Marsha Lovett and Chad Hershock
A prominent goal of colleges and universities today is to enact data-driven teaching and learning. Faculty clearly play a key role, and yet they tend to have limited time, a lack of training in assessment or education research, and few incentives for engaging in this work.
In July, I wrote to you about transitions and how much they can make us feel overloaded. In recent conversations with POD Network colleagues, though, I’ve felt like it’s more than transitions that are exhausting us. I see, hear, and feel the stress and anxiety that is sapping our energy.
Richard J. Reddick, Beth E. Bukoski, and Stella L. Smith
With an understanding that equity-minded faculty development is an essential space in which to respond to cultural taxation (CT), our study employed a phenomenological focus group design to investigate how Black faculty at a research-intensive PWI located in a creative class city buffeted by racial tensions navigated their service and community experiences.
These open sessions are an opportunity to connect, support, and create community with your educational development colleagues. Let’s check in with one another and talk about what (and how) we are all doing during this pandemic.
Randall Bass
Revisiting an essay from 1999, this article explores the current conditions in higher education, and society more broadly, that help shape the roles for the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and educational development.
Lindsay Bernhagen, PhD
Hello readers, and welcome to both a new year and a new phase for To Improve the Academy. As your editor, I am thrilled to announce that this is our first open access issue brought to you by our new publisher, Michigan Publishing Services.
Friday, July 17, 2020, 1:00–2:00 PM EST
Facilitator: Rebecca Pope-Ruark, Georgia Institute of Technology
In this interactive PODLive session, we’ll talk about the three indicators of burnout, acknowledge our stressors, and plan for ways to stay balanced and well going into the fall semester.
I considered providing you with some factual updates about our organization given that our Spring Core meeting just happened in June, but I’m going to save that for later. Instead, I’ve opted for something a bit more conceptual, which feels like a better fit at this point in time.
New Dates: June 28–July 1, 2020 at the Claremont Colleges (Claremont, CA) Co-hosted by the Claremont Colleges and the University of LaVerne Each year, the POD Network sponsors the Institute to mentor new practitioners and facilitate excellence in practice among its members. The primary audience is persons in the early years of educational development roles.…
I am often at a loss for words, but I’m feeling more so that way at this time. My heart is heavy with the recent overwhelming and devastating acts of anti-Black racism and police brutality in the United States, in Canada, and beyond.