A virtual community of practice to support faculty efforts to adopt research-based instructional approaches

Abstract

This paper describes a model for a virtual community of practice (VCP) to support faculty efforts to adopt research-based instructional strategies. The VCP was built on published recommendations for successful faculty development programs. The two leaders had expertise in the technical focus areas of chemical engineering and material science, as well as in engineering pedagogy. The participants were were full-time faculty members with a range of teaching experience and pedagogical expertise. Workshops were held using Internet conferencing software: the first 8 weekly workshops provided training in research-based pedagogy, and the second 8 biweekly workshops supported faculty efforts to implement chosen strategies in their courses. Significant improvement was measured via pre/post survey in the areas of familiarity and use of research-based pedagogy, as well as in perceived student motivation.