Gordon College Educational Technology Training

A needs assessment revealed that the majority of faculty at Gordon College did not understand licensed educational technology at the institution or had any plans to incorporate it into their courses. Literature demonstrates that using technology in courses can facilitate student engagement and success. However, it also shows that faculty will not incorporate technology in their courses without receiving training on its basic functions. In order to increase faculty use of educational technology, the Center for Teaching Excellence designed a four module interactive e-learning to teach basic functions in Blackboard, Panopto, VoiceThread, and Zoom. The E-learning is composed of interactive software simulations with audio prompts and visual cues to teach each function. This methodology facilitates skill transfer and reduces the possibility of cognitive overload. Each module ends with an assessment that calls for the user to complete each skill taught with the option to review each skill at any time. The goal of the training is that, given a scenario where a learner is using one of the four digital tools licensed at Gordon College, they will be able to complete basic processes with an 80% success rate