What is a Faculty and Professional Learning Community?
Necessary Qualities for Building Community
The FLC Program Director's and FLC Facilitator's Handbook
The Consortium: Participating Institutions, Their Communities, and Program Directors
FLCs and the Scholarship of Teaching
Recommendations for Initiating and Implementing an FLC
FLC Conferences and Institutes in Review:
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004
The more enablers and rewards that can be offered to members of an FLC, the stronger their engagement and commitment to their activities, responsibilities, and community participation.
Participation in a faculty learning community takes time and work: for example, attendance at weekend retreats, national conferences, and biweekly seminars; interaction with a student associate and a faculty partner; reading the new literature of the scholarship of teaching; development of and work on a teaching project; and preparation of a seminar presentation for the campus and, perhaps, a national conference.
At Miami we have two ways of compensating faculty participants. First, and best, is to provide release time from one course for one of the two semesters. This may be done at the rate for adjuncts. If a department chair can create the release time in another manner, then the department receives the funds and usually allocates them to the faculty member, for example, to purchase technology or international travel. Also, each member receives funds to enable his or her learning plan or teaching project. Participants in the Early-Career FLC each have $200 available.
Unfortunately, most institutions do not have the budget to provide release time for members of FLCs. At Miami when there is no release time, each participant receives professional expenses of $500 to $1,000. In the teaching portfolio project, each participating department received $5000. At the other extreme, in the FIPSE project we learned that some institutions were able to attract and engage participants for no professional funds or release time. Provision of a focus book and refreshments at meetings was all that was needed.
At Miami each FLC facilitator receives one-course release time for both semesters plus the professional expenses available for his or her particular community. Service as a facilitator must be approved by his or her department chair.
This project has been supported in part by a grants from the US Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) and the Ohio Board of Regents.