Volume Two - Academic Conferences

Rowena Santiago et al.
These guidelines were then used to design or re-design one’s class assignment(s) for online group
discussion, after peer review of each assignment.
Part 2 involved the actual implementation of the guidelines and assignment activity in each member’s
course. Prior to implementation, FLC members reviewed each other’s assignments and provided peer
feedback for improvement or clarification. FLC members then revised their assignments accordingly
for implementation. After implementing the assignment, each instructor assessed the effectiveness of
the activity by surveying students on their online group discussion experience. Both oral and written
reports were also required. For the oral dissemination, each FLC member made a presentation of the
project at a department meeting. The written reports that were submitted included the following: the
implementation summary, the results of the student survey, and the instructor’s reflection on the
results.
5. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)
Two decades after Ernest Boyer presented the concept of scholarship of teaching in his influential
book, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate (Carnegie Foundation, 1990),
scholarship of teaching and learning (or SoTL) has become a growing movement in higher education,
and has become part of faculty development programs provided by centers for teaching and learning.
SoTL definitions given in the literature (Bruff, D., 2007; McKinney, 2003) reflect the consensus that
SoTL involves the following: (1) a systematic process of addressing an issue in teaching and learning
(identifying an existing issue, exploring and analyzing solutions, implementing a solution, and
observing, measuring and documenting results and consequences), (2) reflection, (3) peer review,
and (4) public sharing or communication of results. It is within this context of SoTL that the
implementation of the FLC assignment project was conducted by one of the authors and was also the
instructor of the course in Instructional Technology. Specifically, the SoTL goal was to better serve her
students by improving her instruction through the use of systematic inquiry, peer review and selfreflection;
and to re-implement the project after revisions were made, based on the evaluation of the
effectiveness of the current project implementation. For the overall course design, the instructor
designed and implemented two major innovations in her class: (1) the use of online group discussion
and (2) the use of Blog and Discussion Board. The instructor collected and analyzed data in order to
evaluate the effectiveness of these innovative projects. However, in this paper, she reported only on
one of the projects: the use of online group discussion in instruction.
6. Results
6.1 Part One: Faculty learning community results
6.1.1 Guidelines generated for online group discussions
After doing the readings and discussions, the faculty learning community generated a list of guidelines
for online group discussions. The resulting guidelines addressed five main issues which the FLC
identified to be necessary for developing their class assignments for online group discussions. The
guidelines were generated with the understanding that the readings and references used, as well as
other individual materials on the topic, will provide the necessary details for each issue, thus allowing
every FLC member to pursue details that would apply to each one’s specific course and assignment.
The guidelines addressed the following:
The assignment should state the learning objective(s) for high-level thinking skills (e.g., critical
thinking)
The assignment should come with rubrics for evaluating the quality of responses given.
The assignment should be aligned with learning objectives and rubrics
The assignment should provide students with discussion guidelines that are clear and appropriate
for the online discussion model that the instructor is using, e.g., teacher-centered, student-led,
etc.
The assignment should address all necessary management issues: guidelines for various roles
(initiator, moderator, responders, summarizer, etc); defining the required response levels: one
level (student responds to teacher’s post), two levels (response to a level 1 response, etc.); and
logistics (e.g., dates for posting discussion question or materials, time frame for sending
responses, netiquette, and length of responses).
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