Shifting Teaching and Learning in Online Learning Spaces: An Investigation of a Faculty Online Teaching and Learning Initiative

This article presents results from a study of a year-long, teaching and learning center-directed, professional development initiative that focused on both the technology and the pedagogical supports for online and blended course delivery at a research university. The purpose of this mixed methods study was two-fold. The first purpose was to investigate pedagogical changes that occurred as a result of the professional development that included a year-long faculty learning community by exploring influences on pedagogical changes. The second purpose was to understand the perceptions of the diffusion of innovations (DOI) characteristics that influenced the level of adoption of online/blended teaching by faculty participants. A survey was used to measure the perceived characters of innovation as defined in the theoretical framework. Following the survey, one-on-one interviews that were linked to the DOI theoretical framework were conducted to better understand those characteristics. The results presented herein focus on barriers, challenges, and successes of adopting e-learning pedagogy in these online and blended learning environments.