Professional Development Committee (PDC)

November 17, 2020

Charge: The Professional Development Committee (PDC) is charged with responding to the diverse professional development needs of POD members at various career stages and different institutional types. The PDC works with the Research and Membership Committees to develop and review periodic membership surveys, the results of which help the PDC to determine professional development needs of the membership. PDC coordinates the development, offering, and assessment of programming in a variety of venues.

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.

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.

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.

Changing Professional Development: The Virtual Academic Conference

November 13, 2020

Professional development is a sought after resource for faculty, both personally and professionally. However, funding for this essential support can be challenging for faculty to obtain, particularly for those that hold part-time positions, work remotely, or teach in online and hybrid modalities. Yet, this group represents the largest growing population of instructors with the least amount of support in higher education. Discover how one Midwestern institution's teaching and learning center hosted its first fully online Virtual Academic Conference, learn faculty perspectives and cost-effective strategies that informed the design, and the timely implications for educators moving towards an increasingly virtual environment.

Plenary 4:Global Faculty Development: 5 Countries, 11 Campuses and Why it Matters for Everyone

November 13, 2020

With increasingly interconnected global higher education, the shortcomings of dominant Anglo-American models of educational development are exposed when transposed upon emergent higher education communities and global First Nations' contexts. Moreover, as educational development becomes increasingly professionalized, harmful gaps and toxic cultures arise from blind spots created by disciplinary "best-practices". This experiential session examines our profession's limitations and the potentially detrimental constraints of faculty development modes we practice on our own campuses. This session encourages strategies for more critical reflexive practices that will benefit the profession and underserved populations of faculty and students.

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.

Developing a Global Faculty Development Program: Focusing on Assessment

November 13, 2020

To meet new expectations for the shift from a conventional teacher-centered method to more learner-centered teaching, coupled with the increased needs of teaching in English in a Japan university, collaboration across countries is needed. What should a good global FD program be, and how can it be assessed? This presentation will focus on the development of an FD program between Waseda University in Japan and University of Washington in the US as well as its assessment. We will describe our program and its assessment along with findings from the past two years in order to stimulate discussion regarding future development.

Effective Institutional Advocacy as an Educational Developer

November 11, 2020

The upheaval created by the COVID-19 pandemic makes it more important than ever that educational developers advocate for effective, equitable policies and practices. Educational developers have knowledge our institutions need. And yet effective, ethical advocacy in our complex institutional settings is no easy proposition. In this highly interactive session, participants will collaboratively engage with narratives of advocacy, reflecting on and generating wisdom to apply as they work to improve practices and policies within their institutions.

Strategies for Conducting Virtual Instructional Coaching

November 12, 2020

The widespread impact of COVID-19 has rapidly transformed how many faculty prepare and deliver instruction to their students. To continue to effectively address all students' needs, faculty members must be supported and trained to deliver high-quality instruction in both a face-to-face setting as well as in a virtual environment. Based on a semester-long remote instructional coaching program provided to faculty teaching virtually in six different countries, this session will highlight how to organize and implement virtual coaching, specific coaching strategies to leverage, and ways to measure impact.