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Finding Opportunity in Crisis: How the Pandemic Reshaped Faculty Development Programming at the United States Air Force Academy
Get PDFThe sudden need to shift from a face-to-face delivery mode to an all-online format, necessitated by SARS-CoV-2 (the COVID-19 virus), compelled the Center for Educational Innovation at the United States Air Force Academy to reconsider two key faculty development initiatives: its Course Director Workshop and its New Faculty Orientation. As well as providing faculty the opportunity to be an online participant in what is traditionally a bricks and mortar institution, moving these two programs to an all-online format resulted in deeper and more thoughtful engagement from the participants. In this article, the authors describe their programing changes and observations resulting from this pivot to an all-online delivery format
Recovering from Burnout and Budget Cuts by Cultivating Faculty Writing Communities
Get PDFValdosta State University (VSU) implemented writing-focused faculty learning communities (FLCs) to recover from burnout and budget cuts. Specifically, Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT)- sponsored faculty writing communities at VSU build community across ranks and disciplines, promote a growth mindset, and create a supportive safe space for faculty writers to cultivate resilience and care for themselves, colleagues, and VSU. The essay draws on existing literature about burnout, FLCs, and centers for teaching and learning, reviews institutional history, and analyzes participant observations, self-reflections of facilitators, and personal narratives from participants in faculty writing communities at VSU. The authors ultimately argue that center sponsored faculty writing communities can be a “change agent” for individuals and institutions in crisis, renewing college campuses as intellectually and socially vital places
CTLs in the Time of COVID: A Message from the Editor-in-Chief
Get PDFI have to take myself back to 9/11 to find a match for a sustained national crisis even remotely similar to what the U.S. has experienced since the onset of COVID-19. One of my more dominant memories of that earlier catastrophe involves a writing course I taught that day, a class that started just after the second tower had fallen. For all we knew, we were at war; and assessing for myself the diversity of that particular room full of students, I began to solicit comments from as many class members as possible, trying to help students emerge as speaking subjects before any wartime narrative might vilify a group with which they aligned. In the midst of these awkward discussions (no one really knew what to say), one student shouted an expletive and slammed a paper folder onto his desk. “My paper,” he said, with a tone of angry disappointment, “is about friendship.” As I came to understand it, his distaste for his own project stemmed from a reckoning with relevance, a perspective forced from the urgency of world events. A hastily written paper on friendship, one of those papers a student hoped to be finished rather than actually be good, had no place on a world stage. While I am aware of no center for teaching and learning (CTL) worker who wishes their programming to be anything less than good, the COVID pandemic has produced for us all a similar reckoning with relevance
Flexible Teaching for Student Success: A Three-Tiered Initiative to Prepare Faculty for Flexible Teaching
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic brought some unique challenges for the academic community. To counter the disruption caused by campus closure, faculty who taught in-person, blended, and hybrid courses needed to be prepared to pivot to remote instruction. This article describes the design and evaluation results of a three-tiered professional development initiative that focused on preparing faculty to teach with flexibility, whatever may be the necessary teaching environment. This design may serve as a model for professional developers building similar programs for faculty. The authors also share a resource—a Flexible Learning and Instruction Plan (FLIP)
The Active Learning Institute: Design and Implementation of an Intensive Faculty Development Program
Get PDFBy designing and implementing a long-term faculty development program called the Active Learning Institute, a large research university began shifting the culture of teaching and learning on campus. Faculty across ranks and disciplines are participating in this series of workshops and demonstrating measurable changes to their teaching through the increased use of active learning strategies and the decreased use of lecture. In this article, the author describes the design of the Active Learning Institute and its successful implementation in its first two years
Basics and Beyond: Faculty Development as a Professional Learning Journey
Get PDFThis paper describes the implementation of the Basics and Beyond certificate program for faculty that models a learning-centered, task-based approach to active learning. Unique aspects of the program include: flexible entry; a student focused/conceptual change model; a task-based, learning-centered approach (tasks and feedback drive the learning process); and authentic assessment. Throughout this program, tasks and feedback drive the learning process so as to engage faculty in active rather than passive learning. Faculty have immediate opportunities to apply new strategies to their own teaching context and receive feedback. In this way, the journey itself is as important as the destination. A two-year research project assessed the uptake and impact of the program. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of data shows changes in participants’ attitudes and approaches to their teaching. The data suggests that our model promotes deep learning that resulted in attitudinal and behavioral changes in the faculty participating in the Basics and Beyond program. In the paper we describe unique features of our program, the design of the research project, and our findings
"Sitting Down" on Our Programming: A Message From the Editor-in-Chief
Get PDFCTL workers involved in the martial arts (I’m sure there are more of us than most would guess!) know the expression “sitting down on your punches.” Trainers will often have to remind fighters who employ a lot of footwork that, to assure their punches have any authority, they will need to plant long enough to feel their weight through their feet and legs as they pivot into their blows. I often have used a version of the expression with beginning teachers: “Sit down on your teaching.” I use the phrase in response to course observations where I have seen sophisticated exercises paraded, so to speak, through class sessions seemingly without any regard as to whether students have joined (or even noticed) the spectacle. To sit down on one’s teaching, the instructor needs to encourage, recognize, and assess their students’ engagement with classroom practices
Framing Faculty Development as Workplace Learning
Get PDFHigher-education faculty, like most workers, develop knowledge and skills for their job mostly through informal learning during work. In contrast, centers for teaching and learning traditionally emphasize formal-learning events to promote learning and development about teaching. Drawing on workplace-learning research and learning-and-development practices in nonacademic organizations, a faculty-development model arises that elevates the importance of strategies and resources that enhance individuals\u27 informal learning where they work. These approaches, when nurtured and resourced by centers, offer the potential to reach faculty who do not attend formal events, enhance transfer of formal learning to teaching practice, and offset dissemination of low-quality practices among peers with variable expertise
The Impact of Getting Caught in the Act: Assessing the Institutional Impact of a Teaching Award
Get PDFThis study examined the institutional awareness and impact of a lowstakes teaching award at Augusta University and asked if the perception of the award would vary as a function of teaching context. Faculty members from departments that did or did not include recipients of the “Caught in the Act of Great Teaching” award completed a survey that inquired about their awareness of the award, their perception of how knowing about and receiving the award should affect teaching motivation and performance evaluations for faculty in general and for recipients, and their perception of how much the award should impact interest in attending faculty development events. Survey responses revealed broad awareness of the award and agreement that the award should have positive impact on outcomes for recipients, although few agreed that the award should impact interest in faculty development. Faculty members from the health sciences were somewhat more positive about the award. These findings are consistent with previous research that reported that teaching awards should and do communicate the value of teaching and are affirming for recipients
Educational Developer Professional Development Map (EDPDM): A Tool for Educational Developers to Articulate Their Mentoring Network
Get PDFTo optimize their success and effectiveness, educational developers benefit from identifying and cultivating a constellation of collaborators, resources, and mentors. This article describes the development of the Educational Developer Professional Development Map (EDPDM), a tool to help educational developers identify, articulate, and visualize their own mentoring networks. The authors discuss strategies educational developers in various career stages and institutional contexts can use to examine and evaluate their mentoring networks. Reflection questions are offered to promote further personal observation and future action to strengthen the mentoring network