Thursday, February 01, 2007

Using video case studies for faculty development

MERLOT is working on including some stories, thanks to a FIPSE grant for a project called ELIXR that is just getting underway.

Some years ago I wrote a report on the use of video stories for faculty development:

A group of us had spent a day watching videos and looking at multimedia web sites for faculty development (the few that existed in 1995!) . We concluded, among other things, that we had seen two types of materials, both of which could be classed as stories:
  1. Stories intended to help the user visualize a way of teaching and become interested in trying it ("explanatory selling stories")
  2. Stories intended to give the user, interested in a particular way of teaching, the vicarious experience of getting into trouble so that the reader (usually in a seminar with others) could learn how to identify and analyze that type of problem, and figure out how to deal with it (e.g., how to turn it into a teachable moment). ("provocative case studies")

These kinds of stories, especially the provocative case studies, are very important for helping faculty use technology to alter the nature of their teaching, but I've seen almost none in use. The TLT Group has developed a few text case studies of this type (if you're at a TLT Group institutional subscriber, use the regular username and password if you'd like to see this subscriber-only material and let us know how we can add to it!).

The University of Victoria in Canada has a DVD of such stories called "Critical Incidents in Teaching with Technology." The DVD is intended for use in faculty development. Has anyone seen and used it?

Has anyone seen and used any other faculty development materials designed to help faculty learn how to get out of trouble that new pedagogical approaches (using technology) might get them into?

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