Are you interested in joining a FLC?

Go to ITL's registration page and sign up to be a part of one of our five new FLCs. Once teams are formed, members can determine their own meeting schedule.

 

Information about FLCs

What is a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) ?

A faculty learning community (FLC) is a cross-disciplinary faculty group engaging in an active, collaborative, year-long program about enhancing teaching and learning and activities that provide learning, development, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and community building. Each FLC consists of 6-15 faculty and contract professionals who periodically meet during the year to discuss relevant literature and collaborate with colleagues on a project involving the implementation of best practices.

 

Why join a FLC?

“Evidence shows that FLCs increase faculty interest in teaching and learning and provide safety and support for faculty to investigate, attempt, assess, and adopt new (to them) methods."
Miami University FLC web site (http://www.units.muohio.edu/flc/what.shtml)

Themes for 2010 – 2011 FLCs

 

1) NSSE

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) has been administered on our campus since 2002. Some goals of this faculty learning community will be to:

• Evaluate and discuss the results to many of the important questions that we can ask about student engagement and success at UA.
• Work together to study the local data and compare our results to national patterns.
• Talk about how the information from NSSE can be disseminated effectively to faculty and staff and lead to new practices on campus.

 

2) New Faculty and High Impact Practices

The goal of this faculty learning community is to provide new faculty with an opportunity to learn more about teaching at the university level, in addition to the opportunity to network with other new faculty members. Some possible areas this FLC will work on are:

• Work together to learn about current research on the effectiveness of “high impact practices” that are discussed nationally.
• Through conversation, discuss the value of these practices to your work in and out of the classroom.
• Help each other understand and evaluate the components of known practices that are associated with student success.

 

3) Environmental Sustainability: Service-Learning in STEM Fields

This FLC invites faculty from STEM fields who are interested in incorporating service-learning into their classes under the auspice of environmental sustainability. The FLC will explore the basics of service-learning, as well as how to incorporate projects with local community organizations that are addressing environmental issues. Some faculty already expressing interest represent the following fields: Geography and Planning, Nutrition, Engineering (Civil, Electrical, Women and Minorities in Engineering), Geology, Computer Science, etc.

 

4) Broadening Participation in Undergraduate Research

This FLC invites faculty from any field who are interested in involving undergraduate students in research. Engaging undergraduate students in research is a proven and powerful practice for enhancing educational outcomes and expanding knowledge. The FLC will explore topics such as mentoring, aligning direction with departmental and institutional goals, and demonstrating impact. Research can be faculty or student-driven.

 

5) Student Success

Evaluate pedagogical practices that are known to be highly effective and align with research on how people learn. Discuss with other faculty how best to adapt these practices to match your disciplinary topic, course and students. Engage in conversations on teaching effectiveness. Implement new practices and evaluate the impact on students’ learning experience with respect to expected learning outcomes. Apply a scholarly approach to the evaluation with the goal of public dissemination of results.