The Top Services in Centers for Teaching Excellence

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I am currently serving as a visiting scholar at Utah State University (USU). I have been working with the Office of the Provost to identify ways that teaching can be support more effectively at USU. As part of my research, I have been reviewing the websites of several Centers for Teaching Excellence at other large universities across the United States with the goal of identifying the common kinds or services and supports given at the university. In this blog post, I will describe some of my findings.

How I Chose the Centers to Include in My Review
I used a fairly unscientific approach for selecting these centers. I performed a Google search for the term "Center for Teaching Excellence." I then began reviewing each site in the order of their ranking by Google. I reviewed a total of 7 sites using this process. I also reviewed the sites of Utah Valley University and the University of Utah, though U of U's site appeared to be in transition from one structure to another and I therefore did not include it in the review.

To document and tabulate my findings, I created a giant table with the university in the first column and the potential services throughout the subsequent columns. I placed a check mark to indicate whether the center provided the service and also made notes in the limited space. I ended up adding an additional piece of paper to the table to add more columns. I also took notes on  a separate Word document on what I found interesting as I went through the sites.

Common Services/Programs at Centers of Teaching Excellence
The following table lays out the most common services offered at these centers. The services are organized from most common to least common.

Service/Program	# offering service (of 8 reviewed)
Online teaching resources for faculty (e.g. blogs, web pages, videos, podcasts related to teaching excellence)	8
Teaching workshops and/or institutes	8
New Faculty Teaching Preparation	7
Teaching Consultations	7
Teaching Observations	6
Small Grants for Teaching Innovation/Improvement	6
Graduate student teacher support program	4
Teaching awards	4
Center-led mentoring program	4
Faculty fellowships to promote teaching excellence	3
Teaching Certification Program	3
Faculty portfolio development support	2
Department-level faculty ambassadors/liaisons	2
Instructional technology programs and research groups	2
International graduate student teacher support program	1
Customized workshops	1
System for faculty observation of high impact teachers	1
Center-run “Journal of Teaching Effectiveness”	1
Faculty Writing Academy	1

Related Post: The Ideal in Evaluating and Improving Teaching 

Typical Staffing of Centers for Teaching Effectiveness
I made it a point to document the basic staffing structure of each of these centers. Based on my review, the following staffing structure seems fairly typical and standard in higher education. It should be noted that many universities had several more employees and programs than these; however, these appeared to be the most common.

• Director – The director should have expertise in faculty development and capacity to lead the center while working closely with administrators of the various faculty support initiatives.
• Faculty Fellow –Some kind of temporary visit from a faculty member to the center, perhaps for 1-2 semesters.
• Support Staff – Administrative assistance and support, maintenance and support of website, communication, etc..
• Graduate Student – Students providing research and support to director and to the faculty fellows.

The average number of employees at the centers reviewed is about 6. This usually included 2-3 individuals with doctorate degrees who were usually directors or associate directors. Most centers include 2-3 support staff, though some had many more, including instructional design and technology support. I assume that some of the universities that didn't have these kinds of roles in the center likely had them in separate areas.

Structure of the Center Website 
I found that the structure of most of these sites was unique. Many of them were fairly disorganized, and as I looked at them from a faculty member's perspective, I had a hard time figuring out what they might be able to do for me. I would probably keep the faculty member in mind when creating the site. Here is what I currently think should be the basic structure of the site of a center for teaching excellence (though some further analysis and testing is warranted). Basic sub-pages should include (1) the About page, (2) the Services page, (3) the Workshops page, and (4) the Resources page.

Recommended structure for center for teaching effectiveness website. 

A Few Final Notes
It should be noted that this was a review of a relatively small number of centers (only 8), but I believe they are typical for what is out there. Also, these were larger universities, and it would be difficult for a smaller university to implement some of these programs. However, the general categories of support appear to be very sound and useful, and it makes sense to me to use these categories in many settings.

This is my current thinking on the topic, but I am still doing plenty of investigating. I have purchased some books on teaching support at the university level and will continue to deepen my knowledge as I focus on this kind of work going forward.

Sabbatical Update - First Day at CIDI

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I am spending part of my summer sabbatical in Logan, Utah as a visiting scholar at the Center for Innovative Design and Instruction. Today was my first day, so I thought I would share some pictures if where I will be and talk about what I will be doing.

