E-Scholars: Staff development through designing for learning

Diane Salter
Eductional Development Centre
Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Although the importance of engaging students in learning through interactivity during the learning process is well documented, faculty and instructional developers often fail to consider learning design during the curriculum design process. In face-to-face and online courses, curriculum is often developed by staff in isolation, with a focus on presenting content rather than on learning design that promotes student engagement with content as well as interaction with peers and instructor. This paper describes the design, implementation, evaluation and next steps of the ‘e-Scholars Programme’, an innovative approach to staff development designed to guide faculty as a cohort to successfully integrate online learning with the face-to-face classroom using the T5 instructional design model (Salter, Richards, & Carey, 2003, 2004) to expand the learning environment.

Keywords: staff development, blended learning, feedback, instructional strategies, course design, learning communities