Chapter 5
Academic Programs

 

Faculty Development: Teaching

As SVSU has evolved, it became clear that achieving university goals depended to a large degree on the development and preparation of faculty. Acculturating such a large and diverse group of faculty into a student-centered but rapidly changing university would require creative, sustained effort far beyond a conventional orientation program. And since a majority of SVSU faculty teach General Education as well as major and/or graduate courses, faculty needed a wide repertoire of classroom best practices to engage students in higher level thinking.

Faculty Summer Institute

In 1997, the Director of Instructional Support Programs developed the Faculty Summer Institute (FSI) to address this need; it was designed using the “sharing best practices” model of the National Writing Project.

Since then, the FSI has become an annual event at SVSU. Deans urge all their new hires to participate in this week-long seminar; established faculty are also welcome to join faculty from all 5 colleges as well as other instructional staff (participants have included Endowed Chairs and an Executive in Residence, Library staff, technology trainer, and Directors of Sponsored Programs and English Language Programs); 73 of the 84 total FSI participants currently teach at SVSU. Thus the Institute has had far-reaching impact on this campus. From the outset, one of the strengths of the FSI has been its cross-disciplinary, cross-unit diversity, as illustrated in the table below:

Faculty Summer Institute Participants at SVSU by College/Unit
COLLEGE*
Number
OTHER UNITS
Number
Arts & Behavioral Sciences
25
Endowed Chairs
4
Education
18
Library
2
Science, Engineering & Technology
15
Executive in Residence
1
Business & Management
3
Technology trainer
1
Nursing & Health Sciences
2
Sponsored Programs
1
Total
63
English Language Programs
1
   
Total
 10

*Arranged by number of faculty; ABS has the largest number, N &HS the smallest number of faculty

Figure 5-1

The far-reaching impact can also be measured numerically: the 63 faculty members who have participated in the FSI represent more than 50% of the faculty hired since 1997 and 25% of the total faculty who currently teach at SVSU.

To support the transforming mission of SVSU, the FSI was developed to be a highly collaborative experience, structured to achieve four objectives vital both to good teaching and to the future goals of the University. The Faculty Teaching/Learning Institute provides opportunities for faculty members to:

Faculty are introduced to the Mission and Vision of the institution as well as its resources, particularly in regard to teaching, and have an opportunity to work with each other to consider issues of pedagogy in college-level teaching.

Additional Instructional Support

The infusion of technology has transformed teaching practices for many faculty who have integrated the Blackboard course management systems or developed distance learning strategies. Instructional technology support has greatly increased to help faculty use these technologies to support their work in the classroom and to enhance their professional development as teachers.

Staff of the Student Technology Center also offer in-class workshops at the request of the faculty member. ITS Help Desk support is available for immediate problems. The Faculty/Staff Development Calendar, published each semester, highlights a regular schedule of workshops and seminars available to enhance technical skills, including training in course management technologies such as Blackboard. These are open to all faculty on a space-available basis and address such topics as web-design software and campus e-mail technology. This calendar also notes schedules for other development activities such as grant writing seminars, diversity training seminars, and assessment workshops.

Much of the technological infrastructure and the tech training for faculty resulted from major federal grants awarded to this institution over the past several years. Faculty projects funded by these grants have contributed extensively to faculty development in the areas of best practices teaching strategies and the integration of technology into the classroom.