Higher education continues to witness a significant increase in the demand for online courses delivered via the World Wide Web. Institutions are challenged to position and prepare faculty for successfully developing and delivering this increasing number of online courses from a distance. Becoming successful in the online classroom presents difficult and time-consuming challenges to the novice faculty member. Instructors who transition from the face-to-face classroom find that some characteristics, strategies and procedures carryover into the online classroom. The new teaching environment presents an evolving spectrum of possibilities for the online professor, a new paradigm for teaching and learning. This research provides a multi-dimensional case study of the online teaching persona of four successful undergraduate college professors. The literature presents mounting evidence of the growth and momentum of the online college education. Also, the literature presents evidence that multiple resources become necessary if best practices and strategies are to be successfully integrated into online courses. The research has found that a persona change occurs when the faculty member transitions from the face-to-face to the online classroom. Utilizing this foundation, this study adds to the literature and clarifies the online teaching persona, incorporated characteristics, and strategies used by four successful undergraduate professors in a large university setting in the southern United States. Using face-to-face interviews and (non-participant) class observation, this researcher determined the transitory nature of the online teaching persona of the four participants in the study. The study revealed the characteristics, methods and strategies that enable the online professor to successfully deliver undergraduate courses using the World Wide Web.

Over the last two decades there has been heightened interest in redefining faculty scholarship in higher education (Boyer, 1990). Trends have included the development of cultural frameworks for understanding how disciplines and institutions influence faculty work and how socialization processes impact academic career development. Despite the fact that the number of occupational therapy practitioners who have pursued doctoral training in pursuit of an academic career has failed to keep up with the need for qualified faculty, academic interest in developing disciplinary scholars to build the knowledge base of professional practice has been slow to develop. Furthermore, leadership interest in guiding the development of future faculty by studying how current occupational therapy faculty members are developing as scholars has been limited (AOTA, 2003). The purpose of this study was to develop a framework for describing scholarship in occupational therapy faculty members. A theoretically grounded case study design guided the selection of two occupational therapy departments, representing both a research university and a master’s college. Narrative data from occupational therapy faculty members in these institutions provided in-depth perceptions of how faculty members in diverse institutional settings develop a professional identity. Rich understandings of how clinical and academic socialization processes converge as faculty members in academic departments integrate competing influences from the academic culture, the institutional culture, and the professional culture to prioritize faculty work roles. The study revealed that although occupational therapy departments are succeeding within their institutional contexts, personal faculty priorities as clinicianteachers and institutional missions that create an imbalance in roles that favor teaching, continue to disadvantage certain faculty sub-cultures from evolving as disciplinary scholars. The implications of the failure of occupational therapy faculty members to adapt the researcher role as part of a professional identity include barriers to the development of disciplinary knowledge to support practice, and to the development of successful faculty careers that can be advanced in any institutional environment. The study identified a critical role for program leadership to act as change agents within departmental cultures to balance the need for productive disciplinary scholars, as well as effective clinician-teachers.

This work introduces a series of papers developed to explore the case for change in dental education. Three issues facing dental education are (a) the challenging financial environment of higher education, making dental schools very expensive and tuition-intensive for universities to operate and producing high debt levels for students, which limits access to education and restricts career choices; (b) the profession's apparent loss of vision for taking care of the oral health needs of all components of society and the resultant potential for marginalization of dentistry as a specialized health care service available only to the affluent; and (c) the nature of dental school education itself, which has been described as convoluted, expensive, and often deeply dissatisfying to its students. The theoretical rational for this work is that developing dental faculty from solely clinicians to academicians will allow for the curricular change so needed in dental education. Furthermore, it is curricular change that can lead to changes in the oral health profession.My work first explores the scientific nature of research into dental education to determine its ability to advance the profession. This study found that while there has been a small increase in the amount of rigorous dental education research in the past 10 years, it remains a small percentage of the overall research completed in the field. We then researched the effect of pedagogical training for dental clinicians and discovered predictors for those faculty members more likely to alter their methods to be more student centered. Our narrative research into faculty resistors (those unwilling to change) allowed us to identify themes that can alter our approach to future faculty development. And finally, we researched the effect of modern pedagogy on a course in the dental school curriculum. This research allowed us to justify curricular changes that improve efficiency and student performance.

