Faculty Development

An important initiative of MT Engage is a formal faculty development program. The MT Engage Faculty Development initiative has as its outcome the development of a community of faculty scholars committed to academic engagement in the classroom and prepared for instruction in integrative thinking/reflection.

2022 Faculty Development Opportunities

MT Engage Recharge

Tuesday, August 16 9:00-11:00 in JUB 100

All MT Engage faculty are invited to attend. Join us to reconnect with Summer Institute colleagues, to hear about the great work others are doing in their classes, to share your own successes, and to get all your MT Engage-related questions answered.

Brown Bag Lunch #1 Beyond-the-Classroom Experiences

Thursday, September 8 11:30-12:30 in JUB 306

Open to everyone, this informal session allows faculty to connect with MT Engage colleagues interested in discussing beyond-the-classroom experiences. Bring your lunch and come to share what's worked in your classes, learn about this year's MT Engage Week events, and get your questions answered.

Teach, Don't Just Assess: Exploring the Possibilities for Customized Signature Assignment Rubrics

Thursday, September 15 1:00-2:00 in LT&ITC

MT Engage faculty now have the option of tailoring the signature assignment rubric to communicate their specific goals for the course and assignment. This interactive workshop facilitated by Scott McDaniel and Julie Myatt will explain how creating a customized rubric can streamline the assessment process for signature assignments, introducing sample rubrics that foreground course and/or disciplinary content.

Brown Bag Lunch #2 High Impact Practices: Monday, October 17 11:30-12:30 in JUB 306

Open to everyone, this informal session allows faculty to connect with MT Engage colleagues interested in discussing high impact practices. Bring your lunch and come to share what's worked in your classes, workshop your ideas, and get your questions answered.

Faculty Book Group: Tuesday, September 13; Tuesday, October 18; & Tuesday, November 15 1:00-2:00 p.m. in JUB 306

You are invited to join a group of colleagues who will be reading and discussing the book Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College, by Peter Felten and Leo M. Lambert.

Teach, Don't Just Assess: Exploring the Possibilities for Customized Signature Assignment Rubrics

Thursday, November 3 1:00-2:00 in LT&ITC

Past Trainings

Relationship Rich Education: Connect, Engage, and Learn

Our 2022 MT Engage guest speaker will be Dr. Peter Felten, Executive Director of the Center for Engaged Learning, Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning, and Professor of History at Elon University. Felten has published six books about undergraduate education including most recently Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College (with Leo Lambert, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020). He has served as president of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. He is co-editor of the International Journal for Academic Development, on the advisory board of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), and a fellow of the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, a foundation that works to advance equity in higher education.

Please join us for Dr. Felten's workshop, Relationship Rich Education: Connect, Engage, and Learn, on Friday, April 15, 2022 from 9:00-10:30 in the LT&ITC, Walker Library, Room 348.

Decades of research demonstrate that the quality of student-faculty, student-staff, and student-student interactions are foundational to engaging, inclusive, and integrative learning. Educational relationships influence motivation, learning, belonging, and achievement for all students, and particularly for new majority students. Drawing on some 400 interviews with students, faculty, and staff across U.S. higher education, this interactive session will explore practical strategies that you can use to ensure that all students experience welcome and care, become inspired to learn, and explore the big questions that matter for their lives and our communities. Register Here!

Teach, Don’t Just Assess: Exploring the Possibilities of Customized Signature Assignment Rubrics

Thursday, April 26, 2022 1-2 pm LT&ITC

Presented by Scott McDaniel & Julie Myatt

MT Engage faculty now have the option of tailoring the signature assignment rubric to communicate their specific goals for the course and assignment. Open to all MT Engage faculty or anyone interested in learning more about MT Engage, this interactive workshop will:

Present a rationale for giving MT Engage faculty the option to customize the signature assignment rubric
Explain how creating a customized rubric can streamline the assessment process for signature assignments
Position the rubric as a teaching tool
Explain how the rubric can serve as an invitation for students to demonstrate disciplinary knowledge as they reflect on their learning
Introduce models that illustrate how to integrate disciplinary content into the rubric.

Attendees are encouraged to come with an idea for a signature assignment in mind, as attendees will incorporate their disciplinary-specific language with the existing rubric indicators to create a grading rubric that couples course content and integrative thinking.

How Reflection and Engagement Strategies Can Support Inclusive Teaching

Tuesday, February 8, 2022 1-2 PM Live Zoom Workshop

Presented by: Julie Myatt and Dianna Rust

This workshop will present engagement strategies that serve the needs of all students, regardless of background or identity, and support their engagement with course material. The presenters will discuss the value of creating space for students to explore their struggles with learning--and strategies they can use to overcome challenges. Additionally, the presenters will discuss how incorporating reflection into your teaching is a powerful strategy for inclusive teaching. Participants will share their own strategies and leave with easy to implement ideas for application in their classes.

2019-2020 MT Engage-sponsored Workshops

in collaboration with the

Learning, Teaching, and Innovative Technologies Center

(Walker Library 348)

Faculty Member ISO Interdisciplinary Collaborators: How to Find the Right Match

Wednesday, February 6, 11:30am-12:30pm

Presenters: Kate Pantelides and Margaret Brooker

Workshop Description: Tired of lonely hours scrolling through search engines in your

discipline, only to keep seeing the same names and articles over and over? Already

published in the major journals in your field, and looking for some fresh perspective? Have

questions about what it might be like to cross disciplinary boundaries, but don't know how

to find the right match? Interested in interdisciplinary teaching partnerships? Join us for a

speed-dating structured workshop for interdisciplinary research and

teaching collaborators. Frequent collaborators Margaret Brooker and Kate Pantelides will

frame the discussion by sharing their experiences working across disciplinary boundaries,

highlighting the rewards and potential challenges. Then, workshop participants will be

invited to meet each other, share their research and teaching strengths, and consider

opportunities for collaboration.

