Centering Centers

Mary Wright is the Associate Provost for Teaching and Learning, Executive Director of the Sheridan Center, and a Research Professor in Sociology. She is a former president of the POD Network in Higher Education. Before joining Brown, she served as Director of Assessment at the University of Michigan's CRLT. She holds degrees in sociology and higher education administration from Princeton and the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on teaching evaluation, educational development impact, and graduate student development. She is a co-author on the ACE-POD Center for Teaching and Learning Matrix (2017), which created operational standards for Centers for Teaching and Learning, as well as Defining What Matters (2018), which established guidelines for Center for Teaching and Learning evaluation. In 2021-22, she served on the commission (co-chaired by Barbara Snyder, AAU, and Peter McPherson, APLU) that authored The Equity/Excellence Imperative: A 2030 Blueprint for Undergraduate Education at U.S. Research Universities, a report which can be accessed at: https://ueru.org/boyer2030. Mary co-edits the International Journal for Academic Development, aiming to advance the field of academic development globally, and she has authored two books on educational development, including Centers for Teaching and Learning, the subject of our conversation in this episode ⁠Transcript ⁠ Get Your Copy: Centers for Teaching and Learning: The New Landscape of Higher Education (2023) by Mary Wright, published through ⁠JHUPress⁠. Use promo code HCTL23 in the check-out for a discount (active through 7/7/24). Below are CTL websites that Mary Wright identified as effectively presenting information that goes beyond offering resources for instructors or students. (1) Centers that offer a clear and concise overview of their statement of purpose (mission, goals, vision, values, and or/ guidelines) Coppin State University's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (2) Centers that offer a clear picture of the norms of how they work UCLA's Center for the Advancement of Teaching and their visualization of collaborations  Saint Louis University's Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning UNC Asheville's Center for Teaching and Learning Washington & Lee's Harte Center for Teaching and Learning    (3) Centers that document, longitudinally, how might one expect to work with them over time (e.g., their curriculum) UCSF School of Medicine's Center for Faculty Educators* (4) Centers that offer an understanding of their history and origin story Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology's Center for Advancement of Teaching and Learning*  CUNY Hostos Community College's Professor Magda Vasillov Center for Teaching and Learning Auburn University's Biggio Center (5) Centers that have a sense of humor about how they make visible their work  Oklahoma City University's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

How do we optimize our Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL's) organizational structure for maximizing impact and resources? In this episode, Chris Hakala, Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship and Professor of Psychology from Springfield College in Springfield, MA and Bonnie Mullinix, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Integration of Research Teaching and Learning at University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland and President of Jacaranda Educational Development, LLC discuss the importance of reporting lines, integrating with other campus units, space logistics, and being a persistent advocate to advance teaching and learning. *This episode is another installment of our PODFest series which was recorded December 1, 2022. Transcript

In this episode, we speak with Stacy Grooters, the current President of the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education. Stacy shares her vision for leading POD, reflects on its history of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and discusses how educational developers can advocate for higher education. Stacy Grooters is currently the Executive Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Boston College and the President-Elect of the POD Network. She earned her PhD in English literature, with a concentration in Women’s Studies, from the University of Washington, where she also taught in the departments of English, American Ethnic Studies, and Women Studies. She then spent eight years at Stonehill College, a small liberal arts, Catholic college in Massachusetts, where she founded the Center for Teaching and Learning and co-directed the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program. Stacy’s research focuses on the ways that commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion are practiced within the field of educational development. Her 2014 article, “Tracking POD’s Engagement with Diversity,” analyzes 35 years of POD conference sessions and journal articles to track changes in how questions of diversity have been taken up by the field. Her current project seeks to define what it means to be an “equity-minded educational developer” and identify the pathways that educational developers take towards growing an equity-minded practice. Transcript

“I want my people to look like the experts they are, because I want them to be treated as colleagues, even though we are a service organization.” In this episode of Centering Centers, guest host Derek Bruff talks with Shawn Miller, director of Learning Innovation at Duke University. Shawn’s unit combines faculty development, instructional technology, online program management, and more. Shawn shares how Duke Learning Innovation came to be and how the unit continues to integrate these different functions, and he provides strategic advice for centers for teaching and learning who are navigating the academic technology landscape. Resources Mentioned in the Episode: https://learninginnovation.duke.edu/ Transcript

