Developing a Quality Improvement Process to Optimize Faculty Success

Abstract

As part of a major shift to embed quality improvement processes within a School of Nursing at a medium-sized Midwestern university, a faculty enrichment program using a Plan-Do-Act-Study design was implemented. A central focus for the program was the development and maintenance of an online faculty resource center identified as “My Faculty Center.” Nursing faculty used the tools in My Faculty Center to assess their baseline skills in the areas of teaching & learning best practices, use of learning management system, and technology. The first goal (Goal 1) of the systematic faculty development program was to measure the impact of the Faculty Enrichment program on overall faculty development with regards to technology. The second goal (Goal 2) was to evaluate the relationship, if any, between faculty development and student evaluations. To meet Goal 2, data from IDEA end-of-course evaluations (IDEA, n.d.) and the skills assessments were correlated. Results indicated that the instructor’s desire to learn more about teaching and learning best practices was positively correlated with students providing higher scores on progress on relevant objectives, perceiving the instructor as an excellent teacher, and the course summary scores. When students rated an instructor as an excellent teacher, that instructor self-reported a higher level of applying skills in using Desire-to-Learn (D2L). Negative correlations were found between the instructor’s self-reported skills with presentation and multimedia tools and the students’ perception of progress toward objectives, excellence of course, and overall course score. Based on the initial results, future professional development will optimize adequate training on the Learning Management System (i.e. D2L), for all faculty, and emphasize the effective use of technology in the classroom.