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The launch of Competence by Design (CBD) in 2017 by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) ushered in a new era of residency education in Canada. For CBD to succeed, faculty responsible for training residents must undergo faculty development to attain the relevant knowledge and skills required to fulfil their new duties. This thesis examines the faculty development resources available to faculty, and the approaches taken by program directors to facilitate faculty development. This research was guided by two research questions: (1) What faculty development resources (e.g., online modules, websites, slide decks) are currently available for faculty members in CBD programs across Canada? (2) How do program directors facilitate faculty development within their specific program? Phase 1 of this study involved a document review of all English-speaking medical schools in Canada with a post graduate CBD program. In phase 2, semi-structured interviews were conducted with program directors from the emergency medicine and psychiatry specialties. The document review found that Canadian universities hosted a range of informative websites, documents, newsletters, live sessions, and online modules to support faculty development efforts on a range of topics. During the interview phase, program directors identified live faculty development sessions, both in-person and online, were the most effective. They also expanded on their experience in the transition to CBD, some noting that their previous assessment models shared similarities with CBD, lessening the burden on faculty to change their teaching practice. Many expressed concerns over resource and time constraints on faculty development and the implementation of CBD as a whole.

Collaborative practice among interprofessional groups of health care providers is essential to the provision of safe and effective medical care. However, health professions training programs have not traditionally prepared students for interprofessional practice. One challenge in transforming health professions education programs has been a limited number of faculty prepared to teach students in an interprofessional learning environment. Thus, faculty development programs aimed at preparing faculty to provide interprofessional learning experiences across disciplines are increasingly important. Unfortunately, best practice in training faculty for interprofessional education programs is not well-defined. Interprofessional education faculty development programs should aim to train faculty to model and teach interprofessional education competencies, including collaboration; however, a faculty member’s culture orientation may impact their collaborative skills. Of the four subscales of the Individualism-Collectivism Scale, horizontal collectivism is the subscale most aligned with collaborative team-based competencies. Few, if any, studies have examined culture orientation in academic health science faculty. The current study explored culture orientation in academic health science faculty across five colleges at a southern university. Comparisons were made on each of the four Individualism-Collectivism subscales between academic health science faculty who had attended and had not attended an interprofessional education faculty development program. Also, comparisons were made by faculty members’ status as a first-generation student, type of courses taught, and gender. Correlations between scores on each subscale and years of teaching in higher education were also examined. Results indicated that the faculty members who had attended the interprofessional education faculty development program were significantly higher in horizontal collectivism than faculty who had not attended this program. Also, faculty who taught clinical courses were higher in vertical individualism than faculty who taught nonclinical courses. Implications for interprofessional practice, education, and faculty development are discussed, and recommendations for future research and practice are made.

The integration of student-centered learning (SCL) practices in higher education, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, is essential for addressing persistent challenges such as high failure rates among underrepresented groups. Institutions of Higher Education are increasingly emphasizing evidence-based, student-centered instruction, leading to the development of PD programs aimed at promoting instructors' adoption and integration of SCL practices, particularly in STEM. However, faculty resistance remains a challenge. Traditional PD approaches often focus on short-term outcomes without considering long-term instructor persistence or the contextual complexities of SCL integration. This dissertation research addresses these gaps by examining STEM instructors' role identities before, during, and after participating in SCL PD programs, using the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) (Kaplan and Garner, 2017) to analyze development in identity formation. The study highlights the diverse ways participants integrate SCL into their role identities and the complex interplay between role identities, situational and contextual pressures, and instructional practices. The findings highlighted two emergent theoretical dimensions that characterized the different STEM instructors’ incorporation of SCL into their role identities: Scope of Identity and Degree of Identity Integration. Differences in Scope of Identity and Degree of Identity Integration framed the different long term implementations of SCL by the different participants and provided an initial theoretical framework to conceptualize and evaluate long-term instructor change processes post-PD. A thematic analysis also highlighted how contextual/situational factors framed participant negotiation of departmental and institutional pressures and included institutional policies and procedures, coordinated courses and student achievement gaps. Emergent role identity elements of self-perceived fallibility and sense of community building were central to the successful identity negotiation of situational pressures around implementing SCL. Implications for theory, PD practice, and university policy are discussed, emphasizing the need for continued support, collaboration, PD design that promotes identity exploration, and understanding of the systemic influences shaping SCL integration in STEM. Future research should further explore the role of institutional and departmental culture in SCL integration, leveraging frameworks like the DSMRI to deepen our understanding of identity formation and SCL integration among instructors across disciplines and institutions. Additionally, collaborative efforts between university administration, course structuring, and instructional goals are essential to aligning institutional priorities with SCL implementation strategies, ensuring better student engagement, increased student success, and enhanced retention particularly for underrepresented students in STEM. / Educational Psychology