This is the first episode of our 5th season of Centering Centers which focuses on the Scholarship of Educational Development and I’m thrilled to welcome Laura Cruz today who will give us an overview of the SoED landscape. Laura Cruz is an associate research professor of Teaching and Learning Scholarship At Penn State's Schreyer Institute of Teaching Excellence. In addition to authoring numerous articles and launching and leading multiple Centers for teaching and learning, she has served as editor on academic journals including To Improve the Academy and recently co-authored a book that many folks in our listening audience might value in called “Taking Flight: Making your Center for Teaching and learning soar” which synthesizes research and provides practical guidance for running centers of teaching and learning.  In this episode, Laura provides an overview of the SoED landscape and shares experiences and ideas that inspired and informed her recent IJAD article, Embracing complexity: an inclusive framework for the scholarship of educational development, Laura Cruz, Elizabeth Dickens, Anna L. Bostwick Flaming, and Lindsay B. Wheeler Transcript

Dr. Liza Bolitzer is an experienced researcher, teacher and project manager dedicated to advancing teaching and learning in higher education. She uses qualitative methods to study how college faculty, institutional leaders, and higher education professionals can advance college students' academic learning. She has shared her work in Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, the Review of Higher Education, the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice and The Journal of Faculty Development. As an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at Kean University, she teaches graduate level courses on qualitative methods and educational leadership and collaborates with her faculty colleagues on advancing support for doctoral students.

Today’s episode features Jane Hammons (The Ohio State University), who talks about her recent To Improve the Academyarticle, “Academic librarians as educational developers: Overview, case study, and discussion.” An academic librarian who offers faculty-facing information literacy workshops, Hammons argues that educational developers may have untapped allies in instructional librarians. Her article offers an example of one such partnership and a robust discussion of how identity can impact how educational developers and librarians conceptualize these partnerships.   This is the third episode of the partnership between To Improve the Academy and Centering Centers. We hope to pull back the curtain on the journal for our listeners, especially about our authors' research and experiences publishing in our journal. We look forward to bringing you regular conversations with our authors, reviewers, editorial team, and board members.   Visit us at TIA: https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/tia/ And the article we discuss today at: https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/tia/article/id/4263/   Today’s episode was hosted by Liz Norell, associate director of instructional support at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi. Liz is co-editor-in-chief of To Improve the Academy, along with Megan Robertson (Simon Fraser University) and four assistant editors: Ebony Aya (Macalester College), Anna Bostick Flaming (University of Iowa), Will Hennessy (Algonquin College), and Jessi Hill (Worcester Polytechnic Institute).   Transcript

This is Episode 22 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. We are speaking with Tracy Zou (@ZouTracy) who has worked as an educational developer at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and who has now transitioned back to a faculty role as an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong. In addition to teaching, she is an associate editor of IJAD – the International Journal for Academic Development and an editorial member of Asian Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as well as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Our conversation centers on the lessons learned in the shift from faculty to developer and back, as well as the importance of fostering collaboration and critical friendships with people who not only support but challenge us to think and do things differently. And why those connections are so important to grow and sustain one’s teaching. Connect with Tracy on Twitter - @ZouTracy Acknowledgement: Part of this sharing is based on the findings from the research project Professional Development at a Meso-level: Conceptual Development and Impact Analysis funded by the Research Grants Council of the government of HKSAR (Project no. 17609318). Transcript of the Interview

This is Episode 19 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Jill McSweeney-Flaherty, Educational Developer at the Centre for Learning and Teaching at Dalhousie University, providing insights on how educational developers can approach supporting faculty with the ethics of SoTL research.

