DePaul Online Teaching Series (DOTS) received the 2012 Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) award, which recognizes institutions that have developed and delivered an outstanding online teaching program for faculty.  DOTS, established in 2008, trains and supports faculty in the development of high-quality online and hybrid courses.

“We are extremely proud that our DOTS program has won this competitive award,” said GianMario Besana, associate vice president for Academic Affairs-Online Learning and Internationalization. “DePaul continues to invest significant resources in this training program and fully supports its mission and goals.”

According to Sloan-C, the ideal recipient is a program that has had a positive impact on faculty and offers large numbers of high-quality online courses while maintaining a high degree of faculty satisfaction.

“This program is an excellent example of inter-institutional collaboration,” Besana said. “It brings together the administrative and logistic services of Academic Affairs, the expertise and talent of our instructional designers of the Faculty Instructional Technology Services (FITS) division, the technical support of our Media Production and Training service, the curriculum planning and scheduling of various associate deans, and the assistance of several online learning directors of most of our 10 schools and colleges that are part of DePaul.”

Sharon Guan, director of FITS, leads DePaul’s DOTS team that builds online readiness among faculty through an immersive and hands-on experience. The program provides opportunities for faculty to interact with peers with a shared commitment to online learning and to develop a sustainable network of online-ready instructors.

“DOTS continues to receive a strong level of institutional support,” Guan said. “We give our faculty wonderful incentives and help them develop a quality online program to ensure faculty and student satisfaction.”

DePaul provides each DOTS participant with a $1,500 stipend and a technology kit that includes a laptop computer, webcam, headset microphone and essential software for online course development. In return, tenure-track faculty must develop and teach at least one online or hybrid course within 18 months of completing DOTS training. Adjunct faculty are required to develop a course but are not required to teach it.

Religious Studies Professor David Gitomer said DOTS has helped him immensely in both teaching online and face-to-face.  Gitomer said online teaching helps make the level of discussion in the online environment much more sophisticated because students are asked to refer to readings and presentations to support their views.

“Much of what humanities professors want to accomplish in their courses in terms of helping students encounter complex ideas about culture and intellectual history can work as well or even better in the online environment,” Gitomer said. “My department has been very active in moving into online teaching, but I can easily imagine great courses in other fields in the humanities.”

Sloan C Award: http://sloanconsortium.org/excell_awards