An Innovative Junior Faculty Online Development Program

Abstract

This study examines whether two online courses offering educational support for junior faculty have a positive effect on their attitudes and curriculum and teaching capacities (CTC) learning. The data used in the analysis are from two 2005 online University training courses. The tasks the online courses assign to faculty, the resources they provide, the learning environment they create, and the conversations they provoke proved to be consequential in shaping faculty's attitudes. The results also indicate that junior faculty who participate in individual and collective online developing activities, such as constructing teaching episodes and communicating with other colleagues, are more likely to gain a better understanding of how to teach their scientific disciplines.