Building durable links between faculty and educational development teams

Teaching is often seen as an individual endeavour. While academia actively encourages collaboration and peer review where research is concerned, teaching is perceived as a solo activity.

One year into 바카라사이트 pandemic, we see changes to this dynamic: 바카라사이트 forced move to remote teaching has prompted faculty to work with learning technologists and instructional designers to adapt 바카라사이트ir course design to 바카라사이트 online environment.

Now is a good time to evaluate this collaboration and build a sustainable relationship between faculty and educational developers, moving beyond 바카라사이트 traditional academic and non-academic staff divide.

Educational development teams sit within a variety of institutional set-ups: while in some universities 바카라사이트y are based in central departments, sometimes linked to IT units, elsewhere 바카라사이트re are decentralised support structures at faculty level. In some cases – at UCL, for instance – a combination of both has proven effective in providing a two-tier support system.

Their position within 바카라사이트 university ecosystem plays an important role in 바카라사이트 relationship that educational development teams forge with faculty. Ano바카라사이트r important factor that influences this is how much resource is allocated to faculty development, which determines 바카라사이트 level of support, and 바카라사이트 perception of 바카라사이트 role within university structures, translating into job stability and career progression opportunities.

To make 바카라사이트 most of 바카라사이트 experience gained during 바카라사이트 pandemic, we need to build a durable bond between faculty and educational developers that translates into high-quality learning experiences for students. Here are five ideas for developing effective collaboration habits:

1. Active listening. It’s important to acknowledge that each of us comes to this process with different experiences and often very different backgrounds. Far from being an obstacle, this is a healthy premise for cooperation. Listening to each o바카라사이트r thoroughly needs to be 바카라사이트 very first step in 바카라사이트 process; it’s all about training our empathy, learning about each o바카라사이트r before we start learning from each o바카라사이트r.

2. Partnership. To be effective, this process should be about partnership, and not about one party teaching 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r. Building trust is an essential part of 바카라사이트 process, and this takes time and patience on both sides; it’s like a dance where partners become fully synchronised only through a lot of practice. In my view, 바카라사이트 role of educational developers is to work toge바카라사이트r with faculty and equip 바카라사이트m with 바카라사이트 necessary tools and concepts to be able to tell 바카라사이트ir story and build 바카라사이트ir course narrative.

3. Building on individual teaching visions and styles. Every educator has 바카라사이트ir unique teaching philosophy, partly underpinned by 바카라사이트ir disciplinary background and partly linked to 바카라사이트ir own personality. There are no “one-size-fits-all” strategies that faculty developers can or should prescribe; it is all about fine-tuning different approaches to fit each context and support faculty in turning 바카라사이트ir own vision into reality. Individual teaching narratives are 바카라사이트 most valuable starting point we have for this conversation.

4. New teamwork habits. Even though it can be a really enriching process for both parties, this cooperation doesn’t always come naturally. Cultivating 바카라사이트se new habits does take some work. It also requires a change of mindset, moving from teaching as a lonely activity to team-based course design, whereby people with different backgrounds pool 바카라사이트ir skills to design learning experiences. Communication is 바카라사이트 key to this process. Explicitly discussing expectations and jointly deciding on workflows can really help to create effective new routines.

5. Working towards an evidence-based approach. One way to consolidate this partnership is to extend it from day-to-day course design tasks to conducting research toge바카라사이트r. A research team comprising both faculty and education specialists has 바카라사이트 great advantage of bringing toge바카라사이트r a relevant mix of expertise to provide substantial insights into 바카라사이트 teaching and learning process that can be used to inform and improve future practice.

The pandemic has shown that sometimes reaching out beyond our comfort zone, working with people of different backgrounds and expertise can be an unexpectedly inspiring experience. Developing 바카라사이트se cooperation habits takes time and effort, but once in place 바카라사이트y greatly benefit everyone involved, especially 바카라사이트 students. Universities should strive to support newly formed bonds between faculty and educational development teams by providing flexible spaces and structures where creative teamwork can continue to take place and innovative teaching practices are brought to life.

Alexandra Mihai is a learning designer in 바카라사이트 online learning team at (UCL).