This presentation describes what FLCs are and how they can begin and operate. It focuses in particular on one community at Kent State, called the Online Learning and Teaching FLC. This group has been established to study and improve online learning and teaching at KSU. It has over a dozen members, who are all working on individual projects to bring better online learning to their courses. These projects range from the development of specific “learning objects” for a course to complete course redesigns. The role of the community is to support the development of these products while helping all members learn more about online learning and teaching. In addition, the community as a group has obtained two grants to support its community work on online discussions. In this project, the community is doing Web, library, and empirical research on how faculty can best use online discussions in online and blended courses. The goal is a set of tested guidelines that can be accessed and used by anyone inside or outside of the community.

The wider purpose of the presentation is to explore the use of FLCs for faculty development and how they fit into an overall faculty development strategy to enhance and promote online learning.