Center for Faculty Excellence Information Book

CENTER FOR FACULTY EXCELLENCE

The Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) is a hub for faculty support. With the three-fold mission of advancing instructional excellence, facilitating professional success, and fostering faculty leadership, CFE designs and delivers programming and resources to all full- and part-time UNO faculty and instructors.

Faculty Leadership

Instructional Excellence

Professional Success

Instructional Excellence

UNO provides high-quality academic programs that are responsive to student and societal needs, are nationally and internationally recognized for excellence, and effectively utilize traditional and distance education delivery modalities.

To achieve this instructional excellence, CFE offers programming and resources tailored to pedagogy, instructional improvement, and assessment.

Civil, Safe, and Inclusive Classroom Workshop Series CFE organizes and sponsors a series of workshops and activities highlighting strategies to promote the creation of civil, safe, and inclusive classrooms.

Led by UNO faculty, participants have opportunities to dialogue with others and to make connections between bias and instruction.

“ Great conversation!

Great resources and ideas to extend what I do in my classroom.

Thank you for the languages to have conversations with offenders.”

— Addressing Bias in the Classroom Attendee

54

Faculty Received Grants

51,572

$

Awarded

75% Curriculum Assessment

25% General Education

Assessment Assessment of student learning outcomes is a critical factor in facilitating the continuous improvement of academic programs, ensuring UNO graduates possess skills and abilities to meet an increasingly connected world.

CFE’s contributions to UNO’s culture of assessment range from designing workshops and support resources to partnering with other campus entities involved in assessment processes.

CFE assists in the administration of Assessment MiniGrants sponsored by the Academic Assessment Committee and General Education and Dual Enrollment Programs.

Grants are used to support faculty and programs interested in examining and revising their assessment practices at either the degree program level or focused specifically on assessing General Education outcomes.

Teaching Analysis

By Students (TABS) TABS provides faculty members with qualitative and quantitative mid-semester student feedback.

Results are used to enhance classroom teaching and professional development.

“ The consultant’s synopsis of the results was very insightful, and she provided several great ideas for ways to improve.”

83%

of participants responded that they plan to take some course of action as a result of participating in TABS.

100%

of participants responded that they plan to participate in the TABS program in the future.

— TABS Participant

2016-2017 Academic Year

21

Courses Created/ Redesigned

181

Speaker Grant Attendees

4

Materials Grants Awarded

University Committee for the Advancement of Teaching (UCAT) UCAT oversees the application and review process for a number of faculty grants supporting academic innovation and instructional improvement.

“ While I’ve had 18 FUSE students in my lab over the past six years, I still struggle whether my practices of mentoring them could use fine tuning - my methods are constantly evolving. It was incredibly useful to hear how others work with students in their labs. Attending this UCAT professional development workshop provided that opportunity.”

— Grant Recipient

UCAT Themes

Curriculum Development and Assessment

Diversity

Instructional Technology

Interdisciplinary Integration

Promoting Critical Thinking

Student Mentoring, Advising and Research

Communities of Practice (CoP) CoPs are cohorts of faculty members from multiple disciplines who investigate teaching innovations, actively research, share feedback, assess student learning and grading techniques, and explore new models of practice.

Campus-wide connections among those involved with academic innovations are fostered through CFE supported Communities of Practice.

9

21

13

Assessments or Surveys

Publications

Grants Submitted

44

Outcomes

Presentations / Conferences

2016-2017 Academic Year

7

Courses Created or Redesigned

25

136

27

Groups

Participants

Departments

Professional Success

Professional success is multi-dimensional yet focused upon the needs of individual faculty members and personal development.

CFE promotes professional success through programming and resources as well as collaborative partnerships with other campus entities.

Mindful Events Mindfulness and contemplative practices have gained more attention as strategies to assist in increasing student engagement and creativity as well as decreasing stress, particularly when interacting with technology in our personal and professional lives.

CFE partnered with UNO Libraries to host a series of workshops and other events focused on the themes from Dr. David M. Levy’s book “Mindful Tech.� The series kicked off with a campus-wide workshop and presentation from the author followed by sessions featuring UNO faculty who have integrated mindful practices into their teaching and learning activities.

Faculty Orientation and Onboarding UNO’s institutional mission serves as the framework for faculty orientation and onboarding, providing a solid context for introducing faculty to campus resources and services.

Faculty are welcomed to campus through orientation and online onboarding modules.Orientation serves as an initial connecting point to the UNO community. Sessions feature presentations on key campus resources with additional opportunities to interact with fellow faculty, staff, and administrators from across the university.

