just keep on swinging

I presented this morning to faculty of the Social Work Program at the School of Human Ecology. The presentation was a pared down and much revised variant of the old dog-and-pony show Coach hustled to program directors a number of years ago.

Our revised effort is not necessarily to educate faculty about the nomenclature, technology, benefits, and value of online teaching and learning. Rather, we move directly into a "this is how easy it is" discussion. In every session I've done, the faculty will ultimately ask the questions about nomenclature and technology. Through our answers and along the way, we hammer home the benefits and value statements. I learned how to effectively position a value-add from watching Anita, my most influential mentor, do this time and again in the face of hostile audiences.

I'm having a lot of fun with this presentation lately. It might be because I finally feel like we've put a design and production process in place that faculty can get their heads around -- it's not intimidating. Of course, I might also be digging on it because there is rising interest across campus to move courses online. The pressures are financial. I offer no pretense to these people that the pressures are anything but bottom-line driven. Five years ago, we couldn't get an audience with a dean. Now deans are telling their program directors and faculty to do it. UC has been doing online really well for a long time. Now we're going to help the rest of campus do it well as they help us do it better.

This isn't necessarily what I wanted to scribble about tonight - per se. I found this article, which brought me back to this morning's presentation. During our discussion, the question came up about research into the effectiveness of online learning. I think this article is a great example of the type of empirical analysis that is being attempted. I've since shared the URL with the Social Work program director. I shared it not to forward a specific position, but merely to illustrate how some scholars and educators are attempting to explore the concerns and hesitancy faculty have toward online teaching and learning. There are a lot of loaded claims and specific questions to be asked about the student populations discussed in the article, but at a fundamental level, I think the faculty will find it interesting.

For all that's going on around campus during difficult and stressful times, there remains tremendous opportunities to do fun, creative, and rewarding work with some really smart and talented people.