REDEFINE WORKLOAD AND MERIT REVIEW REQUIREMENTS
Redefine Workload
Creation of new formats for learning using technology may require much effort. These efforts encompass graphic and instructional design as well as hardware and software skill development. While the front-end development may be more time-consuming and costly, the resulting courses or learning experiences, may be widely used.
Yet, when courses are available in varying formats, different guidelines for workload contact hours need to be established. Fewer face-to-face contact hours, more discretionary hours for individual and small group dialogue via chats and e-mail are requirements. Guidelines for numbers of hours of different types of contact will need to be created.
Merit Review Requirements
New technologies-- interactive television, synchronous chats, on-line course syllabus, e-mail, and fax--used in the Integrated Distance Education Model in the Cross-Disciplinary Study of Children and Families at the University of Minnesota, Duluth require much thought and effort as they are incorporated into models of teaching and learning. The processes for enhancing distance education through new models of teaching and learning based on the use of technology are equal in effort to writing books and articles for publication. However, the new types of efforts are not yet accorded equal weight with other, more traditional, types of scholarly productivity.
To accord equal status to new developments using technology, there need to be quality review procedures equal in rigor to peer review used for publication in refereed journals. In some cases, there are new multimedia refereed journals on-line which have this rigor. Yet, the review of course syllabi, on-line research reports, and other efforts need a review process as well. In the future, the ability to do things with technology will be less important than why and how technology is used to enhance teaching and learning.
Professional organizations, university faculty and administrators, and representatives of the public need to establish the guidelines for best practices for using technology in teaching and learning. Further, these groups need to establish review procedures for determining effectiveness and perhaps, to begin to publish on-line journals with rigorous review processes.
Both workload and merit review guidelines need much revision as we move into the 21st century.
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