Faculty Academy Highlights

The DTI Faculty Academy is wrapping up a successful project year. Here are some highlights of the faculty development workshops and related to student success with numerous nationally-recognized higher education experts.

• In March 2009, Nobel Prize Winner, Dr. Carl Wieman discussed using the scientific approach to teach science and other disciplines. His message to faculty included the limits of pure lecture-based teaching and how to best engage students in the learning process.


• Dr. Mark Taylor is a “Millennial” generation expert. During his two visits to speak with faculty in November 2008 and February 2009, Dr. Taylor talked about issues and challenges in teaching this new generation of students and provided helpful skills for facilitating meaningful student learning in and out of the classroom.

• Dr. Joseph Cuseo’s October 2008 discussion centered around key strategies to establish and sustain the student-instructor link, various ways to promote self-efficacy in students, igniting and sustaining student interest and involvement and the use of technology to serve essential student connections.

• The year culminated with a fabulous DTI-sponsored professional development conference, The Future of Teaching and Learning. This well-attended, two day event brought in expert presenters

from around the country such as Dr. Ellen Wagner who explored the impact of emerging consumer technologies on the lives of professional educators, and Dr. David Daniel who gave us strategies for adapting technology to unique instructors’ styles and diverse student needs. Additionally, professionals from UC Denver, Metro State, CCD and Front Range Community College presented on many topics related to best practices in teaching and learning for student success. See this Website for more details:

http://www.ccd.edu/CASA-Programs/conference.aspx

It’s in the numbers:

Faculty attendance this year at DTI Faculty Academy events:

• University of Colorado Denver - more than 60

• Community College of Denver - more than 100

Number of faculty members who created plans which incorporated information based on faculty academy workshops:

• 18 from CCD

• 3 from UC Denver

Overall satisfaction rating for Faculty Academy workshops (including conference presentations) for the project year: 90%

Additionally, during the past year:

• Instructional specialist Kathy Lein consulted with numerous faculty members to work on course design and delivery, effective instructional technology implementation, assessment practices and more.

• DTI brought about the creation of a Faculty Instructional Technology Committee at the Community College of Denver which will promote and oversee the development and evaluation of technology in teaching and learning. This committee will meet monthly beginning this fall.

• CCD is now represented in the Community College Teaching and Learning Consortium (CCTLC), a system-wide group dedicated to best practices in faculty development and in the state-wide consortium of faculty developers.