Online Learning Update

Penn State U’s World Campus plans further changes to its faculty development efforts after an online teaching certificate program became a surprise hit among graduate students. Pennsylvania State University is rethinking how it trains future faculty members after doctoral students flocked to a crash course in online teaching. The university had hoped its free, noncredit certificate program, which launched in September, would attract about 30 students interested in developing their online teaching skills. Instead, the program beat that target by a factor of ten. Laurence B. Boggess, director of faculty development for Penn State World Campus, the institution’s online degree and certificate division, said the interest in the program suggests this generation of graduate students sees online teaching experience as a core skill as they enter the job market.