This is Episode 18 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Marsha Lovett, Senior Associate Vice Provost for Educational Innovation & Learning Analytics, Director, Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation and Teaching Professor, Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, discussing how a research-mindset is being infused into teaching practice at her institution. Eberly's Teaching as Research website: https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/teaching-as-research/index.html

This is Episode 17 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Maria Gallardo-Williams, Teaching Professor and Director, Organic Chemistry Teaching Laboratories and SoTL Faculty Fellow, and Diane Chapman, Executive Director for Faculty Development, Office of Faculty Excellence at North Carolina State University, discussing their tips to run successful SoTL faculty institutes.  Here is a transcript of the podcast. Some of the resources mentioned in the podcast are linked below. What is SoTL? 2021 SoTL Institute

This is Episode 16 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Carlos Guevara, Co-Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and Director of the Office of Educational Technology at Hostos Community College, City University of New York. Here is a transcript of the podcast. Links: Wolfe, K. S., Lyons, K., & Guevara, C. (Eds.). (2019). Developing Educational Technology at an Urban Community College (1st ed.). Springer International Publishing.  https://www.amazon.com/Developing-Educational-Technology-Community-College/dp/3030170373.  https://library.educause.edu/resources/2022/4/2022-educause-horizon-report-teaching-and-learning-edition

This is Episode 15 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Stephanie Laggini Fiore, Assistant Vice Provost, Center for the Advancement of Teaching at Temple University in Philadelphia discussing the SOAR course redesign initiative that has shown positive impact on high DFW courses. Here is a transcript of the podcast.

This is Episode 14 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Nick Monk, Director, and Brian Wilson and Steven Cain, Senior Instructional Designers, Center for Transformative Teaching at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Here is a transcript of the podcast. Links: https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/reflective-practitioner-program-aims-to-recognize-professional-development/ https://teaching.unl.edu/rpp/

This is Episode 13 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Andrea Jackson, Instructional Coach, Center for Faculty Development at Fayetteville Technical Community College in North Carolina.  Here is a transcript of the podcast.

This is Episode 12 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Ileana Hernandez, Assistant Director for Assessment, Evaluation & Development, Center for the Advancement of Teaching at Florida International University.  Here is a transcript of the podcast. Some of the resources mentioned in the podcast are linked below. FIU's Contemplative Practices in Education initiative The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness by Rhonda V. Magee Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness by David Treleaven Permission to Feel by Marc Brackett Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning by Daniel P. Barbezat and Mirabai Bush Contemplative Mind in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning by Patricia Owen-Smith UCLA Mindful Awareness Practices classes  Dr. Mays Imad, neuroscientist & expert on trauma-informed teaching and education Center for Contemplative Mind in Society and the Contemplative Practices Tree

This is Episode 11 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Mark Hofer, Director, Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation and Professor, School of Education at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, USA. Here is a transcript of the podcast. Some of the resources mentioned in the podcast are linked below. Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation (STLI) - https://stli.wm.edu/ STLI Student Partner Program - https://stli.wm.edu/studentpartnerprogram/ Student-Produced Video on the Student Partner Program - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CecnSFNqRQs Student-Produced STLI Podcast - Teachers and Students Coming Together - https://stli.wm.edu/podcast/ Student-Produced Video on Innovative Teaching in the Pandemic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj3f_ES7DDg

This is Episode 10 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Kim Case, Director of Faculty Success, and Sharon Zumbrunn, Provost Faculty Fellow, Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence at Virginia Commonwealth University.  Here is a transcript of the podcast. Some of the resources mentioned in the podcast are linked below. Why Aren't You Writing?   The Write Track www.drkimcase.com

This is Episode 9 and the first episode of Season 2 of "Centering Centers", which is now officially a POD Network podcast!  This podcast explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features John Kane, Director, Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching and Rebecca Mushtare, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at the State University of New York, Oswego talking about their podcast, Tea for Teaching.  Here is a transcript of the podcast. Tea for Teaching Podcast Episode 204, Preventing Workplace Burnout. Tea for Teaching

In this first bite-sized installment of PodBites, Adam Barger chats with Mike Blum from William & Mary about practical strategies for engaging faculty. In under five minutes, Mike shares five quick, creative approaches, ranging from consistent, personal communication to partnering with faculty and valuing their expertise, that can help educational developers strengthen relationships and spark meaningful collaboration.This episode was edited and produced by Roy W. Petersen.Transcript