The purpose of this descriptive case study was to identify the strategies used by post-secondary military institutions to adopt, implement and train faculty for the use of new instructional technologies in the learning environment. Termed the Innovation Migration Process, it includes: 1) the adoption decision (selection of the innovation), 2) strategies for implementation and, 3) how faculty are trained on its use. The study was a two phased, explanatory, mixed-methods design beginning with a quantitative survey, followed by twelve qualitative interviews conducted at two exemplary institutions. The study identified two strategies are used to adopt new technology: 1) authoritative decisions from the "top-down" and 2) a bottom-up strategy where new technology is first used by innovators who work with a central organization to adopt the change. Five strategies were identified to implement the innovation: 1) centralized training; 2) leadership commitment; 3) tapping expertise; 4) well defined support for pedagogy and technical issues; and 5) a robust infrastructure. Four strategies were found for training faculty: 1) tapping expertise (indicating training and implementation are interwoven); 2) formal training; and 4) dedicated training time. The fourth strategy, incentives and rewards, was used successfully by one of the two exemplary institutions, but few of the other institutions offered either of these for training. Suggested guidelines for post-secondary, military institutions include: create a culture of innovativeness; demonstrated commitment by the leadership; follow Ely's Eight Conditions for Implementation; develop a centralized training organization; develop a robust technical support organization; invest in the infrastructure; seek out and support innovators; use a formal faculty development program. / Ph. D.

This study used a qualitative approach to explore how faculty were prepared to teach online at institutions of higher education. Six participants, including experienced (with three or more years of experience teaching online) and non-experienced (with less than two years of experience teaching online), were purposely selected to participate. The participants were interviewed concerning their preparation experiences, the preparation activities that were most beneficial to them, and the areas in which they wanted further development for teaching online. Data from the interviews were coded and analyzed. Findings revealed that although institutions were providing activities that faculty members found to be beneficial, workshops and one-to-one assistance, activities that incorporated both technical and pedagogical strategies were still necessary. This study provides information that can be used to assist faculty when preparing to teach online and to assist institutions in redesigning and developing faculty development activities for preparing faculty to teach online. / Ph. D.

Situated within the belief that faculty development is a key institutional mechanism through which colleges and universities will be able to meet emerging social, cultural, and technological challenges in the coming years, this study sought to better understand the underlying psychological processes that facilitate the adoption of innovations by teaching faculty and GTAs in higher education. Specifically, three types of self-efficacy (college teaching, teaching with technology, and general) were considered in light of demographic variables and Rogers' model of the innovation-decision process. Most significant among the findings were that women have significantly higher college teaching self-efficacy and general self-efficacy than men; however, men have higher teaching with technology self-efficacy. Those in their forties, fifties and sixties have higher college teaching self-efficacy than those in their twenties. Full-time instructors have higher college teaching self-efficacy than doctoral GTAs and assistant professors. Those who rate themselves as having higher computer skills also have higher teaching with technology self-efficacy. When considering teaching with technology self-efficacy and instructional technology-based innovation-decision stage, it was found that this type of self-efficacy differs significantly between most stages and consistently increases from the knowledge stage through the confirmation stage. / Ph. D.