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Penn State World Campus faculty study online teaching workload By Celena E. Kusch
These faculty members have been awarded grants to study teaching online, from top: Dr. Richard Arteca, professor of horticultural physiology; David DiBiase, director, e-Education Institute and Peter R. Gould Center for Geography Education and Outreach, and senior lecturer in geography; Dr. Barbara Grabowski, associate professor of education and professor-in-charge of instructional systems; Dr. Margaret Lyday, associate professor of English; Dr. J. David Popp, senior project associate, Department of Adult Education, Instructional Systems and Workforce Education and Development; and Dr. Al Turgeon, professor of turfgrass management.	This fall, six Penn State World Campus faculty members will begin new research on the faculty experience of teaching online. Through a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the World Campus has awarded them Faculty Research grants of between $4,000 and $5,000 for this project.   “One of the major goals of the World Campus is to build and maintain strong relationships with the faculty who teach in the World Campus,” stated Dr. Melody Thompson, director of Quality and Planning for the World Campus and affiliate assistant professor of adult education. “As a result, we are interested in research that provides the basis for enhancing those relationships.”   Grant recipients will investigate and compare the workload and time involved in teaching and/or administering online courses through the World Campus with classroom versions of the courses they teach.   “There is no widespread agreement about the amount of time and work that goes into teaching an online course,” Thompson explained. “As a result, there is no standard for this new teaching environment to guide faculty. Across universities, there is a considerable variety of practices in assigning online courses. We are excited to support research across disciplines as a way to contribute to the knowledge base about faculty load in online education.”   Research grants have been awarded to: Dr. Richard Arteca, professor of horticultural physiology, for “Evaluating delivery workloads of Horticulture 101 World Campus versus resident instruction.” David DiBiase, director of the e-Education Institute and the Peter R. Gould Center for Geography Education and Outreach and senior lecturer in geography, for “Scaling up: Investigating the effect of increased enrollment on instructor effort and student satisfaction.” Dr. Barbara Grabowski, associate professor of education and professor-in-charge of instructional systems, for “An examination of course requirements by task type and quality output for two cohort Web-delivered courses offered in six- and 12-week settings.” Dr. Margaret Lyday, associate professor of English, for “Investigating instructor consistency in English 202D World Campus versus resident instruction.” Dr. J. David Popp, senior project associate in the Department of Adult Education, Instructional Systems and Workforce Education and Development, for “An examination of tools and artifacts for two cohort Web-delivered courses offered in six- and 12-week settings.” Dr. Al Turgeon, professor of turfgrass management, for “Comparison of online and resident versions of TURF 436: Case Studies in Turfgrass Management.”   The research projects are all self-study projects defined within the context of the individual faculty member’s overall professional responsibility. As such, they offer faculty members the opportunity to use their teaching in the World Campus to help meet institutional expectations for research and publication.   “A major goal of the research projects is to see how teaching online interacts with other faculty responsibilities—how it contributes to the areas the University values and rewards most and how it affects professional development needs for faculty. We are funding research by faculty members who have taught before in order to better understand what support faculty members need to maintain professional development and advancement while they teach online courses. This is an important aspect of our overall faculty support initiative in the World Campus,” Thompson added.   The World Campus has a long history of faculty support, including an online faculty development course, instructional design and technical support, periodic seminars and Penn State Web portal offerings currently under development.   “Underlying all of our faculty support initiatives is the idea that the success of the World Campus, and online education in general, is dependent on a satisfied and committed faculty,” Thompson stressed. “We want to ensure that the experience of faculty who teach through the World Campus is positive enough that they will encourage their colleagues to become involved. The more we learn about what makes online teaching manageable and personally satisfying, the more appropriately we will be able to support the new faculty who will make these programs grow.”
© 2002 Outreach Communications,   Outreach & Cooperative Extension,   The Pennsylvania State University phone: (814) 865-8108,   fax: (814) 863-2765,   e-mail: outreachnews@outreach.psu.edu