Structure and Significance for Faculty Learning

In one of his first major speeches at The Ohio State University, President Michael Drake said “It is through the quality of our teaching that students become A+ thinkers and really contribute to a global society.” Ohio State has since been investing in the student experience through improved teaching. A primary avenue through which this work is done is the University Institute on Teaching and Learning.

Professional learning resources have been available for as long as our faculty can remember. There are dozens of workshops, forums, and video recordings at an instructor’s disposal on any given day. The university-wide Institute for Teaching and Learning (IT&L) is setting out to establish an infrastructure that enables instructors to navigate the many different training and development resources the university has to offer.

As a leading provider of instructional development resources at Ohio State, the Office of Distance Education and eLearning is working with the University Center for the Advancement of Teaching, University Libraries and academic leadership to support this institute. Its inaugural Faculty FIT program provided new faculty with active support as they joined Ohio State in autumn 2016, and partnered new instructors with senior professors for mentorship throughout their first year at the university.

“We are already seeing benefits from the institute, simply from the new opportunities it affords for us to connect across departments” said Sam Craighead, ODEE’s Manager of Learning Experience. “We’re now able to be more strategic about when and how our offerings overlap, and we know more about each other’s activities, so we’re working in a more coordinated fashion than we could before.”

The institute continues to establish active support resources for instructors at Ohio State, with plans to design a teaching endorsement program that rewards faculty who participate in learning opportunities and reflect on their growth as instructors. Partners are currently weighing in on what can make a teaching endorsement impactful for the participants and meaningful for the broader community.

To learn more about the institute, visit its U.OSU site at u.osu.edu/uitl.