Effects and Impacts of a Professional Development Workshop in Online Course Design: A Mixed-Methods Study

• In Event: Learning Through Design Processes as Researchers

Abstract

Distance education researchers call for more studies to answer the question, how do we best prepare faculty to teach online? Faculty are typically responsible for designing their online courses. Current professional development research methods consist of self-report measures, qualitative or quantitative description, or lessons learned. Few studies use mixed methods to answer guiding questions of professional development programs in online teaching. Therefore, this study tested the effects of a QM professional development called Applying the Quality Matters Rubric workshop using both criterion-based and self-report measures within a one group pre-post quasi-experimental design. In addition, workshop outcomes were qualitatively explored using phenomenological case studies of faculty who subsequently used the QM Rubric to redesign their courses to meet standards of quality.

Author

• René Mercer, Texas A&M University