Dear colleagues,
I hope this finds everyone enjoying the beginning of a new year and new semester! After one semester serving as Faculty Director for the Center for Teaching and Learning, I wanted to share my vision in this role and a few exciting initiatives that we are planning for the coming year. As many know, I am very passionate about teaching at WSU. When it comes to teaching practices, I believe that we are at our best when we are learning and working with one another. I want to learn from faculty across all colleges about how we are motivating all students in the classroom, engaging in online learning innovations, developing effective assessments, and managing work-life balance that facilitates effective teaching.
My vision is to provide more faculty professional learning opportunities that bring us together through open dialogue and community. This can be attained through collaborative teaching projects, access to pedagogical supports, and building best practices into daily instruction.
The mission of the CTL Faculty Advisory Board is to guide the Center in areas such as semester workshop offerings, decisions on the adoption of new technologies, promotion of CTL events, and faculty response to issues regarding Pilot. Our Faculty Advisory Board and CTL Staff have been working hard to develop new workshops this year. In spring semester, we will share six new workshops (online teaching, active online teaching, motivating students, education journal club, bullet journaling, and using technology as meaningful tools for teaching), with multiple formats to allow more faculty participation. Workshops will be held in-person, online, and/or on the road (delivered in departments during faculty meetings or other teaching related gatherings). Additionally, we are very excited to share that we will have an online seven-week cohort training about online instruction coming your way. Administration has been partnering with us on this online cohort initiative and we will roll-out details very soon.
As we navigate best teaching practices for retention, enrollment, innovation, and academic excellence, we have to make decisions on how to best serve the WSU student population. There have been conversations and initiatives on how online learning should serve our institution. Many ask, “what are our next steps in online learning, how many courses should be online, can anyone teach online courses, etc?” In response to these questions, we have developed a new committee, Online Learning Expansion Committee, that will oversee the development of a comprehensive, strategic approach to online education at Wright State University. The core committee will consist of representatives from specific areas of the university: faculty senate, administration, faculty union, and Center for Teaching and Learning. The core group will govern the overall process with assistance from appointed individuals to subcommittees, targeting areas such as faculty support, student services, marketing, institutional infrastructure, technical support, etc. Our expectation is that this committee will steer us toward knowing what is best for our campus community.
We hope for this to be an exciting year, with new ways of engaging with faculty across the campus. Sign up with a colleague for our new spring workshops. Bring your love for teaching and learning—we encourage you to join the CTL Staff and Faculty Advisory Board members for our Fall in Love with Teaching event scheduled for February 14th, 12-2 in 023 Dunbar Library. Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook for workshop announcements and events happening at the Center for Teaching and Learning. We look forward to working with you!
Many cheers,
Lisa Kenyon
Faculty Director, Center for Teaching and Learning
