The How To’s for a Successful Online Faculty Training Program

This session will focus on a systemic approach to faculty on-boarding, training and development employed by the Center for Teaching and Learning at Kaplan University. Presenters will describe Kaplan’s centralized, holistic approach to faculty training and development, including the development offered, systems and tools employed, and outcomes achieved.

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) was developed in 2005 when faculty training moved from individual departments to a University-centered approach for large-scale faculty training and development. The mission of the CTL is as follows: The CTL is committed to helping novice and veteran teachers to create a collaborative, student-centered learning experience. The Center provides training, resources, and services designed to enrich both the teaching and learning process, foster practices of adult education, promote faculty scholarship, and provide a forum for discussions about teaching and learning among all members of the community of educators.

Over the past nine years, the CTL has grown and evolved annually. What started as a department that only offered required faculty trainings has become one now that still includes these required trainings, but also over 30 asynchronous workshops, two annual conferences, 3-4 weekly live events, a website that is revised daily, a weekly newsletter focused on technology tips, and a variety of learning objects and tools that are highlighted throughout Kaplan University.
In the spring of 2014, the Center for Teaching and Learning conducted a University-wide faculty survey, with a nearly 20 percent response rate, to gauge the impact of their offerings; the anonymous survey results revealed that, of the respondents, 95% had participated in CTL events and had a positive experience with these/that the faculty believed the trainings helped them to
become a better faculty member.