This is the Distance Education building on Utah State's Main Campus in Logan, Utah. I'll spend a great deal of my time here as I work with administrators on analyzing the need for a new teaching center at USU.

I'll be spending much of my time working at the Distance Education building on USU's main campus.I am working with administrators in the Provost's office and will be working to analyze the needs of the university related to teaching effectiveness and teaching excellence. I've only got a general idea of what we will do, but at this point it looks like I will be doing a performance analysis of some kind and plan to follow the general phases of the 2012 ISPI HPT Model.

I'll be in an office in the Distance Education building. Here is the view from my office. I hope I can spend plenty of time in those mountains with my family while I am here.

Me at USU's Old Main building. My daughter took the photo at an angle for effect. I like it.

The Old Main Hill with Old Main in the background. It is a lovely campus.

Sabbatical Road Trip!

As I mentioned in a previous post, we have been traveling to Utah for my work during my sabbatical. I am going to serve as a visiting scholar at at Utah State University's Center for Innovative Design and Instruction. We traveled along I-70 and crossed several states in the process. Here are a few photos from the trip.

Here I am with my lovely wife and daughter en route to Logan, Utah.

We drove our Kia Soul and loaded our belongings on the top of the vehicle using a Roofbag.  Things went great until we hit a rainstorm and the straps that held it down allowed water to flow into the car. I was totally soaked as we traveled down the freeway. It was pretty hilarious.

Our great friend Lynn McDowell, my wife Katie, my daughter CK, and me at the LDS Church Visitor's Center in Independence Missouri.

My family and I are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we decided to stop in Independence, Missouri at the LDS Church's Visitor's Center, there. The location has some historical and future significance for the church, and it was fun to learn some of the history.

The temple of the Community of Christ Church in Independence, Missouri.

An awesome bridge that we crossed. I think it was in St. Louis, though I can't say for certain.

Katie talking with the police about the old guy who drove off the road.

When we were driving through Kansas, there was an older gentleman who was weaving his car into and out of several lanes. We eventually passed him, and as we did we looked back and saw him drive his car into the median. He bumped his way along there for a while and then came to a stop. He started to drive again, so I got out of the car and yelled at him to pull over. He promptly flipped me off and continued down the freeway. By this time, several cars were following him and had called the police. We followed him until he was pulled over, and Katie went and told the officers what we had seen. A pretty exciting diversion from the monotony of a long drive. :)

Future Drive
So far, we have traveled across the United States using I-80 and I-70. I think this next trip back to Ohio we will travel using I-90. It will be a bit of a detour, but it will be pretty fun to see new places and things. I really enjoyed going through some new states on the way to Utah, and I look forward to seeing more!

Sabbatical Update - Travel to Utah

Well, the first phase of my sabbatical at Franklin University has come to a close. I've spent the last 5 weeks here in Ohio working on article writing, as well as on an application to become a Certified Performance Technologist.

Traveling to Utah
For the next phase of the sabbatical, my wife, daughter and I are traveling to Logan, Utah where I will spend the next 8 weeks as a visiting scholar at Utah State University's Center for Innovative Design and Instruction. It's strange leaving Franklin and our home for this long - Katie and I are very integrated into our Latter-day Saint congregation in Grove City, and we both enjoy volunteering and serving in that congregation. We will miss our friends and neighbors during the stay, but we know that the opportunity will be wonderful. Plus, some members of Katie's family will be staying in our home while we are gone, so we will not have to worry about the home during out time away.

The Travel
We will drive a total of 27 hours across the United States to make it to Logan. We are driving through the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Utah. We plan to make the drive in 2 days, taking about 13 hours per day. We're also going to make a few stops when we get to Utah to see family before we make it up to Logan.

We considered making the drive in one straight shot without stopping for a rest at a hotel, but we have wisely decided against it. Here's a map of our route:

View Larger Map

The Vehicle
We'll be driving our fairly new Kia Soul, which has proven to be a great traveling car. Very comfortable, reasonable gas mileage, good storage space, and a nice stereo make it an ideal traveling vehicle. We made the trip out to Utah last year to see our families, and it went quite well.