The higher education landscape changed rapidly in March of 2020, with universities scrambling to create flexible options for an unknown future in a global pandemic. The University of Pikeville implemented several initiatives, including a hyperflex model of teaching, 8-week courses, and most significantly, no-cost resources for all students. To aid faculty in creating the best possible experience for students in Fall 2020 and beyond, the university formed Learning Communities of undergraduate faculty, each led by a faculty Learning Designer to share ideas and revise courses during the summer of 2020. The Learning Designers aided faculty in aligning and creating objectives, course content, and assessments and in finding and creating open education resources, often where no perfect resource currently existed. The majority of UPIKE faculty had never before used OER materials, particularly for an entire course, leading to concerns and challenges, which could be voiced and addressed in these communities.
While these Learning Communities were created in a direct response to the pandemic and significant changes made by the University of Pikeville, the experience suggests that such faculty-led groups could prove beneficial in a variety of settings, particularly in adopting OER materials. In this session, we will share how different Learning Designers approached the needs of their communities, as well as the successes and pitfalls encountered. We will also discuss uses of Faculty Learning communities beyond the pandemic and at other institutions.
After participating in this session, attendees will be able to:
- Examine one method of implementing faculty-wide OER use
- Generate strategies for managing peer-led faculty learning communities
- Evaluate UPIKE's methodology for developing faculty learning communities for use at other institutions and situations
