Several trends are changing the way science is taught at the higher education level. First, mounting evidence shows that students learn more if they are actively engaged in the learning process. Second, the integration of educational technologies into the classroom has had little documented effect in improving learning, yet faculty and students alike appear to favor its use. Third, multimedia production is following the same evolutionary course as desktop publishing, in that powerful tools are available that allow busy instructors to develop their own materials. Finally, faculty interest in developing and using modern teaching methods and educational technologies continues to increase.
How can faculty acquire the knowledge, skills, and tools so they can develop their own programs? Over the past two years, the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology Education & Training (COMET) and the Program for the Advancement of Geoscience Education (PAGE) have worked with three educational institutions to help faculty improve their teaching techniques. All three projects aimed to provide faculty with the knowledge, skills, and tools to improve teaching and learning through the use of modern learning methods including educational technologies. But each project differed in how the goal was achieved. In this paper, the authors will compare and contrast the three implementation models in terms of how faculty training was achieved, the role of projects in the learning process, and the tools required to sustain the program once each instructor was back in the university environment. In addition, we recommend ways to improve faculty enrichment programs and use educational technologies in the classroom.