DE Oracle @ UMUC

Faculty Consultant Service Offers Just-in-Time Support

Center for Teaching and Learning

Staff of Center for Teaching and Learing

Center for Teaching and Learning

Published: July-August 2006

Category: » Fac-resources » Faculty-support

The Faculty Consultant Service (FCS) celebrates its second anniversary this July.  Beginning as a pilot program in the spring of 2004, it supported faculty members around the world by rapidly responding to their e-mailed questions.  Due to positive response from faculty, consultants, and administrators, the Center for Teaching and Learning made it one of their regular programs in July 2004.  The program has expanded to encompass all aspects of pedagogy and methodology in the WebTycho classroom, regardless of whether the class is fully online or web-enhanced.

The core mission of the FCS is to support faculty members.  The service is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  Whether a faculty member has a question about a disruptive student or what an effective use of Study Groups is, an answer will usually be provided within a day.  If additional research is needed, a preliminary e-mail is sent to questioner while the investigation continues.

The FCS gives faculty members that experienced-person-next-door feeling where one can just pop in and get some information or a new perspective.  In fact, some questioners find the service so responsive they assume the consultant lives nearby and attempts to make face-to-face office appointments! 

The internet allows us to support faculty throughout the UMUC community. The increased interconnectivity is a side benefit of the FCS.  Faculty members from locations distant from administrators are still next door to the consultant.  As our chief consultant, Warren Johnson, put it:

"It is not unusual to hear from a person almost anywhere in the world. It does not matter whether Ray Fox teaches DE or not.  If he drops me a line, I'll answer it.  In fact, I already have."

One of the reasons queries can be responded to so quickly is that the FCS is not one person but a team.  While our chief consultant takes the lead on all questions, he can call on experienced DE staff to suggest other ideas and flesh-out responses.  If he still doesn’t know the answer, he will seek it out or direct faculty members to other resources.

The FCS is available for questions both large and small.  Issues addressed include online teaching methods, how to format correctly within WebTycho, composing appropriate class announcements, managing your workload, and effective online interaction techniques.  Questions related to specific course content, a discipline, or about the technical aspects of WebTycho will be referred to the appropriate resource.

The warm reception received to date by the FCS is testimony to its efficacy.  As more faculty become aware of it, we hope to continue expanding the support available. 

For more information about the Faculty Consultant Service, visit our website. To contact the Faculty Consultant, merely send an e-mail to CTLconsult@polaris.umuc.edu. We look forward to hearing from you.