Professional Development for Community College Teachers: AnOnline Graduate Certificate Program in Community CollegeTeaching

摘要

The departments of Adult and Community College Education (ACCE) and Mathematics, Scienceand Technology Education (MSTE) within the College of Education at North Carolina StateUniversity developed a prototype graduate certificate program in Community College Teaching.The program focuses on developing the knowledge and skills necessary to design and delivercourse-related content through technology-enhanced learning environments for faculty who teachin Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM) related areas. The coursesdeveloped for the graduate certificate enhance faculty abilities in both online and classroomenvironments. Current community college faculty from North Carolina and South Carolina havebeen recruited into the program. The project meets the broader goals of the NSF-AdvancedTechnological Education (ATE) program by institutionalizing the means by which workingprofessionals can be recruited to fill shortages in community college faculty teaching positions inSTEM fields. It also provides a means whereby current community college faculty can upgradetheir instructional skills. The paper describes the online program and presents summary data fromthe first online course.