Program Training & Professional Development

At UNCC, the responsibility for techno-pedagogic training was baked into the overall design and ethos of the University Writing Program. Administrators and instructors within the program participated in research on trends in digital composing, engaged in professional development opportunities within the department, on campus, and even beyond campus to enhance their own knowledge and skills, and brought their acquired expertise back to the program and even to other units across campus, participating as designers and facilitators of techno-pedagogic professional development opportunities. 

We noted that departmental professional development opportunities were often focused on developing skills or knowledge needed to teach the digital composing projects in UWR 1104 or to teach online courses within the program. However, based on their digital writing assignments and hybrid studio model, the Writing Program developed a reputation as an area rich for techno-pedagogical collaboration; thus, faculty in the program also worked with the Center for Teaching & Learning to provide workshops and to provide support to faculty across campus through workshops and participation in Quality Matters.

The program facilitates or provides

• A practicum course for TAs
• Support for the University Writing Program Online Writing Instruction Course
• A Digital Composing Committee
• A shared responsibility model for professional development 

The sections below highlight 3 of these areas of professional development that are distinctive in ideation or implementation to the UNCC Writing program.

All Writing Program instructors who teach online courses are required to take this training, which combines online writing instruction theory and parts of Quality Matters. The hybrid course gives instructors experience with the student perspective of the learning management system, while simultaneously having them prepare and design their own online courses. Instructors enrolled in the course receive feedback from the UPOWI instructors on their work and revise their course materials and designs based on the feedback.

At the time of our visit, multiple instructors from the Writing Program had successfully completed this course and were then serving as UPOWI instructors themselves. So, in addition to being professionally developed as teachers of digital composing, instructors within the program also received training and experience as teachers of teachers of digital composing, a thread that we observed was purposefully woven into the departmental commitment to shared curricular responsibility, including techno-pedagogy professional development amongst colleagues. 

At the time of our visit, the Digital Composing Committee was a group of faculty within the Writing Program that focused on keeping the pedagogy and platforms used for teaching and projects aligned with current research trends in technology and current University implementations of technology. The committee worked in tandem with the Professional Development committee to provide learning opportunities focused on technology for instructors.

UNCC provided funding for professional development opportunities, including the Digital Media and Composition (DMAC) Institute, with the expectation that those who participated in these events would return to campus and share what they'd learned with those who did not attend as part of regular department-wide faculty meetings. 

Further, as one of our participants noted, there was always an expectation that any curricular design work, in addition to creating materials in Canvas, for instance, also meant developing and facilitating professional development meetings for colleagues as well. 

This expectation has resulted in training sessions on:

• Teaching by Design: Modeling Digital Literacy through Canvas Course Design by Cat Mahaffey and Ashlyn Walden (Fall 2018)
• Online Writing Instruction by Julie Cook and Cat Mahaffey (Fall 2019)
• Exploring and Developing Best Practices in OWI by Cat Mahaffey and Ashlyn Walden (Fall 2020)