How San Diego Mesa College Transforms Online Teaching Through Faculty Development

This bright spot is part of our “Promising Practices in Online Education” series highlighting ways California institutions and faculty harness online education for student success. California Competes continues to research and document these innovations in support of a more agile higher education responsive to the needs of today’s students and economy.

1: Program participants in a coaching session; 2: Group photo of program participants; 3: A toast to the program and the faculty who participate

The Challenge: Preparing Faculty to Meet the Rising Student Demand for Online Courses 

Community colleges face growing student demand for online courses, creating a need for faculty prepared to teach in this modality. While institutions are working to provide structured support for online course design and delivery, the scale and pace needed presents challenges. Colleges now need to provide more development opportunities for significantly more faculty than it has in the past, all while ensuring training programs keep up with the relentless pace at which technology evolves.

Additionally, many faculty have never taken an online course themselves, making it difficult for them to understand the online student’s experience and to grasp what truly motivates and challenges students in virtual settings. These gaps often leave faculty without the practical skills and personal perspectives to envision and create engaging virtual experiences that foster connection and deep learning.

The Innovation: Faculty as Online Learners 

San Diego Mesa College sought to address this problem through their Mesa Online Success Team (MOST) program, transforming how faculty approach online teaching by first making them online students. The key component of MOST is a four-week online training course where faculty learn by doing—they become online students themselves. By experiencing online learning firsthand, faculty gain personal insights into what works and what doesn’t, all while building their own course design skills.

The program includes several smart approaches:

• Implementing Faculty-Led Training: MOST recruits experienced faculty from diverse departments to serve as trainers and coaches for their peers. These faculty leaders—not outside consultants—deliver the training, ensuring representation across disciplines and fostering valuable cross-departmental connections. This approach creates a natural laboratory for innovation, where teaching strategies can be adapted and refined for different programs across the college.

“I really enjoyed having a community of instructors because I had no idea so many of us were interested in making these changes to our teaching style.”

• Building Learning Communities: Faculty take the course in groups (cohorts), creating a supportive community that continues long after the training ends. The connections formed during these four weeks often evolve into lasting collaborative relationships, as faculty continue to share ideas to improve their courses and support each other long after the course ends.

“Great to hear from other faculty on their challenges. I learned a lot from the discussion posts.”

• Humanizing Online Environments: The training emphasizes creating online spaces where students feel valued and engaged. Faculty learn specific techniques to strengthen teacher-student connections in online courses and discover tools that support these relationships. By becoming online students themselves, faculty experience the challenges and opportunities from their students’ perspective.

“I have learned how AI tools can enhance feedback while still preserving the importance of my authentic teaching voice.”

• Providing Meaningful Compensation: Recognizing that professional development requires significant time investment, the program offers either compensation or credits from UC San Diego’s Division of Extended Studies. This structured compensation demonstrates that the institution values faculty’s time and commitment to improving their teaching.

“I am grateful for the (paid) opportunity to carefully review my assessments both to ensure they are relevant to the course in real-life, and to fine-tune directions to be more clear.”

• Delivering Ongoing Support: The MOST Program provides resources and help beyond the initial course. Faculty gain access to an online toolkit, individual coaching sessions, and the Learning Opportunities for Transformation (LOFT)–a physical space on campus dedicated to collaborative learning and innovation. These resources ensure that the principles learned during the course can be effectively implemented and refined over time.

“I’m certain the humanizing of assessments will translate to stronger connections between student and instructor and between student to student as well. In that way the class will continue to improve my courses for years to come.“

The Impact: Empowering Faculty to Confidently Teach Online

Through MOST, San Diego Mesa College has created more than just a training program—they’ve built a community of practice that changes how faculty think about and approach online teaching. By making online learning meaningful for faculty, they ensure it becomes meaningful for students too. The program directly addresses the initial challenge of preparing faculty for the current moment by giving them the experience, tools, and ongoing support they need to confidently design and teach online.

Rather than questioning whether they can teach effectively online, faculty emerge from MOST with practical strategies for creating engaging virtual learning experiences. In fact, 100% of MOST’s recent cohort in fall 2024 said they strongly or somewhat agree that the training helped them improve their online course design.

“We are hoping to create spaces where our faculty feel part of a learning community, where they can talk about teaching, and where they feel safe trying new strategies.”
-Katie Palacios, MOST Program Lead

This program represents a model for institutions seeking to effectively prepare educators for the evolving educational landscape while maintaining quality and student engagement. By investing in faculty as online learners first, San Diego Mesa College has created a sustainable approach to building institutional capacity for excellence in online education.

We would like to thank Katie Palacios, MOST Program Lead and instructional designer at San Diego Mesa College, for taking the time to share her insights on this innovative faculty-led training model. The featured testimonials are from MOST’s Fall 2024 cohort of participants. If you would like to learn more about the program, please visit the MOST website.