If you’ve been following Teaching and Learning Innovations (TLi) for a few years, you may recall our own Dr. Jill Leafstedt and Dr. Michelle Pacansky-Brock’s innovative approach to Untethered Faculty Development. While untethering remains at the core of TLi’s philosophy what if on-demand access to untethered learning experiences developed by a cadre of teaching and learning experts from around the world was available for anyone in the business of teaching and learning in Higher Education?

Meet OneHE

OneHE’s vision is simple, “Develop your teaching, your way.” And here’s the best part, every course can be completed in approximately 20 minutes or less. It’s no wonder the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) has partnered with OneHE. 

CSUCI is First! 

California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI) is thrilled to be the first CSU to join OneHE. Last week, Dr. Lorna Gonzalez, CSUCI’s Director of Digital Learning, was featured in AAC&U’s Webinar Supporting Student Success through Faculty Development: The OneHE Approach providing institutional insight on ways to leverage OneHE. We are excited to explore all the ways we anticipate OneHE can help us innovate our Teaching and Learning Game! 

Challenges in the “Game”

If you’ve worked in “Faculty Development” or participated in “Faculty Development” you’ve likely experienced challenges related to agency and time. 

The Agency Challenge

We know agency is critical to satisfying learning. Faculty are experts in their disciplines with many competing demands on their time. Not to mention diverse disciplines, interests, teaching styles, experience, course modality, class size, discipline, and technical knowledge. While instructional design and technology teams like TLI intentionally build choice into faculty programming, the topics may not be relevant to all faculty. 

The Time Challenge

Time is a challenge for everyone. As a Learning Designer, I spend approximately 200-300 hours researching, writing content, developing media, and an online platform for one multi-week asynchronous program. And this does not include the additional time invested by the rest of our team. Of course, the benefit to in-house development is the ability to be responsive to faculty and institutional needs. The downside is it’s timely and timebound. Even if the content is “untethered,” and faculty can view it later, the peer engagement is limited to that moment in time.  

How OneHE is Changing our Game

So when I gained access to OneHE content it was like watching my bookshelf come to life. Courses created by James Lang, Flower Darby, Michelle Pacansky-Brock, Courtney Plotts – the experts I use to inform content in our programming, now housed in a single platform. While we are just getting started, we are excited about how OneHE is already changing our game.

Game Change 1: Instant Agency 

OneHE’s robust list of courses, activities, and resources provide 24/7 access to ‘just in time’ solutions but also the ability to curate personalized learning pathways. How much and how long is up to each individual. We’ve been using the discussion forum as a way for our community to recommend courses they’ve found beneficial. 

Game Change 2: Time for Personal Learning and Practical Solutions

While it’s hard to commit to hours or weeks of professional learning, the 20-minute asynchronous design recognizes the demands on busy educational professionals. While some topics will take more time and planning to implement, others, like this free course, Supporting Students’ Use of Feedback, provides strategies and even templates you can use the next day. Right now we are suggesting members in our community ‘make a OneHE date’ with themselves and block 20-30 minutes in their calendars once a week or once a month.   

Game Change 3: Becoming a Learning Community

OneHE is changing the way we can engage as a community of teaching and learning professionals. Take our upcoming 5-Day Re-Engagement Challenge. With the content in place, our time spent preparing has been dramatically reduced, and the focus has been on creating engagement. For the first time in a while, our learning design team will be learners alongside faculty – participating in discussions, learning from each other’s ideas, and sharing our insights. And anyone can take the lead! We look forward to encouraging Faculty Inquiry Projects (FIPs) and Professional Learning Communities(PLCs) to use the CSUCI Community Group in OneHE to form and facilitate community learning.

Have you started learning your way?

This is specific to our CSUCI Faculty! Don’t miss out. We hope you will join our learning community during next week’s 5-Day Reengagement Challenge. Come explore OneHE and “Develop your teaching your way.”