The FCAT Approach
The FCAT program is based a few simple premises:
Faculty are reluctant to seek help or attend workshops that do not meet their scheduling needs
People are more likely to seek help from peers or people who are proximate or perceived to be proximate to her/himself.
Workshops and support are more effective in the field (eg. where faculty live).
The department is where change is enacted and the best way to reach faculty is at the department level.
Systemic change in the manner and modes of teaching must be driven from below, rather than imposed form above.
Sensitizing Concepts
The Proper Tool for the Proper Job: electronic technology does not exist in a vacuum and is not always the best solution to a given pedagogical or logistical challenge. The use of “technology for technology’s sake” in most cases causes more problems then it solves. Sometime low tech/analog solutions are best. Any application of electronic technology must work within the context of the course, mode, and the abilities and desires for the instructor and students. The key is to identify the affordances (positive and negative uses/attributes) of available electronic and analog technology. The internet and related applications or co-located physical interaction have specific attributes that lend themselves to different tasks and goals. Ultimately, any use must make sense with in the context of the application, the pedagogical style of the instructor, and the demands of the topic/discipline. Almost any topic can be taught entirely online or in a traditional classroom, the key is to sort course activities and goals into the best learning space.
Translating Pedagogy: Instructors (and everyone else) tend to internalize structural constraints and continue behavior even after the constraint has been removed. For example, if you teach in a classroom with no built-in LCD projector and you may avoid the use of this technology even after one is installed. Your style/pedagogy has internalized and incorporated the constraint even though it has no pedagogical rationale or utility. The key to exploring/adopting electronic technology is to interrogate the instructor’s core pedagogical rationale the activity serves.
Ruthless Utility: Good instructional design is challenging and time consuming. If anything, moving to online platforms increases the front-end design workload. It is only after the course is built that the technology begins to pay-off. Any feature must be tied to an improvement in workflow or outcome to be worth the effort. Features can have utility as stand-alone or in concert with other features or physical activities.
Making Life Easier: Technology should make life better. If you can show faculty that Canvas or features with in it can lower frustration, improve outcomes, or reduce or better manage workflow then faculty will try it. As working faculty, we know what makes us crazy and/or frustrated, so if we can assign a “name to their pain” and show how a specific feature can help alleviate it we will have a better reception.
Don’t Neglect the Basics: One of the biggest issues with on-boarding faculty to technology is to overestimate their base level of knowledge. Do not make the assumption that faculty know terminology or different modes or features by name. Even the most basic techniques can be revolutionary to some faculty. For example, having students submit assignments electronically instead of on paper or using rubrics. Be prepared to reach back into your past and bring forward the advantages for switching.