Value of Faculty Mentors to Enrich Faculty Professional Development

In response to an outpouring of demand for training during the COVID-19 pandemic and a need to deliver a sustainable support model for online, remote, and hybrid learning, the Education Technology Office (ETO) at Framingham State re-envisioned its approach to faculty professional development for online learning. The existing model relied on faculty to voluntarily meet face-to-face over six weeks to discuss the Quality Matters (QM) framework. ETO innovated the traditional QM workshop as a virtual Online Learning Institute (OLI) with faculty mentoring at its heart. ETO secured funds from the Davis Foundation and an internal source to compensate mentors and participants. During the presentation, we will explain the design of the institute and the role of the mentors, how we used data to solicit funds, and how we evaluated the experience. The session audience will be engaged to think about the value of mentoring and how to mitigate potential challenges.