Integrating Technology: Faculty Expectations

Rapid changes in education have required institutions to develop new ways to support and meet the demands of a more technologically advanced 21st century learner. This increase in technology is forcing a change in pedagogy... [ view full abstract ]

Rapid changes in education have required institutions to develop new ways to support and meet the demands of a more technologically advanced 21st century learner. This increase in technology is forcing a change in pedagogy within higher education. The integration of technology is no longer an option in higher education and Faculty are aware they need to be more skilled (Dahlstrom & Brooks, 2014). Faculty are feeling pressured to integrate technology without knowing what is out there and how to properly use it. Aligning instructional and pedagogical knowledge prior to integrating technology into teaching (Ragupathi & Hubball, 2015) is necessary to successfully use technology in the classroom. With this, there are increasing and shifting expectations for faculty development and education.

The current context at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) is highlighting the challenges inherent in incorporating technology-mediated education into the classroom. Our analysis of the literature and the current state at Thompson Rivers University has afforded us the opportunity to identify gaps in adoption of innovative teaching pedagogy. This analysis can be themed into four major areas: Role confusion, understanding expectations of Faculty, faculty development, and communication. In this poster presentation we will outline the process that we undertook to further understand the expectations of Faculty at TRU around integrating technology. The purpose of our research study will be to identify the needs of faculty to incorporate technology in the classroom. Our process will include two phases an online survey and face to face focus groups.