Online Faculty Learning Communities

ONLINE FACULTY LEARNING COMMUNITIES

Online faculty learning communities (FLC) are excellent way to build and enhance your institution’s capacity to support diverse faculty, diverse students, and inclusive teaching. The communities exist for 30, 60, or 90 days to allow participants to reflect, plan, enact tasks, get and give feedback—all towards their teaching, diversity, and inclusion excellence goals. Possible FLC participants: Cohort of Diverse Faculty, Cohort of Faculty teaching Diverse Students, 1st Year Faculty, Teaching Center Staff, Campus Team working on a Teaching, Diversity, and Inclusion-related project, Department Faculty, etc.

Effective & Efficient Faculty’s Faculty Learning Communities are:

Informed by research
Based on efficient (rather than time intensive) evidence-based practices
Facilitated in an interactive manner
Organized as hands-on working sessions
Conducted over time to allow for reflection, feedback, action, and revised actions
Created with opportunities to both give and receive feedback
Designed with outcomes in mind such that participants will create on a plan and begin to implement it

Faculty might need or want to teach topics that are marginalized, controversial, or otherwise new scholarly perspectives for students. Yet, many faculty are unsure of how to teach these topics in general and additionally fear that they could create a hostile learning environment for diverse students. Diverse faculty might be more likely to teach topics student perceive as difficult. As such, participants will learn how to lay an evidence-based foundation for teaching difficult or controversial topics. At the end, participants will have a detailed strategy for choosing, planning and teaching these topics that is suited for their teaching style, discipline, campus, and students.

Preparing for Difficult or Controversial Classroom Topics*

Diverse faculty are more likely to use innovative teaching methods. Additionally, their diverse statuses can have an impact on both classroom dynamics and student course evaluations. In light of these unique contexts, participants will learn about research on diverse faculty’s classroom methods and teaching. They will also learn the best practices for documenting their teaching effectiveness. This is done in an interactive format such that participants can practice implementing these strategies. At the end, participants will have an individualized plan to document their teaching effectiveness.

Documenting Teaching Effectiveness for Student Learning, Tenure, and Promotion*

Teaching in No Time (TINT): Preparing for a Stress-Free Efficient and Effective Semester*

It can be difficult for faculty to find the time to both learn about and incorporate teaching practices for diverse students. This can be especially difficult for diverse faculty who have more diversity service requests, new course preparations, service courses, etc. To increase the likelihood that best practices are in place, faculty need “space” in their teaching time and energy. In an interactive format, faculty will learn how to teach effectively with less time and stress via using efficient evidence-based teaching practices. Participants can revise or plan a new course. At the end, participants will have weekly course topics, a framework for weekly lesson plans, course assignments ideas, and possible grading strategies for the term.

Teaching Excellence: Developing Effective Practices for Inclusive Classrooms

Inclusive teaching is important to the retention and success of all students but especially for diverse students. Participants will learn about the research basis for inclusive teaching. In an interactive manner, participants will engage and begin to apply the four main components of inclusive teaching to their own practice. At the end, participants will know what they can immediately do to improve their inclusive teaching and/or have a plan for future improvements.

Developing Effective Strategies for Classroom Disruptions & Incivility

Student incivility and inappropriate disruptions can derail faculty effectiveness and student learning-- especially for diverse faculty and students. In an interactive format, participants will learn about diverse faculty & students’ experiences with classroom incivility and other disruptions to their learning. They will also learn about the potential consequences for diverse students of unchecked classroom incivilities. Most importantly, participants will learn about and practice strategies they can use to address student classroom incivility. At the end, each participant will have an individual plan to address potential classroom incivilities.

*All of the above are designed to meet the needs of new and experienced faculty. However, the starred services (*) are particularly important for 1st year and early tenure track faculty to improve the success and retention of diverse students.