Online modules are available to faculty as just-in-time resources. These modules provide general information about UNO as well as overviews of campus units supporting both faculty and student success.

“ Thank you for caring enough for the adjunct faculty to do this...having taught at different institutions­—I never had this opportunity.” — Orientation Attendee

Faculty Leadership

To ensure success in achieving its educational mission, UNO continually invests in the development of faculty members as leader-academics.

CFE facilitates academic leadership development through Faculty Leadership Forums (FLFs) and the design of programming and resources addressing topics of interest for Chairpersons and Directors.

Academic Leadership Support CFE routinely offers workshops and resources targeting the needs of existing and emerging academic leaders.

Recent initiatives focus upon Assistant/Associate Dean and Chairperson needs relating to end-of-program assessment, the use of data gathered through Office of Institutional Effectiveness surveys, and engaging in dialogue surrounding equity and inclusion.

Faculty Leadership Forums FLFs connect and promote networking among faculty across campus who occupy similar leadership roles or have related professional development interests.

Recent FLFs focused upon the following topic areas: • Budgetary management for new chairs and directors.

• Development of new graduate programs and solutions for advising graduate students more effectively.

• Integration of materials and other educational supports for English Language Learners.

• Organization of supports and resources for emerging Entrepreneurship Faculty Fellows.

5

Groups

55

Participants 2016-2017 Academic Year

25

Departments

Core Campus Partners

Faculty support is most successfully accomplished through intentional partnerships and collaborations, drawing upon the strengths of individual units while offering wide-ranging services. Developing strong partnerships fosters a network of resources and supports to meet diverse needs.

CRISS LIBRARY

OFFICE OF RESEARCH and CREATIVE ACTIVITY

Collaboration between Criss Library and CFE takes many forms. Physical spaces within the library host many events sponsored by CFE and related groups. Additionally, the CFE director connects with Library directors and librarians to explore and promote events highlighting resources and services facilitating faculty success in teaching, research and service.

The Office of Research and Creative Activity (ORCA) provides leadership and supports for faculty, staff, and students in their ongoing scholarly activities at UNO. Through partnership, ORCA and CFE are better able to identify needs for faculty support and potential programming as well as to crosspromote events and resources through various communication channels, reaching a wider range of audiences.

OFFICE OF DIGITAL LEARNING Partnering with the Office of Digital Learning, resources and services focused upon teaching and learning with technology are developed and delivered.

This collaborative partnership fosters broader connections with faculty and university initiatives, promoting access to instructional design supports and best practices in pedagogy and assessment.

Other Collaborative Partners

An integrated faculty support model builds further upon partnerships through collaboration with other campus and communities entities.

WiSTEM Pro2 During 2016-2017, CFE collaborated with the Women in STEM (WiSTEM Pro2) organization. Collaborating with WiSTEM Pro2 allows for broader communication of co-funded speaker events and resources supporting the successful participation of women within academic professions.

SERVICE LEARNING ACADEMY The Service Learning Academy (SLA) leads UNO’s efforts in the design, delivery, and support of service learning courses offered in collaboration with nonprofit community organizations, governmental agencies, and P-12 faculty.

Partnership between CFE and SLA promotes further development of best practices in pedagogy and integrated academic and research experiences.

MIDWEST FACULTY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTORS The Director of CFE participates in the Midwest Faculty Development Directors group. This community of practice is formed by those in leadership positions and having responsibilities for faculty development. Collaboration offers opportunities to share information about programming and resources and promotes discussion of trends in professional development while exploring possibilities for jointly-sponsored activities.

By the Numbers

1061

Faculty Contacts

2016-2017 Academic Year

129

Orientation Attendees

321

Workshop Attendees

41

TABS Participants

36

UCAT Grants

136

CoP Participants

56

FLF Participants

CFE MISSION . . . to advance instructional excellence, facilitate professional success and foster faculty leadership through a collaborative approach, supporting the goals of UNO as a premier metropolitan university.

The University of Nebraska does not discriminate based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and/or political affiliation in its programs, activities, or employment. UNO is an AA/EEO /ADA institution. For questions, accommodations or assistance please call/contact Charlotte Russell, ADA/504 Coordinator (phone: 402.554.3490 or TTY 402.554.2978) or Anne Heimann, Director, Accessibility Services Center (phone: 402.554.2872). 0801BOOKCFE0518