Centering Centers

Josh Eyler, acclaimed author of How Humans Learn, delves into the pivotal role of storytelling in teaching, learning, and educational development and some of the systemic issues around grading practices tackled in his upcoming book, Scarlet Letters. He offers reflections and stories about his own developmental journey leading different CTLs and shares insights and inspiration for others engaged in educational development and institutional change.

Josh Eyler is Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning and Director of the Think Forward Quality Enhancement Plan at the University of Mississippi, where he is also Clinical Assistant Professor of Teacher Education. He previously worked on teaching and learning initiatives at Columbus State University, George Mason University, and Rice University. A sought-after speaker for his expertise about the science of learning and about compassion in education, especially in connection with students, grades, and mental health, he has spoken at college and universities across the country. Eyler is the author of the book How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories behind Effective College Teaching (West Virginia University Press, 2018), which Book Authority named one of the “100 Best Education Books of All Time”. Called a “splendid repository of ways to rethink how we teach college” by the Los Angeles Review of Books, it was named a “Book of the Year” in the Chicago Tribune. His second book is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins UP in 2024. Scarlet Letters: How Grades are Harming Children and Young Adults, and What We Can Do about It, is about one of the most urgent issues in education today, grading and alternative assessment.

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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

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Get Your Copy: Centers for Teaching and Learning: The New Landscape of Higher Education(2023) byMaryWright, published through⁠JHUPress⁠. Use promo code HCTL23 in the check-out for adiscount(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 ofhowthey 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 themover 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'sCenter 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'sCenter 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 theCentre for Integration of Research Teaching and Learningat 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 ourPODFest serieswhich was recorded December 1, 2022.

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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.

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What is the role of a graduate student in a center for teaching and learning? Does it vary by institution or are there predictable patterns that we as educational developers can use to craft job descriptions, direct projects, and provide opportunities for growth through assessment and reflection?

This episode is hosted by Yianna Vovides from CNDLS and features an interview with Haya Jalal.

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In this episode, Holly Parker from the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Vermont speaks with Leigh Wright, Associate Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications at Murray State University and Ciera Cornelison, Instructional Designer at the University of Alabama about their experiences and thoughts on alternative grading practices. They discuss how these approaches can promote a more nuanced and personalized understanding of student learning beyond mere numbers and letters.

*This episode is another installment of our PODFest series which was recorded December 1, 2022.

What is the role of a graduate student in a center for teaching and learning? Does it vary by institution or are there predictable patterns that we as educational developers can use to craft job descriptions, direct projects, and provide opportunities for growth through assessment and reflection?

This episode is hosted by Laura March and Yianna Vovides from CNDLS and features interviews with:

• Stefanie Chae
• Pulkit Goyal
• Nikisha Kotwal
• Oluwafikayo Odugbemi 

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Following the Covid-19 pandemic, faculty and students alike have experienced burnout, stress, and disengagement with professional activities. For educational developers, this can show up as dwindling numbers of participants in our programs and services. As developers we know our job is to make our programs relevant and impactful to our academic communities, but how do we re-engage them in ethical, sustainable, and meaningful ways? In this episode, Chris Adamson from Dakota State University and Tara Harvey an educational developer and founder of True North, an educational development company focused on supporting intercultural teaching and learning discuss the challenges, opportunities, and innovative approaches they are using to solve this challenge.

*This episode is another installment of our PODFest series which was recorded December 1, 2022.

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What is the journey to educational development like? What are the challenges and opportunities that come with starting out as a new faculty developer? This episode is another installment of our PODFest episodes featuring a conversation between April Tallant, Senior Educational Developer at Coulter Faculty Commons at Western Carolina University; and the POD Network's DRI Committee Co-Chair, Yianna Vovides, Senior Director, Learning Design & Research at Georgetown University's Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS).

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How do we make SoTL accessible (and not scary) to new faculty?

This episode features a lively and engaging conversation between Maria Gallardo-Williams of North Carolina State University, Nancy Chick of Rollins College, and Erin Garcia of Auburn University on the topic of introducing faculty to SoTL. It was recorded as part of the PODFest event hosted by the DRI committee on December 1st, 2022.

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