Towards a Structured Process for Involving Distributed Teachers in Facilitation Strategy Design and Review

Abstract

In universities, much emphasis is placed on continual professional development for teachers to ensure they have the required teaching competencies. Less emphasis is placed on capturing the professional expertise that teachers have developed in their practice, to inform strategies for achieving teaching excellence and the best possible student experience. In the context of online and distance education, where teachers are distributed, there is a need to develop a structured process whereby the voices of the distributed teachers can be heard and they are encouraged to feel a responsibility to engage in the process.This paper describes a case study undertaken at the UK Open University (OU) with a view to developing a structured process for involving distributed tutors in the design and review of the tutorial provision. Tutor feedback was collected by a variety of means and fed into changes. Other feedback, not directly related to the tutorial provision, that was also captured should be acted upon to develop the tutor community of practice.