The Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence has a new approach to improving faculty development at Andrews University. On Thursday, Oct. 9, the Center will host an open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Jane Mitchell Multimedia Center of the James White Library in honor of its grand opening. Faculty members are invited to attend and explore the Faculty Development Resource Collection, learn more about faculty development opportunities and interact with colleagues.

The Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence strives to help faculty members perfect their primary duty on campus—teaching. By focusing on the scholarship of teaching and learning, faith-learning integration, diversity, assessment and service among others, the Center hopes to bring an enriched learning environment that will lead to transformational growth. This is accomplished through several venues, including research materials and resources, Wednesday Workshops, Faculty Learning Groups and Faculty Development Opportunity Updates.

The James White Library houses more than 350 faculty development tools—including books, DVDs, and the Christ in the Classroom series—highlighting topics such as assessment; diversity; engaging pedagogy; the integration of faith and learning; service learning/civic engagement; and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Each year the Effective Learning Council works with its campus partners to develop a year-long series of opportunities to learn more about various faculty development topics. This is accomplished, in part, through Wednesday Workshops. These workshops bring faculty together to discuss a professional topic related to teaching, combined with food and fellowship. Workshop topics are organized around the same themes as the Faculty Development Collection—assessment, diversity, engaging pedagogy, the integration of faith and learning, service learning/civic engagement and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
 
Faculty Learning Groups (FLGs), self-selected groups of four to eight faculty, study a topic in-depth and seek to shape their teaching by what they learn. FLGs are formed around any topic related to teaching and learning in higher education.
 
The Effective Learning Council issues Faculty Development Opportunity Updates, newsletters and brochures to inform faculty of upcoming development opportunities both on- and off-campus. The December issue assists faculty in completing the teaching portion of the “January Report.” It also provides examples for the format of teaching goals and a listing of projected faculty development options during the coming year. The April issue is designed to highlight faculty development opportunities during late spring and summer semesters.
 
The Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence has several campus partners, including the Center for College Faith, the Center for Distance Learning and Instructional Technology, the Office of Research & Creative Scholarship, the Office of Service Learning and the Office of University Assessment.

For more information on the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, please contact Larry Burton, chair of the Effective Learning Council, at burton@andrews.edu or Heather Knight, provost, at hknight@andrews.edu.

-Written by Ashleigh Jardine, student news writer, Office of Integrated Marketing & Communication