Dive Brief:
- A pilot study with online students in Penn State’s World Campus offers a subset of data to help answer the question of whether professional development for faculty improves student engagement.
- According to eCampus News, 75% of students who responded to a survey during the pilot saying their courses engaged them had a faculty member who had taken the university’s professional development, but the reasons cited by students who did not feel engaged were the same whether their instructors had taken the PD or not.
- Students were looking for interaction with their instructors as well as their peers, lively online discussion, real-world connections with the subject matter, and meaningful, timely feedback from instructors to feel engaged.
Dive Insight:
The Penn State study was conducted during the spring and summer semesters of 2014 in a bachelor’s degree program that included nearly 2,300 students, but the report is based on survey responses of just 159 students, creating validity concerns. As there were a number of faculty members who successfully engaged their students without participating in the institution’s professional development, researchers also do not know whether that is because of outside training, considerable experience, or even intrinsic talent.
The Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College found a level of role ambiguity in online courses created by misaligned expectations between faculty and students. Professional development is one way researchers recommended institutions respond to a situation that hurts student outcomes and faculty satisfaction.