Hello, I am Rosemary Tyrrell, the Director of Faculty Development at - - PDF document

Hello, I am Rosemary Tyrrell, the Director of Faculty Development at the UCR School of Medicine. I have been teaching for over 20 years. I have taught both face-to-face and online courses. I have also been doing faculty professional development for over 15 of those years. About a year and a half ago I had the extreme pleasure to join the UCR School of Medicine as the Director of Faculty Development. I had no shortage of advice on what kinds of workshops I should be offering and it wasn’t long before I had a roster of about a dozen workshops ready to go. 1 Inclusive Teaching Strategies

The problem? I used to be in the theatre and there was an expression we used. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 2

Butts in the seat. Some workshops would get 15-20 people, but others would get only a half dozen or even less. I started to look at what we could do differently. That’s what this session is about. What we did differently and lessons we learned along that path. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 3

By the end of this session you should be able to:

• Explore the challenges of reaching faculty
• Compare approaches to faculty development
• Develop ideas for increasing attendance

Note: This is like Vegas – anything said here will stay here. We ask that anything you share about your institution or challenges you face remain in this room. 4 Inclusive Teaching Strategies

What reasons do faculty give for why they don’t attend your programs? What do you think the #1 reason faculty give is? Inclusive Teaching Strategies 5

Time! How true is this? Well, of course it’s true. Everyone is busy. Everyone is over-taxed when it comes to time. Sometimes there are schedule conflicts that make it simply impossible for people to attend. So, all of that is true. Time can be a barrier. But is it the real reason? People seem to find or make time for the things they see as important. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 6

The problem isn’t time – the problem is the perception that the programs aren’t worth the time. It comes down to – value for the time spent. Once upon a time I was in graduate school in theater. Every year a few grad students were selected to put on a production as part of a series called Potpourri. The students got the great idea of asking the faculty if we could eliminate the ticket price and make the program free. Our professor vetoed the idea and told us something that has always stuck. “If you say your show is worth nothing, that’s just what people will think.” We sometimes undersell our programs in an attempt to make them “convenient” or “not too time consuming” because whenever you ask faculty what prevents them from attending – again - what the one thing they always say???? No time!!! What they are really saying (in most cases) is that they don’t think that it is worth their time. It’s not worth giving up time to grade papers, meet with students, spend with their family, eat lunch,

• r a 1000 other things they will do instead of attending your session.

If we follow Alice down the rabbit hole of “no time”, it leads us to try shorter and shorter programs in the vain attempt to make them more “convenient” for faculty. However, we may find that it doesn’t necessarily improve attendance. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 7

Challenges: What are some of the challenges you face getting faculty to attend your faculty development sessions? We face:

• As we discussed, time is sometimes an issue, so choosing a good time is important. Clinical

hours makes it next to impossible to get clinical faculty to attend anything during the day.

• Sometimes, it’s geography compounded with time. If a faculty member isn’t on campus the day

you are doing your program, it’s a higher bar to meet to have them make a special trip out for that purpose. If they have to pay for parking, it’s an even higher bar!

• Our faculty are geographically dispersed throughout three large counties, so asking them to

come to campus is a big ask.

• Many clinical faculty don’t see their role as teacher as part of their professional identity. It’s very

much a side-line, and they sometimes treat it that way. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 8

So, this session is entitled Workshops, Webinars and Podcasts, so let’s talk about the different approaches we have tried. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 9

Workshops: What are some challenges you face getting people to attend workshops? Our challenges:

• Difficult to find a time that works.
• Not a lot of faculty were signing up
• Of those who did sign up, only about 50% of them showed up. This meant that we were

spending money on catering for people who weren’t there. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 10

We have done webinars with some success. Some challenges you have had trying webinars?

• I had an experience where I was in Philadelphia while we were doing a webinar in Riverside. I

was literally sitting in front of Independence Hall on a bench trying to resolve technical difficulties to get the webinar launched. Fun! At first, we were only getting 1-3 people attending. We essentially outnumbered the attendees. Not a good sign. I tried something different with the invite that has made a big difference. Originally, we were sending them the webinar link (which is how most webinars seem to

• perate), but they were trying to “register” the way they do for our face-to-face sessions,

and they were getting error messages telling them the meeting hadn’t started yet – which it hadn’t. Since many of them were unfamiliar with virtual meetings, they didn’t realize you don’t have to register in advance the way you do for a workshop (particularly if there is to be a meal served). So, they were confused that they couldn’t sign up for the webinar. So, what I did was to use the same RSVP system we use for our other programs – which is

• Eventbrite. How many of you use Eventbrite? Familiar with it? If you aren’t it’s a super-easy

free (at least for now) reservation system. They keep sending “surveys” talking about different pricing options, so some features may not be free much longer, but right now if you don’t charge for your event – it’s free. I don’t know what it costs if you do charge because we don’t do any programs that cost money. Eventbrite has a great feature where you can pre-write all the emails you want registrants to receive, so we added emails 24 hours before and then again the morning of the noon- time session with explicit instructions on how to log into the meeting. What do you think the result was when I used Eventbrite? - I increased attendance by over 400% using this new method. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 11

Podcasts I should have titled this session “From Workshops to Webinars to Playlists to Podcasts” because what we are currently doing are not podcasts, but in fact playlists on YouTube. What we will do this year is add podcasts. Our podcasts style recordings have happened quite by accident. We had one webinar where no one showed up to attend. Since the webinar was part of a year-long pilot study, we didn’t want to simply cancel because we had given the study participants the option

• f attending the webinars live or watching a recording of them at another time.

