There are three different ways to apply site content to professional development:
- Browse the modules as a resource for information. Within each of the 5 modules, a navigation menu is provided that lists the topics and case scenarios that can be used to enhance your knowledge on appropriate procedures related to the topic. Copy and paste these pages to customize and print them as resources for faculty/staff trainings, or alternatively, send them out via email as helpful tips to colleagues. Hard copy print-outs can be used as training or informational handouts for faculty, administrators, students, and staff as long as the original source of the information is cited. Suggested citation examples.
- Implement the modules as an online curriculum to acquire greater competency in disability awareness. This website can serve as more than just a resource; it can also serve as a curriculum which disability service providers, ADA Coordinators, and Deans or Department Chairs can use to refer faculty for professional development to enhance their existing knowledge of disability. Across the FAME website, we have embedded authentic case scenarios from Disability Support Services offices at colleges and universities nationwide.
- Download and customize the modules for FREE. Each or all of the modules can be downloaded to your computer as zipped files that can then be opened and modified as needed to reflect the unique policies and procedures of your institution. Modifications can take place within web authoring software (e.g., Microsoft Frontpage, Macromedia Dreamweaver) or within a course management system (e.g., Desire to Learn, WebCT) after the files have been imported. Thus, the FAME modules can be downloaded and embedded into professional development materials for existing faculty, courses for students, and orientations for new faculty, teaching associates, and disability counselors. The FAME modules can also serve as stand-alone courses or orientations, and they can serve as means of enhancing ADA/Section 504 & 508 compliance within a department on campus.
For the purposes of using the modules as professional development courses or as means of enhancing compliance, we have developed and provided pretests and posttests across the modules to evaluate faculty/staff knowledge. The pretests consist of 10 multiple choice items for users to test their existing knowledge on a module topic, whereas the posttests are case scenario-based and are thus more rigorous. If an individual is using a course management system to deliver any or all the modules as a curriculum, scores on pretests and posttests can be graded and recorded for tracking purposes. Importing any or all the modules into an institution’s course management system automates the tracking process. If assistance is needed with this task, technical support is likely to be available from the technology unit on your campus responsible for assisting faculty/staff with web-based teaching or distance education.
An effective strategy is to provide a certificate of completion to faculty or staff at your institution for taking a module or set of modules and completing/scoring satisfactorily on the posttests. Offices on campus such as Teaching Excellence, Disability Support Services, the ADA Coordinator’s Office, Social Equity, Multicultural Affairs, Information Technology, or equivalent units can customize and embed the modules into their existing array of offered trainings or customize and utilize the modules as stand-alone trainings. In either instance, faculty and staff can receive a certificate for completing a professional development program that utilizes FAME content. This certificate can serve as a type of commendation faculty can keep for tenure and promotion folders or as verification of corrective action for campus units in need of greater compliance with disability-related mandates. We suggest that completion standards be established and defined by the local institution, for example, setting the passing score for posttests at 80% in order to receive a completion certificate (see example of a FAME module completion certificate).
Please see instructions for download to initiate the download process.
