Well, we likely never will give up on them completely. They do serve a population and a purpose. I think. And we have been asking the same question for years.
I am hoping that we move to a yearly plan that includes some really good “challenges “ or events that make up the bulk of our training for faculty. That along with a seriously determined effort to make deeper and more meaningful connections with them.
That is the plan.
1. Multiple “engaging” events throughout the year
2. Deeper and more meaningful relationship building
Sounds like a therapy plan. Anyway.
This year I am participating in the 12 Apps of Christmas with the BC Campus and ETUG and having just completed the 9x9x 25 I feel like having a calendar that has X amount of multi-day events might look better and get a wider response than our current schedule which is primarily one hour trainings with a couple of other day or multi-day events.
Today I see that ELI/Horizon Report is running a 2-minute video “competition” which faculty could participate in. Finding such events and marketing them to our faculty might also be a way of generating a more sharable event and faculty created learning products.
I guess I think that if there were longer more interactive activities for faculty to participate in, with one of the goals being to create content that other faculty can learn from, we all win. And if these events are open to any faculty, we can learn from faculty outside our own institutions. Simple idea. But what does the schedule look like?
My list, between UW and Yavapai College looks about like this. And added to the list could be similar events happening at other schools so we all would not have to reinvent each wheel every time.
March – March for Best Practice
August – December Program for Online Teaching
September – November 9x9x25 Challenge
December – 12 Apps of Christmas
What is your schedule look like? What are the events and the duration of them?