Faculty Professional Learning: An Examination of Online Development and Assessment Environments - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 74

people to “talk” about whatever interests
them within a variety of different topic ar-
eas”. The idea that faculty developers should
create training tasks at the beginning of a
FPL program to check that participants are
able to access resources and to begin online
socialisation is agreed upon by scholars
and researchers (Nicol, Minty & Sinclair,
2003). Currently, faculty members utilize
these online sites for social support, to stay
in touch with their colleagues, to make re-
search plans, and for interchange of opinions
and teaching beliefs with instructors online.
“However, educators who perceive the value
of social bonds in the learning process must
reconceptualize how sense of community
can be stimulated in virtual classrooms,
particularly in computer-mediated learning
environments where many of the verbal and
nonverbal cues needed to support strong
interpersonal ties are missing” (Rovai, 2000,
p. 286).
(7) Hybrid structures or mixed delivery profes-
sional development approach . The intro-
duction of Learning Management Systems
(LMS), such as Blackboard, eCollege, and
Web CT, allows developers and trainers
to combine the advantages of online class
training with the benefits of face-to-face
interaction. It allows program flexibility,
especially for lengthy courses, enhances ac-
quisition of information abilities, and allows
faculty members scattered across a campus
engage in learning according to their needs.
As it happens with hybrid environments
for classroom instruction, “a mix of face-
to-face and online instruction (somewhere
between 90% and 10% and 10% and 90%)
will be superior to either 100% face-to-face
or 100% online courses” (Woods, Baker &
Hopper, 2004, p. 282). In conjunction with
this approach, managers must design the
interface for the environment and consider
the appropriate integration of communica-

tion tools to support high-level user activity.
In addition, researchers have taken up as a
significant study problem the need to chal-
lenge and compare online learning spaces.
Thus, the online environment dimensions for
a detailed examination might consist of three
relevant metrics: 'functionality, usability,
and validity' (Scigliano & Dringus, 2000, p.
101), which would hypothetically guarantee
learnability, efficiency and predictability of
interface goodness.

eLeCTRONIC PROFeSSIONAL
LeARNINg eNVIRONmeNT

E-Mentoring for New Faculty Teachers. Men-
toring is a concept that has become widespread;
firstly, in education (http://www.edc.org; http://
www.telementor.org/) and higher education (see
the specific sites: http://www.mentors.net and
http://emissary.wm.edu/index.php?content=pub_
presen.html&menu=What), and secondly, in
business and enterprises (http://www.onlinewbc.
org/). Traditionally, the mentoring relationship is
represented as a process in which a more experi-
enced faculty member provides control, support,
and opportunities for socialization to a novice
faculty teacher. At the level of university quality
control (e.g., movement of faculty accreditation),
the recruitment and maintenance of novice faculty
for achieving promotion and tenure is important
to all university sectors. New faculty teachers
demand assistance for career support, knowledge
acquisition (e.g., uncovering the assumptions of a
discipline), collegiality (e.g., shared responsibility
for research and publications) and emotional help
and respect in communications. Indeed, research
indicates that some important issues have to be
considered when helping faculty instructors in-
crease their teaching and research involvement,
because “inexperienced researchers may feel very
inadequate about their own research skills and their
ability to understand and succeed in the research