How can we stay in front of the online learning eight ball? Professional development for tomorrow's university teachers

As universities continue the move towards online course development there is a real challenge for institutions to provide quality support and training for tomorrow's teachers. If academic staff are to successfully adopt online teaching approaches they require ongoing, responsive professional development programs that are tailored to their individual needs. These programs should also reflect innovations and advances in the use of educational technologies. For example, training staff in the use of proprietary Learning Management Systems (LMS) may eventually be replaced by a need to provide support for the use of Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS). The LCMS approach, based on the concept of reusable learning objects, promises to be a more 'transparent' and accessible approach which is more intuitive and user friendly for both students and teachers. That is, a learning object focus presents an opportunity to develop sophisticated tools designed to produce high quality learning resources that otherwise would require intensive staff training. These advances will enable teachers to direct their attention towards the pedagogical aspects of online learning design, and thus represents a dramatic shift in the professional development needs of academic staff. These issues are being explored as part of a larger project on online learning development at Curtin.