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FLC Developers' Institute, June 18-21, 2008

Designing, Implementing, and Leading Faculty Learning Communities

Pre-Institute Assignments


We will e-mail you a Pre-reading Survey, due back by June 10.  At the institute you will receive the FLC Program Director's and Facilitator's Handbook and the book, Building Faculty Learning Communities, along with additional materials. To create a common framework from which we can begin our work on Wednesday evening, we ask you to complete the following:

  1. Pre-Reading Survey: Please complete the survey before you read any of the material. Complete the survey online by June 10. We will email you the URL. The information will be used to form groups during the Institute. Feel comfortable to write, “I don’t know,” if you are unaware of a concept.
  2. Identify a course that you teach that will serve as your “focus course” in the institute. We will engage in some faculty learning community activities for this course.
  3. For referral, bring a syllabus for your focus course.
  4. Take the Teaching Goals Inventory on-line for your focus course, print out the results, and bring it to the institute. The URL is http://centeach.uiowa.edu/tools.shtml. We have one restriction as you take the TGI: you can only select 5 of the 52 items as your top goals.
  5. Visit the following website and read the general information about faculty learning communities and specific details about various ones at Miami University and the FLC FIPSE Project Institutions: http://www.muohio.edu/flc/. We will email you more specifics about this.
  6. Please read the following 2 articles before the institute. These are listed in the order in which we will encounter discussion of the topics in the institute. We will send you information about how to obtain these articles online.
    1. Cox, M. D. (2001). Faculty learning communities: Change agents for transforming institutions into learning organizations. To Improve the academy: Resources for faculty, instructional, and organizational development 19 (pp.69-93). Bolton, MA: Anker.
    2. Cox, M. D. (2003).  Proven faculty development tools that foster the scholarship of teaching in faculty learning communities. To Improve the Academy, 21, 109-142.
  7. Optional article: If you are interested in FLCs for junior (early-career, pre-tenure faculty), read
    1. Cox, M. D. (1995). The development of new and junior faculty. In W. A. Wright and Associates (Eds.), Teaching improvement practices: Successful strategies for higher education (pp. 283-310). Bolton, MA: Anker.
  8. Materials to Bring to the Institute: Please collect the following items and information and bring them with you to the workshop:
    1. A catalog from your institution
    2. Information about your institution’s faculty development/teaching center, and its faculty learning community efforts, including any brochures or other materials you may refer to or share at the institute.
    3. Demographic information from your institution including:
      1. Number of junior faculty (pre-tenure), tenured, and part-time faculty
      2. Anticipated faculty retirement numbers for the next five years
    4. Funding sources for faculty/teaching center development efforts within your institution
    5. Allies who would assist, cosponsor, or support the development of faculty learning communities at your institution
    6. Optional Books to Bring. If you or your library has the following books (and you have room in your luggage), bring:
      • Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
      • Richlin, L. (2006). Blueprint for learning: Constructing college courses to facilitate, assess, and document learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

If you have any questions, requests, comments or concerns, please do feel free to contact us by email at the addresses below. We look forward to meeting you!

Milton D. Cox, Ph.D.
Director, Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching
FLC Program Director
Facilitator, Teaching Scholars FLC for Early Career Faculty
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
Email: coxmd@muohio.edu
Web: http://www.muohio.edu/flc

Amy Essington
Doctoral Student, Claremont Graduate University
History, California State University Long Beach
Participant, Preparing Future Faculty FLCs
Co-Facilitator, FLC on Inquiry of How Technology Can Improve Learning
Email: aessingt@csulb.edu

Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Teaching and Learning
Director, Professional Learning Communities Program
Otterbein College
Email: LOrtquist-Ahrens@Otterbein.edu
Web: http://www.otterbein.edu/academics/CTL/community.asp

Laurie Richlin, Ph.D.
Director, Future Faculty and Learning Communities Programs Facilitator of many FLCs including Graduate Advising, Transdisciplinary Courses, Preparing Future Faculty.
Claremont Graduate University
Email: laurie.richlin@cgu.edu
Web: http://www.iats.com/

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.