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Reflection Paper: Improving Online SCIN 100

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Improving Online Faculty Engagement within SCIN 100

Erica Barrow
EDCI 531 – Final Synthesis Paper
Spring 2017
Purdue University

Introduction
Ivy Tech Community College offers a statewide online earth science course (SCIN 100) to students throughout Indiana and across the globe. SCIN 100 is a survey-style introductory science course focusing on concepts within the fields of geology, meteorology, and oceanography. The majority of students taking SCIN 100 are non-science majors fulfilling a required science elective within their respective programs. All students taking online SCIN 100 follow the same curriculum, schedule, and course objectives regardless of their home campus. The vast majority of instructors teaching the online SCIN 100 course are adjunct (part-time) faculty. Instructors teaching online SCIN 100 have Master’s degrees within one of several specific disciplines of earth science; however, formal education training is not a requirement for adjunct instructors. Adjuncts teaching online SCIN 100 are hired on a semester-by-semester needs basis and generally have no on-campus presence during the semester. …show more content…

One of the identified potential points of improvement is to increase online SCIN 100 adjunct faculty engagement with students, other faculty, and with the course mentor. It is hypothesized that increasing adjunct faculty engagement will improve overall online SCIN 100 curriculum materials, student completion rates, and improve the online adjunct faculty teaching experience. The goal of this paper is to utilize principles of several learning theories to better engage online SCIN 100 adjunct faculty

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