The term “unbundled” comes from the telecommunications industry where services and equipment purchases can be separated into smaller segments in order to price things separately ( Crook, 2004 ). In the academic environment, the term unbundling refers to the segmenting of faculty duties so teachers can concentrate on academics and student learning ( Twigg, 2001 ). Other roles outside of instruction can be handled by technology and/or lower-qualified and lower-paid staff. When unbundling is done right, costs go down and student performance remains just as good as or better than in the traditional classroom setting ( Crook, 2004 ). In an unbundled course, faculty may be called mentors, facilitators, or coaches ( Mitchell, 2009 ).
Published in Chapter:
Ready-to-Teach Online Courses: Understanding Faculty Roles and Attitudes
Pamela K. Quinn (Dallas County Community College District, USA),
Diane Mason (Lamar University, USA), and Kaye Shelton (Lamar University, USA)
Copyright: © 2017
|Pages: 21
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0877-9.ch012
Abstract
The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate the roles and attitudes of experienced full-time and part-time community college faculty members teaching online courses, pre-produced by a subject matter expert, an advisory committee, and a development team. Interviews conducted with five full-time and five part-time professors were analyzed for textual and structural descriptions to understand the essence of faculty attitudes and roles toward using a ready-to-teach master course with online students. Data revealed that faculty members associated personal teaching experience with the quality of the course and that instructors were not resistant to teaching with master courses, provided the courses afforded flexibility for modifications. In addition, faculty research participants were highly satisfied in present roles because the ready-to-teach courses worked well for instructors and students while meeting the faculty members' personal and professional needs.