Incentives and Obstacles Influencing Higher Education Faculty and Administrators to Teach Via Distance

This study examined incentives that encourage faculty to develop educational opportunities via distance and obstacles that discourage them from doing so. The primary incentives centered on intrinsic or personal rewards. These rewards included opportunities to provide innovative instruction and apply new teaching techniques as well as self-gratification, fulfilling a personal desire to teach, recognition of their work, and peer recognition. Other incentives included extending educational opportunities beyond the traditional institutional walls so place-bound students have access and release time for faculty preparation. The major perceived obstacles related to time requirements, developing effective technology skills, and assistance and support needs. Monetary awards for faculty and the cost to the student were seen as neither incentives nor obstacles. Faculty were divided on how they saw distance teaching affecting their yearly evaluation process and their promotion/tenure needs; about 40% saw it as an incentive, while about 30% saw it as an obstacle

Incentives and Obstacles Influencing Higher Education Faculty and Administrators to Teach Via Distance

This study examined incentives that encourage faculty to develop educational opportunities via distance and obstacles that discourage them from doing so. The primary incentives centered on intrinsic or personal rewards. These rewards included opportunities to provide innovative instruction and apply new teaching techniques as well as self-gratification, fulfilling a personal desire to teach, recognition of their work, and peer recognition. Other incentives included extending educational opportunities beyond the traditional institutional walls so place-bound students have access and release time for faculty preparation. The major perceived obstacles related to time requirements, developing effective technology skills, and assistance and support needs. Monetary awards for faculty and the cost to the student were seen as neither incentives nor obstacles. Faculty were divided on how they saw distance teaching affecting their yearly evaluation process and their promotion/tenure needs; about 40% saw it as an incentive, while about 30% saw it as an obstacle

Role of the department chair in implementing distance education in colleges of agriculture in land -grant institutions

The purpose of this study was to identify the key motives and issues that affect department chairs\u27 decisions to implement distance education courses and programs in the colleges of agriculture within Land-grant institutions. A mixed-method research design explored the approaches department chairs use and their experiences in implementing distance education. Data was collected through a mail survey and telephone interviews, The mail survey consisted of Likert-type scales and demographic questions. The population was 121 department chairs in hard and social science departments in Land-grant institutions in the Northern Central and Southern Regions of the United States. Some primary findings included: (a) department heads in hard and social science departments had similar motives for implementing distance education and dealt with similar issues, (b) department chairs viewed providing greater access and flexibility for students as primary motives for implementing distance education, however, some department chairs perceived competing for students as a motive for distance education, (c) the most important issues department chairs dealt with were getting faculty involved in teaching via distance and setting a distance education direction, and (d) department chairs who didn\u27t have students enrolled in distance education classes viewed the issues of finance and policy and governance as having more of an impact on decisions to implement distance education than did chairs with students enrolled in distance education courses. Recommendations included: (a) providing a distance education focus in the institution\u27s strategic plan to accept and support departmental decisions to implement distance education courses and programs, (b) developing a set of strategies for department chairs to reference to help them integrate distance delivery and establish early involvement of faculty, (c) reviewing the institution\u27s reward structure and tenure and promotion guidelines, (d) developing a set of creative strategies for generating or obtaining financial resources to develop course distance education materials, and (e) developing a generic evaluation plan designed to obtain student feedback about the educational value of distance courses

Faculty Education, Assistance and Support Needed to Deliver Education via Distance

Faculty survey. Two-hundred seven faculty teaching academic courses and 30 administrators in two colleges in a mid-west university were surveyed to study the type of education, assistance, and support faculty feel they need to develop educational materials for distance delivery. One-fourth of these teaching faculty had taught via distance and another two-fifths (40%) expect to teach via distance within three to five years. Findings. Overall faculty feel it is very important to obtain further education about, assistance with, or support for (a) developing interaction, (b) developing instructional materials, and (c) applying selected technologies. They also feel it is very important to have assistance with ‘marketing a course.’ Personal incentives, such as increase in pay, were comparatively not as important as support issues. Challenges. These findings identify a number of challenges for higher education as the system integrates more and more distance education into course delivery. Although institutions need to support all faculty, they need to specifically target faculty with less than 10 years of teaching experience and provide education, assistance, or support: • for learning experiences that support an interactive learning environment • in designing and improving instructional materials, especially in mixing technologies. • on marketing courses. • for obtaining assistants or facilitators. • in evaluating the delivery process and the student outcomes. • on using technical processes to the greatest advantage. • for connections for peer support. • in adjusting duties to accommodate course development