Development and Assessment of Online Modules for Hybrid Orientation Program

Current and future teaching methodologies rely on the careful use of technology in education as well as in offering training opportunities to teaching assistants, instructional assistants and other non full-time faculty. The University of Houston recognizes that technological advances are improving opportunities to enhance the quality of effective teaching methodologies. To address the disparity in knowledge about methodological practices by the new instructors, the departments of Hispanic Studies and Engineering Technology developed a Hybrid Orientation Program (HOP) that comprises both generic and department-specific modules. The implementation of the new modules required that the existing orientation programs be modified to integrate a theoretical on line training and hands on face-to-face training for new instructors. This paper presents the design and implementation of the generic modules, and its integration with the university initiative to train instructional assistants led by the office of Educational Technology and University Outreach (ETUO). Each module contains an introduction, a detailed presentation of contents and assessment sections that can easily be adopted by other departments and colleges across the university. The assessment of the effectiveness of these modules is conducted by surveying the coordinating faculty, the trainees (the new instructors), and the university students who ultimately receive the instruction from the trainees. The results indicate that the new hybrid orientation programs helped increase the performance of our teaching assistants: they recognize the usefulness of the training sessions and the preparation it provides for real class situation they encounter. In addition, they feel that there is an easily accessible source of information which gives them the opportunity to get easily and comfortably acquitted to the general as well as specific rules and regulations of the university system.