Promoting Faculty Education,
Vitality and Enrichment
While technology training remains a cornerstone,
Faculty Development Center aims to increase focus on assisting
faculty with teaching and research skills.
September 29, 2005
By Valerie Orleans
Since Tony Rimmer, professor of communications,
accepted a three-year appointment as director of the Faculty
Development Center, he has spent a great deal of time away
from his desk.
“My job right now is to meet with others
to see if the center is meeting their needs and discover how
we can be of more assistance,” he says. “I’ve
been very fortunate because my predecessors — Ellen
Junn, Jack Bedell, Sandra Sutphen and Rhonda Allen —
did an excellent job over the years. I’m simply building
upon the groundwork that has already been established.”
Much of the focus of the Faculty
Development Center has been on providing training for
new technologies and software. While this training is still
a cornerstone of the center, Rimmer would like to see an increased
focus on assisting faculty with teaching and research skills,
perhaps by sharing best practices.
“Back in the early ’90s, the campus
began to invest in computer systems because the goal was to
have the campus completely wired and all faculty and staff
on the same basic platform,” Rimmer says. “We
had wonderful systems and programs, but everyone was on different
platforms. Naturally, it created a lot of confusion. Also,
many faculty members weren’t comfortable with the new
systems, and there weren’t established programs to help
them.”
As the university moved toward developing
a standardized platform (and one that could be updated regularly),
attention was shifting to helping faculty members learn how
to best utilize the new tools available to them. The Faculty
Development Center was set up to deliver on this goal.
“If you look at the programs the center
offers, you can see it’s primarily driven by technology,”
says Rimmer. “We did this because faculty, while being
well-versed in their areas of expertise, often needed assistance
with new technology. Also, because programs are upgraded so
frequently, faculty members sometimes needed assistance with
new or upgraded programs.
“I’m concerned for our part-timers,”
the veteran professor says. “They are experts in their
field, but when they’re hired for a class, they don’t
always understand how our systems operate. And, since they’re
often working in the evenings, there may be nobody around
to help them. I would like to see more part-timers take advantage
of these programs. And I’m going to try and extend our
hours so we can better help them.”
Senior faculty are another group Rimmer, a
member of the teaching faculty since 1987, would like to reach.
“Technology has its frustrating side,
and change can sometimes seem to be change for change’s
sake,” Rimmer admits. “But when upgrades are available,
you want to take advantage of them.”
But more important for Rimmer is the experience
that senior faculty have in teaching and research.
“We are looking at ways of re-energizing
senior faculty and trying to reconnect with them so their
great teaching and research experience can be more readily
shared with their colleagues.”
In addition to educational programs, the Faculty
Development Center offers “mini grants” each year.
Usually in the neighborhood of $500 to $1,000, the grants
are helpful in allowing faculty members to receive some assistance
for programs involving faculty/student collaboration, international
travel and research. This year’s deadline for applications
is 5 p.m., Monday, Oct. 17.
The Faculty Development Center also is in charge
of new faculty orientation, faculty day and a variety of wide-ranging
programs such as the monthly support program for department
chairs.
In the future, Rimmer hopes to partner with
other campus programs to provide additional outreach efforts.
“Right now, I’m meeting with people
and asking what they need,” he explains. “Based
on what I’m told, we’ll try to develop programs
to meet some of those needs.”
What are the most frequent requests the center
receives?
“Most people want more information on
the Blackboard program,” he says. “The momentum
to put class curriculum and information on Blackboard is going
to increase, and new Blackboard programs are being acquired
and developed, as the university increases its commitment
to the program. So I’d encourage those who aren’t
using this program to look into it and integrate it into their
teaching.”
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