Professional Development: Strategies for Developing an Ongoing Mentoring Program for On-line Faculty

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the number of on-line nursing programs has grown by more than a third in the past two years and there is an increasing demand for qualified nursing faculty. Creating an engaging learning environment in the on-line setting requires a different skill set than in the traditional classroom. Experienced faculty have mastery of course content, but may need to become familiar with the technology required to conduct an on-line class as well as developing effective facilitation strategies for the on-line environment. Less experienced faculty may require mentoring with content as well as with technology and facilitation strategies.

Each course in the on-line graduate nursing program at Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies provides students with weekly synchronous sessions that offer them the opportunity for real-time interface with faculty and classmates. Multiple cohort start dates throughout the year and low student-to-faculty ratios necessitates increasing on-line adjunct faculty. This presents the challenge of developing effective mentoring and communication methods for a large number of distance faculty from varied backgrounds with significant time constraints due to full-time clinical/research schedules.

Using quantitative and qualitative evaluation data from faculty and students, the Acute Care faculty has developed a successful faculty mentoring program that has resulted in improved performance and course satisfaction for both faculty and students. It has also fostered collaboration between on-campus faculty and distance faculty.  This presentation will highlight specific strategies for mentoring on-line faculty, with varied levels of experience, to develop technology and facilitation skills and provide ongoing support to foster professional development and retention.

Content Outline:

 I. Mentoring Program

        a. Roles and Responsibilities

                        i.     Course architect

                        ii.     Course coordinator

                       iii.     Synchronous session lead

        b. Mentoring Strategies

                        i.     Mentor-Mentee pairing

                                 1. Identifying strengths and weaknesses

                                 2. Identifying expectations

                           ii.     Technology skills

                                  1. Platform training

                                  2. Shadowing

                         iii.     On-line facilitation skills

                                   1. Shadowing

                                   2. Reviewing recordings

          c. Resources

                          i.     Dropbox resources

                         ii.     Real time synchronous session resources

II. Strategies for On-going Professional Development

      a. Weekly Faculty meetings

      b. Post-semester debriefings