Discussions started by Rosalie Pedersen

Hi,
I am just figuring out how this program works so bear with me! I am the Teaching Enhancement Program Coordinator at University of Calgary. We offer a variety of workshops and certificate programs geared at improving teaching and learning on campus. Our main audiences are faculty members and teaching assistants.

I have worked in this area for the past five years and I believe we need to do more to help those who are experts in their fields to be better able to teach effectively.

Main issues here are that, although are programs are often full, we only reach a small percentage of the faculty and TAs. There is little incentive to be a "great teacher" in terms of tangible rewards and research is often the primary focus and rewarded activity. We also suffer from budget constraints.

I believe we would have trouble following the UK lead and making teaching skills courses mandatory, yet from an ethical point of view, it would seem appropriate to ensuring quality for our learners.

The idea of having more national standards around courses seems a good one to me. An example is the Instructional Skills Workshop program. Many universities and colleges use this program and adapt it to meet their needs. This approach saves time for educational developers as it reduces the need to "reinvent the wheel" and it has a proven track record. It also appeals to participants in that it is well known so the certificate has more recognition, and because the program is setup to demonstrate the value of learer-centered approaches.

A few thoughts - I am looking forward to the discussions,
Rosalie