Abstract
Educational developers in universities and colleges design, develop, and deliver courses and programs for professors and teaching assistants (TAs) to support teaching and learning in postsecondary institutions. While courses that professors and TAs teach are often accredited by the institution or a professional body, courses offered by educational developers are often not accredited at all. With this anomaly in mind, the Educational Developers Caucus (EDC) created a working group to first explore the appetite for a Canadian accreditation process, and then to design and implement a framework. This article describes the process and product of the accreditation working group and reports on an initial evaluation of its impact, arguing for its valuable contribution to enhancing the quality of faculty and TA development programs and courses and thereby of teaching and learning.
Highlights
Educational developers in universities and colleges design, develop, and deliver courses and programs for professors and teaching assistants (TAs) to support teaching and learning in postsecondary institutions. These courses and programs, are often not accredited, so the Educational Developers Caucus (EDC) created a working group to explore the appetite for a Canadian accreditation process, and design and implement a framework
Each member of the Accreditation Committee was asked the following in a written survey format: Perspective of someone seeking accreditation: 1) What was your initial motivation to engage in this process? 2) Did your motivation change during the process, if so how and why? 3) Aside from completing the process to gain accreditation what did you find useful or challenging in the process? 4) As you completed the framework document did you regard the process as an opportunity to seek advice and feedback, or did you regard it as a test?
Perspective of a committee member: 1) Thinking back over the process involved in creating the EDC accreditation system, what were the key challenges and opportunities? 2) Were there any key issues that emerged in the process that changed the outcome compared to what you expected at the outset? Once the responses were collected, they were coded and themed using a textual analysis process (Creswell, 2002; Patton, 2002)
Summary
Educational developers in universities and colleges design, develop, and deliver courses and programs for professors and teaching assistants (TAs) to support teaching and learning in postsecondary institutions. These courses and programs, are often not accredited, so the Educational Developers Caucus (EDC) created a working group to explore the appetite for a Canadian accreditation process, and design and implement a framework. Shoes for the Shoemaker's Children: Providing an Accreditation Process for Educational Developers programs in Canada. These programs are formal professional development activities that range from single workshops (or a series of workshops) to full courses that are part of a traditional academic program.
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