Documentation Adventures: Are Your Faculty Development Programs Equipped to Survive the Great Resignation?

Concurrent Session 8

Brief Abstract

The Great Resignation has impacted many industries including higher education, leaving many institutions scrambling to pick up the pieces. Attend this session to learn how to withstand the Great Resignation and save your faculty development programs from an unpredictable fate.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Trudy Trail-Constant, University of Central Florida

Trudian Trail-Constant is an Associate Instructional Designer at CDL. She holds an M.Ed. in Instructional Design and Development from the University of Georgia and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Bethune-Cookman University. Her technical background along with her experience in Instructional Design in the business and higher education arenas have allowed her to possess a great balance and understanding of both technology and education. Her research interests include learner motivation and knowledge retention through unique, interactive learning environments and her expertise in the field has allowed her to present at multiple regional, national, and international conferences. Trudian also has a passion for all things creative and in her free time, she enjoys photography, interior decorating, event planning and even creating escape room games.

Co-presenter: Elizabeth Sutliff, University of Central Florida

Extended Abstract

Documentation Adventures: Are Your Faculty Development Programs Equipped to Survive the Great Resignation?

Relevance to the Community

Process documentation is often overlooked when it relates to higher education faculty development programs. However, proper documentation of key faculty development administrative and facilitation processes can be integral to a program’s success. Effective documentation of faculty development programs may include artifacts that describe in detail the program’s goals, design, and outcomes; enrollment, administration, facilitation, maintenance, and revision processes; and training and orientation guides for program facilitators and trainers. 

There are numerous benefits to proper faculty development program documentation. By recording key processes and standards of procedures, program administrators can ensure consistency and the seamless continuation of services during periods of employee transitions. Faculty turnover is not uncommon in Higher Education and institutions have seen increases since the global pandemic, which started in 2020. This can oftentimes prove detrimental to a program’s success and lead to interruptions in an institution’s ability to support and sustain its faculty development programs. However, effective documentation can work to minimize such interruptions in program offerings and allow alternate individuals to step in and maintain the program while also ensuring that important processes are preserved.

Detailed and efficient documentation also promotes efficiency and problem-solving by providing key stakeholders with a global vantage point of a faculty development program, allowing them to identify gaps and inefficiencies and develop a strategy to resolve them. An often-contributing factor to the longevity of a faculty development program is workload. Programs are often retired or phased out because the administrative and facilitation workload to maintain them is not sustainable. Having a detailed outline of facilitator expectations and duties can allow administrators to identify inefficiencies and work to streamline them, reducing the administrative workload and improving efficiency. 

In this presentation, we will share how proper documentation was able to help a large higher education institution maintain continuity of its faculty development programming amidst the resignation of key university personnel and a pandemic that impacted personnel attendance and continuation of employment. Several faculty development administration and logistics documentation templates will also be provided.

Session Takeaways

Participants of the session will be able to identify strategies for effective documentation of faculty development programs. Attendees will leave with several faculty development administration and logistics documentation templates as well as instructions to access a faculty development companion course template available for free via Canvas Commons.

Gamified Session Plan

We will share this presentation through gamification. Below is a detailed plan of the session. 

Game Title: Doc Crusades
Premise: This session will be modeled after popular adventure crusades such as Indiana Jones, where participants will embark on a variety of adventures to unlock the secrets to proper faculty development documentation. Participants will be split into explorer groups and compete to be the first to unearth hidden secrets. Throughout the game, participants will be exposed to important concepts that illustrate how proper documentation was able to help a large higher education institution maintain continuity of its faculty development programming amidst the resignation of key university personnel. 

Game Plan: The participants will be divided into explorer groups of 5-6 people. Each group of explorers will embark on different adventures. Once a team successfully completes an adventure, an important secret will be unlocked, during which aspects of the presentation will be revealed by one of the expedition leaders (presenters).