So, we ended up talking to each other instead of the audience (because we didn’t have an audience) and it worked quite well. We are now planning a series of podcasts that we will do in addition to the webinars and subsequent recordings of them. I have a fellow starting in August who will be working on this project. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 12

A short workshop or webinar may come across as more “convenient” to many of us, but it also may seem like there isn’t much that can be learned in so short a time span, so for the faculty member, they seem to devalue it. The Teaching Excellence Academy is the premiere/apex program for the Office of Faculty Development. It is a competitive, longitudinal faculty development program. The Teaching Excellence Academy is an interesting phenomenon. We sometimes have difficulty getting even five people signed up for a workshop, but we have announced a new program which will begin in October. It’s a longitudinal faculty development program that requires far more commitment of time and resources than anything else we offer. It is a competitive program, and we already have twice the number of people who have signed up to receive “updates” than we can accommodate in the actual program – and we don’t start official recruitment until July! So, the idea that making something shorter and/or easier will make it better attended does not hold up. We intended this program to be competitive, and it is going to be. I just did a presentation to our GME faculty last week and I could see when I said it was going to be a highly competitive program, ears perked up and we had several more people fill out the “interest” form by the time we got back to the office. Now, signing up to receive information and signing up for the program are admittedly two different things, but it’s clear that the idea of a program with a greater time commitment was not a deal- breaker for many. The perception of value increased. 13 Teaching Excellence Academy Presentation

Activity On the other side of the sheet (or on post-its – one item per post-it), please list methods you have tried to increase attendance. Select the top three that have been the most successful for you. Share with the group Inclusive Teaching Strategies 14

So let’s talk about some ways you can increase attendance at your event. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 15

Needs assessment – every year – what is it the faculty says they want and/or need? Inclusive Teaching Strategies 16

I often co-teach sessions with an M.D. That has proved to be a useful model. I can use my educational expertise to focus on evidence based practices, and the M.D. can bring in practical examples from their own clinical teaching enterprise. I started co-teaching with M.D.s because UCR is my first medical school and I didn’t feel I knew enough about the clinical teaching environment to provide effective guidance in this area. I feared I wouldn’t be able to answer questions. However, even as I am learning more and more about clinical teaching, I will still want to co-teach with an M.D. They not only bring the expertise, but they bring a certain credibility to the equation. I have learned that physicians understand the concept of specialty. They tend to discount anything that comes from a source they deem irrelevant. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 17

Promote the level of learner the program is geared towards – beginner, intermediate, advanced. When I did my research, a number of faculty complained that every workshop they attend always starts from the beginning. We tend to assume that the level of the learners are all beginner. There never seems to be a 2.0 session. So, once faculty have attended the “Effective Teaching” workshop, is there nothing left for them to learn? Gearing everything to everyone discourages mid-career or senior faculty from attending because they assume it will be geared at the new or early faculty. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 18

Build relationships. Send a note of congratulations when you read about an accomplishment such as a publication, receipt of an important grant, award, etc. I sent out a “congratulations” email to every one of the faculty who received a faculty award and asked them if they would like to do a workshop for my department. Not everyone said yes, but everyone was quite flattered to be asked. And those who did say yes are a great resource for me. Write an introductory letter to new faculty members Inclusive Teaching Strategies 19

Make it personal. I send on resources and even sometimes funny items to specific individuals. “I couldn’t help thinking of you when I saw this article.” The last time I did this I saw this hilarious meme going around about people making fun of stock photos of their profession. I sent one of the pictures to a faculty member and she sent me back an email saying – It made my day! Inclusive Teaching Strategies 20

Buddy system – When someone signs up for a session, provide an opportunity for them to invite a friend. I created an email for them: “Hey, I’m going to this interesting session on giving effective feedback next week. Want to join me?” You could even give a prize to the person who brought the most friends to the event! Invite friends and win a great new teaching resource – which could be a book

• r something else you want to give away.

Being invited by a colleague can make a world of difference. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 21

Social Media And as long as you are asking people to invite friends, why not ask them to share the event on social media? Not everyone will do this, of course, but some will. I don’t know about you, but I always check out those “your friend is going to something cool” notices on FB. #sharethefacdev Inclusive Teaching Strategies 22

Attend faculty events – Go to other workshops they may attend – grant-writing, library workshops on scholarly writing, symposia, TED talks – wherever faculty tend to congregate. Faculty Meetings

• I attend every faculty meeting that will allow me time to speak and promote our current
• fferings.

