Faculty development and improvement of instruction is an important concern among administration and faculty in higher education. While many faculty take advantage of opportunities for professional growth, it becomes an increasingly difficult task for faculty development coordinators to meet the diverse needs of instructors, those of whom are mostly adjuncts. Some colleges have responded to this dilemma by offering different types of faculty development opportunities; in particular online information to serve as a more convenient method of professional development.

The purpose of this study is to examine what faculty development opportunities are provided to faculty at the community college level with a special emphasis on online resources. More specifically, this study will explore ways in which community colleges can help instructors in their endeavors to improve student learning.

A quantitative survey was distributed via Survey Monkey to several faculty development list serves including: The California Community College Council for Staff & Organizational Development (4CSD), the Professional and Organizational Development Network of Higher Education (POD), and the North American Council for Staff and Program Development (NCSPOD) to collect information on faculty development in order to create a general descriptive profile of common faculty development practices. Additionally, qualitative research was conducted with members of different constituent groups of faculty development. Findings revealed that faculty mostly participate in on-site workshops on a variety of topics, education on technology is the area which faculty feel could use most improvement within faculty development, lack of time is preventing many faculty from taking advantage of resources and more needs assessment should be conducted to determine faculty needs. Recommendations for future research are presented.