Bridging Gaps With Experience: Priming Faculty for Successful Online Course Development

This article presents a novel approach to faculty onboarding in the development of online courses through an experiential learning framework, as implemented at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. By integrating faculty into a comprehensive, hands-on training process, the initiative aims to bridge common gaps in online course development and facilitate collaborative efforts among faculty and course development teams. The paper details the structured three-phase approach aimed at enhancing faculty's practical understanding of online education terminology, processes, and collaboration with cross-functional teams. The documented outcomes indicate a marked improvement in the efficiency, quality, and overall engagement of faculty in the course development process. They underscore the critical role of hands-on experience coupled with reflective practices in priming faculty for effective collaboration with diverse course development teams, proposing this model as a scalable and adaptable blueprint for faculty development practices.