Pathfinder on Faculty Development and Support of Sessional Instructors Welcome to my pathfinder on the faculty development and support needs of sessional instructors in Canadian higher education institutions! Although the site is primarily for me to keep track of resources that will be helpful in my research, I hope it will also be of use to other people who are interested in instructional design issues as they relate to faculty development and sessional instructors. Please send me any suggestions you may have about the site, or additional resources that may be appropriate. A summary of my research I will use this pathfinder throughout the process of preparing for and conducting research about a faculty development initiative being offered by the Teaching & Learning Centre starting in September, 2008. In the two-day workshop, instructors will apply the ADDIE model of instructional design to their own course, generating a course redesign that they will implement the following term. An acronym, ADDIE stands for:  Design Develop Implement Evaluate Further details about ADDIE can be found at the following website: http://www.learning-theories.com/addie-model.html The areas of instructional design and faculty development and support are critical my research. Since the workshop will be a new offering, we should find out how effective and helpful it is; my research will concentrate on this area. I am particularly interested in how helpful the workshop is for sessional instructors. Some faculties and departments at the University of Calgary employ a lot of sessionals, who thereby have a direct impact on student learning. I am curious to know if the course design workshop will help them to provide a high quality learning experience for students, what improvements can be made, and what other types of support would be beneficial to them. Reference: Regent University (n.d.). Develop a course. Retrieved August 6, 2008 from http://www.regent.edu/admin/ctl/addie/ |