WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT / LEARNING OPERATIONS / FACULTY ENABLEMENT
Building Faculty Readiness Through Structured Training & Performance Support
A scalable onboarding and professional development system for faculty and subject matter experts
A faculty development initiative connecting needs assessment, self-paced onboarding, live instruction, practical job aids, term-based communications, and a certificate pathway to improve teaching readiness and course-development consistency.
Fewer faculty support tickets related to assignment issues
Increased student satisfaction following implementation
The Problem
Faculty needed a consistent way to understand teaching expectations and apply them in their courses and learning systems. Recurring assignment, gradebook, syllabus, and course-design issues affected whether students could access materials, understand expectations, and see accurate progress information.
Subject matter experts (SMEs) also needed clearer guidance on collaborating with instructional designers, preparing development documents, meeting deadlines, participating in review, and translating planning materials into online learning experiences.
Recurring teaching issues
Ungraded assignments; gradebook accuracy; assignment-group weighting; content carried forward from previous terms; inconsistent syllabi; inconsistent course design.
Design challenge
How do you create one faculty-development system that supports both immediate teaching readiness and longer-term course-development capability?
A Readiness System, Not a Single Training Event
William designed an initiative connecting needs assessment, self-paced orientation, live training, practical checklists, term communications, SME development preparation, a certificate pathway, and reusable performance-support resources.
Formal instruction was paired with tools people could use while doing the work. The goal was not simply course completion: faculty and SMEs needed to apply expectations consistently in teaching and development responsibilities.
My Role
William M. Drayton III facilitated the initiative with a team of three instructional designers and coordinated development of the training resources. His responsibility spanned program planning, team coordination, instructional design, and delivery.
He personally designed the presentations, facilitated live training, created the faculty course-setup checklist, and developed the certificate pathway.
Faculty Needs Assessment
SME Needs Assessment
Program Planning
Instructional Design
Team Coordination
Presentation Design
Live Training Facilitation
Performance Support Design
Faculty Course-Setup Checklist Development
Certificate Pathway Development
A Multi-Layered Faculty Development Model
01 / Assess the Need
Faculty and SME needs assessments identified readiness gaps and clarified training expectations.
02 / Build Foundational Knowledge
Self-paced orientations established a shared baseline for teaching and course-development expectations.
03 / Reinforce Through Live Learning
Live sessions focused attention on immediate priorities and practical concerns.
04 / Support Performance at the Point of Work
Checklists, announcements, ongoing resources, and certificate pathways supported application after formal training ended.
Faculty Orientation & Teaching Readiness
The self-paced Canvas orientation provided a common starting point for faculty. Designed for approximately one to two hours of completion time, it required module completion, incorporated knowledge checks, and remained available as a reusable reference.
The orientation connected onboarding to practical responsibilities: creating assignments and assessments, using grading tools, scheduling virtual sessions, maintaining syllabi, and entering grades. It served as both onboarding and ongoing performance support.
01 / Getting Started
A common entry point for faculty orientation.
02 / Canvas
Learning-system guidance for practical teaching responsibilities.
03 / Capitol Live & Zoom
Guidance for virtual teaching tools.
04 / eSyllabus
Support for maintaining course syllabi.
05 / Conclusion
Closing the orientation pathway.
Preparing Subject Matter Experts for Course Development
SME training addressed online-learning expectations, development timelines, kickoff preparation, lesson planning, review, and eLearning design.
Sample course documents, informational activities, interactive video examples, knowledge-check examples, practice activities, and a concluding knowledge check made the process tangible.
From planning to Canvas
Showed how planning documents become course content.
Feedback and approval
Made review points and approval steps visible.
Instructional design collaboration
Clarified how SMEs work with instructional designers.
eLearning development collaboration
Connected development processes with activity formats and instructional uses.
Reinforcing Immediate Teaching Priorities
William designed and facilitated live sessions to reinforce high-priority teaching behaviors. The undergraduate kickoff supported immediate readiness within the larger development system—not as an isolated event.
Canvas Essentials Kickoff
Publishing courses, communicating with students, checking gradebook settings, and locating support resources.
Continued development
Faculty Focus sessions provided a route for ongoing professional development.
Learning at the Point of Work
Faculty Course Setup Checklist
Converted expectations into actions for the homepage, Zoom, eSyllabus, assignment dates, rubrics, gradebook settings, and course publishing.
Term Communications
Reinforced preparation deadlines and directed faculty to relevant guidance.
Reusable Orientation Resources
Remained available after onboarding as reference resources.
Certificate Pathway
Created a defined route through the faculty-development program.
Two Audiences. One Readiness Strategy.
Both pathways shared one principle: make expectations visible, teach the process, and provide resources people can reuse while doing the work.
Faculty Teaching Readiness
Teaching expectations; Canvas use; gradebook practices; syllabi; virtual teaching tools; course setup; student communication.
SME Course-Development Readiness
Development expectations; instructional design collaboration; planning documents; activity design; review and approval; eLearning development.
Observed Results
The initiative connected training directly to recurring teaching and course-design issues affecting the learner experience. These are qualitative observations following implementation; they are not quantified impact estimates or proof of causality.
Reduced Faculty Support Demand
Fewer faculty support tickets related to assignment issues were observed following implementation.
Improved Student Satisfaction
Student satisfaction increased following implementation.
Selected Training Evidence
The evidence categories below are reserved for authentic project materials. No completion rates, learner analytics, or performance data have been invented.
Faculty Orientation
Self-paced Canvas course and five-module pathway.
SME Collaboration & eLearning Design
Materials connecting development processes to activity formats and instructional uses.
Canvas Essentials Kickoff
Live faculty-development presentation materials.
Faculty Course Setup Checklist
Performance-support resource used before teaching begins.
Certificate Pathway
Structured progression through the program, if available.
Experience Preview
Six labeled spaces are ready for authentic project screenshots. No source images were supplied with this request; these are placeholders, not fabricated interface evidence.
Faculty Orientation landing page
Screenshot to add: establishes the onboarding entry point.
Five-module orientation pathway
Screenshot to add: shows a clear progression through the program.
Practical Canvas training screen
Screenshot to add: connects instruction to teaching tasks.
SME training / eLearning design page
Screenshot to add: makes development expectations and formats visible.
Faculty course setup checklist
Screenshot to add: supports action before teaching begins.
Live training presentation
Screenshot to add: reinforces immediate teaching priorities.
Outcome
The project created a repeatable faculty-development system spanning onboarding, teaching readiness, course-development preparation, live learning, and performance support.
Rather than relying on isolated events, faculty and SMEs received a structured pathway with resources they could return to while performing their work. The model connected professional development to teaching behaviors, development expectations, and operational issues affecting the student learning experience.
What This Demonstrates
Workforce Development
Faculty Enablement
Learning Operations
Training Needs Assessment
Instructional Design
Performance Support
Self-Paced Learning
Live Facilitation
Program Design
SME Enablement
Change Enablement
Team Leadership
Training Should Continue After the Session Ends.
Effective enablement combines instruction, practical tools, and support people can return to while doing the work.
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