This paper describes the Penn State World Campus OFD unit, its mission and program, and the assumptions underlying its day-to-day operations.