Description of the Virtual Mentor Program
at Florida Community College at Jacksonville
College Background
is one of the largest and
most comprehensive colleges in the United States. Florida Community
College at Jacksonville has five campuses and five centers, and
serves more than 60,000 students annually in a variety of programs,
including Distance Learning.
The College offers a variety of distance learning opportunities
through online, blended, CD-based, and telecourse offerings. During
the 2004-05 academic years, there were over 25,000 enrollments
in online courses, in both Liberal Arts and Workforce disciplines.
Each semester, over 450 sections of online courses are taught
by full-time and adjunct faculty. As of Summer 2005, there were
approximately 200 adjunct faculty teaching online courses at Florida
Community College. Sixty-six of our “virtual adjuncts”
lived in the state of Florida, while the remainder resided in
various other states.
The college catalog, which contains more information about the
College, as well as student policies, program information and
course descriptions, is an invaluable reference for all faculty.
You may review the catalog online at http://www.fccj.edu/catalog.
Florida Community College is accredited by the Southern Association
of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
Virtual
Mentor Program
Distance learning is an integral part of Florida Community College
that promotes student success through innovative teaching, learning
and instructional technology. Virtual adjuncts form the core faculty
in our distance learning program. As such, we are committed to
providing the best possible support services to our virtual adjuncts,
to enhance retention, instructor satisfaction, and instructional
quality. When an instructor teaches as an adjunct for a particular
institution, there are new administrative processes to learn,
administrative staff to get to know, and a whole new institutional
culture to figure out. As a “virtual” adjunct, it
may be even more difficult to get the information needed to have
a successful and satisfying first semester.
To better address this important need, the College established
a virtual adjunct mentoring program to help support new online
adjunct instructors as they teach their first semester at Florida
Community College. Mentors are also available to existing online
instructors, who may be experiencing problems with a particular
process or issue, or are teaching a specific course for the first
time and request a mentor. Mentors are experienced online instructors
who have been part of the full-time or adjunct faculty with the
Distance Learning Office (DLO). The Virtual Mentor Program is
designed to support all new online adjuncts, many of which are
not local to Jacksonville, and provide a connection to the college
and learning community. Mentors serve as the liaison between the
college and the new online adjunct in order to provide personal
assistance in getting acclimated as a new adjunct for Florida
Community College, as well as provide pertinent information and
guidance on administrative procedures and responsibilities for
which adjuncts are responsible. Mentors are an extension of the
DLO, providing the best possible services to adjuncts and, ultimately,
excellent instruction for students.
Each virtual mentor works with up to 10 online adjuncts per semester,
with assignments based on factors such as academic discipline
backgrounds and software expertise. A lead mentor provides leadership
for the virtual mentors, and assists new virtual mentors with
mentoring processes and developing strategies for building successful
mentoring relationships.
The virtual mentoring program is the heart of
the professional teaching and learning community at Florida Community
College. In addition to assigned mentoring relationships, virtual
mentors also moderate an adjunct discussion board, focusing on
topics related to online teaching and learning; individuals are
invited to share techniques, resources and reflections on teaching
and learning. Each month, an online faculty member is invited
to create a multimedia presentation to feature on the institutional
website. Recent “Online Instructor Highlight” topics
have been “Student Motivation in the Online Classroom,”
“Rehumanizing the Learning Space,” and “Employing
Hybrid Strategies.”
In 2004 Florida Community College at Jacksonville’s
mentoring program was recognized by receiving the Sloan Consortium
Award for having the top national online instructor mentoring
program.
