June 2004 — Features
Print this article | Email this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
When the Cows Come Home: A Proven Path of Professional Development for Faculty Pursuing E-Learning
COW Participants
Resources dictate how many participants each COW cohort can sustain. These seats are divided among the campuses as the provosts see fit. Faculty members are selected to attend COW events based upon a proposal submitted to the campus provost or based upon the campus' strategic planning process.
Faculty who participate in COW events receive a stipend for attendance and priority access to the support team assembled for their campus. Usually supported by a course release or additional compensation from the campus provost, participants design, develop and deliver their course over the next year. A COW reunion, held each January, reunites the cohort, providing them an opportunity to show off what they have developed, share insights from their frontline experiences, and receive more in-depth instruction. COW alumni are also invited to be presenters at subsequent COW events.
At the conclusion of each COW event, workshop participants have a chance to evaluate the event using a survey. The evaluation results are used to plan changes for the next cohort. Aggregate data from five years of evaluations speak to the value of the experience and its reception by faculty - with 74% of the 150 participants having rated the workshop as "excellent" and 26% having rated it as "good." In five years, no ratings of "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory" were received. The participants also unanimously stated that they would recommend the workshop to colleagues, while 95% indicated their willingness to attend additional advanced topic workshops.
Benefits of COW
The biggest benefit of COW has been the professional development of 150 faculty members throughout the university system who gained the knowledge and skills to design, develop and deliver online courses. For fall 2003, collectively, the COW alumni offered 267 online sections representing 150 different courses. As a result of this faculty development effort, several degrees are now being offered entirely online systemwide, including an MBA from UH-Victoria, a Master of Science in Instructional Technology from UH-Clear Lake, a Master of Science in Software Engineering from UH-Clear Lake, and a Master of Hospitality Management from UH.
A more subtle benefit of COW has been the positive impact on traditional classroom-based courses with the integration of the Web and other learning technologies. A COW alumnus wrote that "the COW workshop is the single most important thing the system has ever done to transform teaching and learning." Another wrote: "The workshop has given me new insights on myself and my teaching style - it will change everything I do."
Several of the campuses automatically provide an account and Web course space for each section of every course taught face to face. The development of these hybrid models, along with other hybrids using point-to-point instructional television, broadcast and cable television, as well as videotape rental or purchase, have enabled UH System's CampusNet to weave a broad tapestry of educational opportunities for students.
What Made COW Work?
A meta-analysis of survey data reveals some of the factors that made COW successful. One survey question asked for the "ways in which the workshop exceeded your expectations." The aggregate responses are listed below in order of their frequency:
