'Quick Tips for Teaching Online': Re-imagining Professional Development as a Collaboratively Developed Blog Series

'Quick Tips for Teaching Online' (https://www.ul.ie/ltf/blog/) is a blog series established, coordinated and managed by the author on behalf of the Learning Technology Forum (LTF) at the University of Limerick (UL). Throughout the autumn semester 2020 the blog series served as an ongoing professional development (PD) initiative for staff who teach. It ran as part of the Irish Universities Association Enhancing Digital Teaching and Learning (EDTL) project at UL.

The LTF comprises a broad membership from across UL, constituting a joined-up and collaborative community of practice approach. A key function of the LTF is the promotion and provision of PD and support for digital teaching and learning and associated technologies across UL. To ensure the continuity of emergency remote teaching, learning and assessment (Hodges, Moore, Lockee, Trust, & Bond, 2020), LTF members collaborated to provide a range of professional development events and resources, which were subsequently archived on the LTF website (https://www.ul.ie/ltf/).

With preparation for September progressively intensifying, the LTF recognised that staff demand for and capacity to attend synchronous online PD workshops was diminishing, yet there was a clear and continuing need to offer staff support in a flexible, re-imagined format.

At an LTF meeting, members collectively agreed to a proposal by the author to establish a new blog series. Its guiding principle was pedagogy-first and it aimed to provide an ongoing, informative, and timely feed of quick, useful and practical tips for staff to consider implementing within their own remote teaching contexts. Throughout the course of the semester, blog posts on a range of digital teaching and learning topics were published by a diverse authorship of 11 different contributors.

This paper will explore and provide insights into the recent emergence and application of the 'Quick Tips for Teaching Online' blog series and how it has grown to become a voice for the LTF at UL. The benefits, challenges and plans for the future of this blog series, as perceived by the author, will be presented.