They came, they engaged, they changed: Evidence of impact of intensive pandemic professional development

As centers for teaching and learning (CTL) expand in the United States, so, too, does the need and desire for those of us working in the field of educational development to provide evidence of the impact of our work. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, our CTL and eCampus Center, like many faculty support units across the country, developed and implemented an intensive professional development program to prepare faculty to teach flexibly in the fall of 2020. Using faculty self-reported data about their adoption of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) that was collected annually since 2014, we investigated comparisons over time and sought evidence of the impact that professional development program had on faculty’s use of EBIPs. The study shows that intensive professional development programs have a positive effect on faculty’s use of EBIPs. We also found that the level of improvement was higher for those who participated in the more intense version of the program. This study contributes to the existing literature on the impact of educational development initiatives by demonstrating a positive correlation between educational development and instructor practice and adds to it by looking at an institutional-level program.