BOF: Looking Inward, Backward, and Forward to Lead CTLs through the Pandemic

November 16, 2020

Many CTLs have played essential roles in higher education as the pandemic converges with racism. Given leadership challenges, this BOF provides a place to share questions, challenges, and successes. We will reflect together and explore conference paths, to help us anticipate and plan effectively; advance community; learn and lead through shared stories; and promote positive change. We will consider how we can be a grounding factor for our institutions, share resources that help us orient, and find opportunities to ensure positive outcomes. In focusing on reviewing self and center positionality, we hope to build community among us and promote thriving.

BOF: Organizational & Leadership Development: Structuring Community as an Educational Developer

November 16, 2020

Peter Block's emphasis on authentic belonging and connectedness can inform developers' work in fostering leadership and organizational capacity. During the opening BoF session, facilitators will briefly review Block's framework and invite conversation on how these ideas might frame POD conference engagement. In the closing session, facilitators will prompt dialogue on the ways in which POD sessions engaged Block's principles and practices (e.g., nurturing an alternative future, convening meaningful conversations, and listening across differences) and how participants might apply these practices in their own work. Prior familiarity with Block's work is not required.

Pandemic Reflection: Investigating Faculty and Academic Administrators’ Perceptions and Actions

November 13, 2020

The aim of this session is to present research findings on the short and potential long-term effects of COVID-19 on faculty and academic administrators' perceptions, actions, and decision-making processes regarding pedagogical and curricular choices. The scope of our research included mixed-method university-wide surveys and in-person focus groups and interviews with faculty and academic administrators. We will present preliminary results and discuss how data may be used to inform best practices concerning decision-making about academic leadership, pedagogy, and resource allocation if ever we must endure and overcome another unforeseen crisis, but also for future directions of our institution and higher education.

Thinking-Forward: Institutional Context Matters in Shaping Undergraduate STEM Education Reform

November 13, 2020

In this research session, we report on emergent findings from a study that examines the institutional landscape in which innovations to undergraduate STEM education take place, leveraging the AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative. We will (1) overview outcomes of earlier research and its relationship to the current study; (2) describe our study and identify the contextual elements that we find critical to successful educational reform; and (3) offer a Live Q&A Office hour on Wed., November 18, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. ET for conversation on how universities are coordinating multiple undergraduate STEM education reforms to achieve sustainable change on campuses.

Cultivating and Connecting Capstone Conversations

November 13, 2020

While faculty recognize capstones as vital high-impact practices, questions linger over their purpose and the structures required to support equitable implementation. Faculty stories emerging from our multi-institutional study highlight not only the importance of institution-wide conversations that promote understanding of and investment in the capstone, but also power dynamics that deter instructors from initiating conversations about unclear goals and workload inequities. Our asynchronous, interactive session guides participants through scenarios where they navigate these tensions as an instructor, department chair, or educational developer. These storylines--drawn from our research findings--are accompanied by heuristics designed to promote significant, intersecting conversations across institutional contexts.

Career Moves: Preparing Yourself for Work That Matters

November 13, 2020

In this session, panelists representing broad experience in the educational development profession will offer insights from their various positions and career moves to attendees interested in entering the field. Panelists will discuss i) the rewards of a career in educational development, including advancing professional value for ourselves and colleagues; ii) similarities and differences between faculty and educational development positions; iii) strategies for job-market success and perspectives from hiring committees; and iv) the skills, knowledge, and expertise needed to successfully engage in this work. We will also explore emerging opportunities within our field.

Exploring our organizational identity by articulating our values

November 13, 2020

Whether stated or unstated, our Center's values shape how we treat each other, reflect our underlying assumptions about our work, and influence our priorities. Articulating these values can build a sense of stability and cohesion within our department and make our organizational culture more transparent. But how do we develop value statements that meaningfully reflect who we are? We share the processes used to articulate our unit's values and explore how they relate to other identity statements, such as vision, mission, and mandate. Participants will engage in activities to uncover values that they can adapt to their own unit.

Planning a Professional Pivot to a New CTL Directing Role

November 13, 2020

Abstract: This session focuses on directors in new-to-them places and on those seeking such positions. Professional guidance exists for entering educational development and for starting centers, but not for transitioning to new directing roles. CTL directors need both heightened self awareness and thorough understandings of their new environment. Participants will have multiple reflection guides available to prompt their thinking for both self and situational awareness. Guides are also presented for outlining strategic questions to prepare a personal gap analysis (e.g., business/technical, socio/political). Participants will use these tools to identify development foci as they aspire to new CTL director roles.

Responding with Nimbleness: Teaching Centers through a Human Resource Lens

November 12, 2020

Teaching center leaders are at the forefront of shifting priorities and activities. Sector-wide and institutional changes necessitate centers to be nimble and pivot quickly in order to be successful. One key competency helping centre leaders prepare in times of major change is human resources (HR) leadership (Dawson, Britnell, & Hitchcock, 2010). We outline four critical HR leadership aspects – organizational structure, direction-setting, capacity-building, and accountability – relevant to centre leaders, and provide prompts to encourage reflection on these aspects and plan next steps.

Supporting Fixed-term Faculty: Strategies for Future Success

November 12, 2020

Fixed-term faculty are essential to student success and the survival of most colleges and universities; however, strategies that look inward and think forward to support them should be enhanced. Fixed-term faculty suffer from a variety of poor working conditions including but not limited to a lack of clear policies, insufficient professional development, and a lack of support, occasional misunderstanding or hostility from tenured colleagues. Participants will review the status of fixed-term faculty, describe emerging strategies to support them, and discuss how educational developers can foster organizational changes to help fixed-term faculty succeed.