Six months in a leaky boat: framing the knowledge and skills needed to teach well online

Effective academic staff development in teaching can be difficult to achieve. One reason is that there are often limited funds available. Another is that the diverse skills and knowledge required for effective university teaching are not formally described. Griffith University's Academic Development and Professional Training (adapt) program attempts to provide academic staff development for teaching in a flexible learning environment. It tries to be cost effective by providing a self-help component that models flexibility. Additionally, it classifies the skills and knowledge that make a good online teacher. This became the adapt framework, which also helps academics identify their own level of development. This paper describes the reasons for the development of the adapt program and the principles that went into its design.