Handbook of Research on Faculty Development for Digital Teaching and Learning

Faculty development is currently practiced in a variety of approaches by individuals, committees, and centers of excellence. More research is needed to draw better benefit from these approaches in the impending digital world by taking advantage of digitally enabled teaching and learning. The Handbook of Research on Faculty Development for Digital Teaching and Learning offers holistic and multidisciplinary approaches to enhancing faculty effectiveness in teaching, boosting motivation, extending knowledge, expanding teaching behaviors, and disseminating skills in digital higher education settings. Featuring a broad range of topics such as faculty learning communities (FLCs), virtual learning environments, and professional development, this book is ideal for educators, educational technologists, curriculum developers, higher education staff, school administrators, principals, academicians, practitioners, and graduate students.

Alev Elçi has main research areas as faculty development, digital teaching and learning, technology enhanced learning, social networks, learning communities, animation and game based learning, internationalization, and narrative approaches. She has a book titled Faculty Beliefs and Needs: Opening the Gate to ICT-based Professional Development in Teaching and Learning . She is currently reviewer of two SSCI indexed journals and supervising doctoral and master students. Dr. Alev Elçi was a visiting researcher in Roger Williams University, RI, USA with a grant by Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK). She received BSc in Mathematics (Hacettepe University) and MSc in Computer Engineering (METU), Ankara, Turkey. She got a PhD in Educational Sciences (Eastern Mediterranean University), Famagusta, North Cyprus. Her dissertation was on faculty beliefs and needs for ICT-based professional development in teaching and learning. Prior to academia, she worked for 15 years as software support and training specialist for Unisys and Oracle in Turkey, Pakistan, China, and Kuwait. She has been teaching for 20 years and lately was an Assistant Professor in Department of Management Information Systems, Aksaray University, Turkey.

Dr. Beith received a Ph.D. in instructional design from Capella University in Minnesota, an M.Ed. in instructional design from the University of Massachusetts at Boston and her B.A. in Psychology from Bridgewater State University. Her doctoral dissertation was on hybrid faculty learning communities and her interests include instructional design, emerging technologies, competency-based learning, informal learning, distance and blended education, interactive learning strategies, and e-portfolios. Dr. Beith has been working in higher education for over 25 years across five public and private institutions. She recently retired as the Director of the Center for Scholarship, Assessment, Learning, Teaching and Technology (CSALT) at Roger Williams University and is currently doing instructional design for RWU’s first competency-based education programs. Dr. Beith has been an adjunct faculty member at the University of Massachusetts at Boston in the graduate program for instructional design since 2001 and taught fully online from 2008-2015.

Atilla Elçi is full professor and chairman of the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Aksaray University, Aksaray, Turkey, since August 2012. He was full professor and chairman of computer and educational technology at Süleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey (May 2010 - June 2012). He served as full professor of computer engineering, the founding director of the Graduate School of Science and Technology, and the dean of Engineering Faculty at Toros University, Mersin, Turkey (July 2010 - June 2011); with the Computer Engineering Program, Middle East Technical University (METU NCC, Spring 2010); Eastern Mediterranean University (2003-2009) where he established the Internet Technologies Research Center and semantic robotics lab; Haliç University, Istanbul, Turkey, founder and chair of the Computer Engineering Department (2000-2003); the International Telecommunication Union, Geneva, Switzerland, as chief technical advisor (1985-1997); METU Ankara, Turkey, where he was chair and assistant chair of Computer Engineering Department(1976-1985); Purdue University, W. Lafayette, Indiana, USA, as research assistant (1974-5). He has organized or served in the committees of numerous international conferences. He has been organizing IEEE Engineering Semantic Agent Systems Workshops since 2006, Security of Information and Networks Conferences since 2007; and, IJRCS Symposiums 2007&9. He has published over a hundred journal and conference papers; edited the book titled Semantic Agent Systems (Springer 2011), Theory and Practice of Cryptography Solutions for Secure Information Systems (IGI 2013); proceedings of SIN 2007, 9 - 12 by ACM, ESAS 2006-12 by IEEE CS, and IJRCS 2009; special issues. He was the program chair for the 36th COMPSAC (2012). He obtained B.Sc. in Computer/Control Engineering at METU, Ankara, Turkey (1970), M.Sc. & Ph.D. in Computer Sciences at Purdue University, USA (1973, 1975). Website: Atilla Elci His research and experience encompass web semantics, agent-based systems, robotics, machine learning, knowledge representation and ontology, information security, software engineering, and natural language translation.