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Susan Marcus, chair of the Marylhurst University MBA – which enrolls the most MBA students in the state – discusses how her school engages students in its wide selection of programs and concentrations.
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| Susan Marcus chairs Marylhurst University's MBA program. |
How do you prepare new instructors to teach in the online environment?
We give them an opportunity to facilitate online conversations that use the various tools from our learning management system platform. They're given textbooks and some articles that talk about adult learning styles. And of course we give them a lot of time sot sort of demo and get used to the technology that we use for our online course delivery.
Actually, prior to all that, our faculty coordinator will spend sometimes about an hour on the phone just making sure they understand our online approach may not be what they're used to or seen in the past. So we work especially work in that area to make sure that they're coming into this faculty community clear on what they're expectations are in terms of timeliness, in terms of substantive feedback, in terms of acknowledging the value and perspective that the students bring to the interaction – and being prepared to bump up their game in terms of who is in the room, so to speak for a given cohort of students.
Not only are we looking for qualified instructors but they really have to understand the importance of bringing a full sense of engagement to this online community. And the part-time aspect, also, because students are often going at part-time pace, which means they're going to be in the community longer.
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Source: Portland Business Journal (blog)