Volunteer to sit on important committees such as curriculum development. Your presence in the room speaks volumes about how seriously you are taken by leadership. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 23

It takes a village – Enlist the help of staff, administrators, even students – to help spread the word. Send a personal note to a department chair and ask: “Hey, could you pass this on to your faculty with a personal note?” Don’t forget to cc the admin. They are the real keepers of the kingdom. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 24

Send thank you notes. Even though it seems silly, people like to be thanked for giving their time. Some people send these with their evaluation forms. “Thank you so much for attending last night’s workshop on teaching millennials. Your input is so important to us. . . “ The problem here? The thank you falls flat when it is really another ask. I remember once I gave some money to my local public radio station. I was fairly busted at the time, so I gave as much as I could afford to give. I got a note back from them “thanking” me for my gift, but “explaining” that for only another $25 I could be giving at the next level. So, the note sounded like “Thanks for nothing.” It was the last time I gave a dime to that station. If you want to say thank you – say thank you. If you want to ask a favor – ask a favor. But never try to do both of those things at once. While it may be beside the point, I also find I get better response rates on my evaluations if I hand them out in person at the end of the workshop. Sure, it means manual data input, but that’s what we have student workers for! ;) Inclusive Teaching Strategies 25

Be visible. Post flyers of your upcoming programs around campus. Get your flyers in locations where faculty will see them. Mail rooms, break rooms, lab doors, etc. Make sure you check your institution’s policy for posting things, but get out there and let people see the great work you are doing. Email is so easy and cheap – but it’s also likely to get deleted. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 26

Apply for grants. Most institutions announce grant winners in campus or department newsletters. It raises the profile of your department and gains you respect and positive attention. Produce scholarship. Being published or selected for a conference presentation also adds to your credibility. Faculty will begin to see you as a fellow scholar as opposed to part of the dreaded “administration.” Even better – co-author an article with a faculty member or collaborate on a grant. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 27

Offer to sit in on classes. If you invited yourself, offer feedback only if asked. Send a follow up note. Thank you so much for allowing me to visit your class. I so enjoyed the way you used problem based learning when you had students review the case study and find a solution. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 28

I have partnered with Academic Affairs and they are putting into place two policies. It’s a carrot and stick approach. We will be tracking attendance at all faculty development sessions and that information will be included in the teaching portion of their portfolio when they are up for merit and

• promotion. (The juicy carrot).

If a faculty member fails to earn promotion they will be required to attend a set number of faculty development hours before their next review. (The blunt stick). I’m actually much more in favor of the carrot than the stick. The stick wasn’t actually my idea, but the carrot was. I am partnering with the Women’s Resource Center on a series of Women in Medicine month

• events. They can also help get butts in the seat.

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Leverage every opportunity you have to promote you next events.

• I promote our upcoming events at every event we hold – workshop, webinar or whatever

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Faculty Onboarding

• This is not new faculty orientation – but the actual onboarding process where they sign their

paperwork.

• I sweet-talked my way into getting 15 minutes to meet with all new faculty.
• I bring them some literature and a gift.
• I show them our website and walk them through all our programs and services.
• I try to position our department as the “go-to” place for all faculty. I always say, “If you

don’t know who to ask, ask us. If we don’t know the answer, we’ll get to the people who do.” Inclusive Teaching Strategies 31

Dean’s newsletter People may not pay much attention to my emails, but they pay attention to the Dean. I talked to the person who actually writes the newsletter and asked her if she could start promoting our programs in the newsletter. Not only does this get the word out to more people, but it gains us a “seal of approval” from the Dean. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 32

Leadership invites – I occasionally ask leadership to personally invite people to attend. I reserve this for when attendance is quite low. For example, I had a workshop recently with a guest speaker and only three people had registered.

• Embarrassing. I sent an email to the Assistant Dean of Medical Education and the Associate Deans
• f Preclinical and Clinical – and asked them to personally urge people to attend. The attendance

went immediately from 3 people to over a dozen. Still not as many as I would have liked, but still – a much better showing. Inclusive Teaching Strategies 33

Weekly emails Even though I know not everyone will read them, I send out an email on average of once per week to share news and promote our programs. I have limited staff resources, so there are times when it is the same email with a different subject line. People have made fun of me for this tactic, but I notice that every time I send one of these emails, I get a few more people signed up for something. It may be more of a trickle than a flood, but it’s worth it to get a few more butts in the seat! Inclusive Teaching Strategies 34

As a result of this session, is there any way you will act differently? Describe. On your handout, you have an intention statement. Please take a moment to write an intention statement. What are 2-3 things from this session you will try as soon as you get back to your organization. Put a date when you will implement it on your intention statement. Then, when you get a chance, put it on your calendar or your to-do list. Share a few. Do you have any questions remaining? Inclusive Teaching Strategies 35

Thank you for your time and attention. I look forward to talking more with you throughout the conference. Enjoy the rest of your day! 36 Inclusive Teaching Strategies