Teaching Students in a STEM Major: Best Practices

Tuesday, February 26, 1:00-2:00 PM

Presenter: Brian Slaboch

Workshop Description: Teaching students in a STEM major is both an art and a science. In

this workshop, you will gain perspective on best practices for teaching students in a STEM

major from faculty across CBAS. This workshop has formed as the result of a one-year

faculty learning community (FLC) in which the nuances of teaching students in a STEM

major were discussed with a diverse group of faculty. The goals of the workshop are to

share this multidisciplinary knowledge to others in order to strengthen the teaching

capabilities of MTSU faculty. The workshop is geared towards CBAS faculty, but all faculty,

regardless of department, are encouraged to attend.

Documenting Student Success through ePortfolios: A Geosciences Perspective

Wednesday, March 20, 3:00 – 4:00 PM

Presenters: Jeremy Aber, Warner Cribb, Melissa Lobegeier

Workshop Description: ePortfolio is an electronic presentation of a student’s learning

journey—in a course, a field of study, or an entire academic career. The Department of

Geosciences has developed an ePortfolio template that allows for assessment of student

competence, lets student build an electronic record of their work for sharing, helps

students to understand that the department’s learning objectives are common across the

curriculum, and helps students evaluate their own progress. The presenters will discuss

their experiences using ePortfolios for student learning in the MT Engage Geosciences

Major Pathway and program assessment of end-of-program outcomes.

MT Engage Signature Assignment Rubric Roundtable

Tuesday, March 26, 10 – 11 AM

Wednesday, March 27, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Presenter: Scott McDaniel

Workshop Description: Are you wondering how to apply the MT Engage Rubric to your signature assignment? Do you have technical questions about how this is done in the D2L platform? Join the MT Engage team for a rousing roundtable discussion on how to align your signature assignment with the required elements of the Integrative Thinking and Reflection Rubric. We will also discuss how the rubric is applied in D2L. If possible, please bring your signature assignment and/or have it uploaded into D2L.

Fostering Integrative Learning Across the Curriculum

Thursday, April 11, 3:00 – 4:30 PM

2019 MT Engage Guest Speaker: C. Edward Watson, Chief Information Officer and Associate

Vice-President for Quality, Advocacy, and LEAP Initiatives, Association of American

Colleges and Universities; co-author/editor of Teaching Naked Techniques: A Practical

Guide to Designing Better Classes (2018) and Playing to Learn with Reacting to the Past:

Research on High Impact, Active Learning Practices (2017).

Workshop Description: One of the greatest challenges for the higher education

curriculum and for higher education teaching and learning is helping students make

connections between assignments, between courses, and between disciplines. To

be successful in the 21st century workplace, today’s college students must be taught how to

be highly flexible, integrative, and adaptive lifelong learners. This session will highlight

interdisciplinary teaching and learning practices which have been shown to result in

integrative learning. In addition to pedagogies and course design practices grounded in

what we empirically know about learning, this session will also focus on instructional

practices that bridge courses, including ePortfolios which many argue may be the best

strategy for fostering integrative knowledge. Those who attend this session will have new

ways to reimagine their courses and how they fit within the major and/or the general

education curriculum.

Crafting a Signature Assignment Using the Charrette Process

Wednesday, April 17, 3 – 4 PM

Thursday, April, April 18, 3:00 – 4:00 PM

Facilitators: Mary Hoffschwelle and Sheila Otto

Workshop Description: Creating a new assignment or revising an existing one for next

semester? Exchanging ideas with faculty from your own and other disciplines can enhance

your design process. In this collaborative workshop, facilitators will guide small groups of

faculty through the assignment charrette process developed by the National Institute for

Learning Outcomes and Assessment (NILOA). Participants will present assignment ideas

and exchange constructive feedback with each other, resulting in new insights into their

teaching and student learning. The workshop is geared toward assignments evaluated with

the MT Engage signature assignment rubric, but all faculty are invited to bring an

assignment for peer feedback through the charrette process.

Summer Institute 2019

The Directors of Faculty Development and Teaching Excellence will work with the MT Engage Director each year to develop and implement the proposed Summer Institute (see below for past Summer Institute agenda).

The 2019 Summer Institute will be held Thursday and Friday, May 9-10. Registration info coming soon.

2018 Summer Institute

Summer Institute Activities and Timeline:
Day One:

MT Engage overview and faculty institute keynote speaker on integrative thinking.
1. What is the QEP, MT Engage
2. The value of integrative thinking and best practices for incorporating in college courses
3. The value of ePortfolios and how MT Engage faculty and students will use them
4. The value of ePortfolios and how MT Engage faculty and students will use them
  1. ePortfolio tool overview/training

Day Two:

Assessment of SLO Integrative Thinking and Reflection
Break out sessions (45 minutes each)
- Topics will be based on research literature and ideas for incorporating academic engagement strategies and integrative thinking in college courses
- Led by faculty who have previously taught MT Engage courses.

After Institute

June/July/August--Faculty revise classes
End of August--Faculty submit course syllabi and a MT Engage certification form highlighting how they are implementing MT Engage in their course prior to teaching.

Faculty Learning Communities (FLC)

To participate in a faculty learning community, please contact Julie Myatt.

Professional Learning Communities (PLC)

To participate in a professional learning community, please contact Julie Myatt.

Faculty Incentives for Participating

Faculty who participate in the FLCs/work groups and Summer Institute will receive a $500 stipend. During many of these activities, meals will be provided. Faculty will also be recognized with certificates of achievement.

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