Centering Centers

This is the first episode of our 5th season of Centering Centers which focuses on the Scholarship of Educational Development and I’m thrilled to welcome Laura Cruz today who will give us an overview of the SoED landscape.

Laura Cruz is an associate research professor of Teaching and Learning Scholarship

At Penn State's Schreyer Institute of Teaching Excellence. In addition to authoring numerous articles and launching and leading multiple Centers for teaching and learning, she has served as editor on academic journals including To Improve the Academy and recently co-authored a book that many folks in our listening audience might value in called “Taking Flight: Making your Center for Teaching and learning soar” which synthesizes research and provides practical guidance for running centers of teaching and learning. 

In this episode, Laura provides an overview of the SoED landscape and shares experiences and ideas that inspired and informed her recent IJAD article, Embracing complexity: an inclusive framework for the scholarship of educational development, Laura Cruz, Elizabeth Dickens, Anna L. Bostwick Flaming, and Lindsay B. Wheeler

Transcript

This is part 2 of Episode 23 of the Centering Centers podcast. This is the second half of our interview with Dr. Arshad Ahmad, Vice Chancellor of LUMS, which is the top raked university in Pakistan.

In part one of our conversation, Dr. Ahmad shared his journey from a professor of Accounting who struggled with his teaching to 3M National Teaching Fellow - Canada’s most prestigious recognition of teaching at the post-secondary level to director of the MacPherson Institute at McMaster University and now to the ultimate leadership role at LUMS. 

In part two, he shares concrete ideas, strategies, and actions he has taken as Vice Chancellor that are informed by his previous role as an educational developer and faculty members. His story provides an answer to the question of what happens when you an educational developer in charge of a major institution with the resources to enact meaningful change--without giving too much away, amazing things happen. His story is of interest to all educational developers but will be particularly inspiring to those on the path to provost, president, or other distinguished leadership positions in higher education. 

Dr. Ahmad completed his PhD in Educational Psychology at McGill University and was a Professor of Finance at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada for over 20 years. In 2014, he was appointed Vice-Provost, Teaching and Learning and Director of the MacPherson Institute at McMaster University. He also held academic leadership positions as Chair of Teaching and Learning Canada, President of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, and Vice President of the International Consortium of Educational Developers. In 1992, he was awarded the 3M National Teaching Fellowship--Canada’s most prestigious recognition of excellence in educational leadership and teaching at the post-secondary level. His research interests include student evaluations of teaching, approaches to teaching, teaching philosophies and student partnerships. In 2018, he became the sixth Vice-Chancellor of LUMS University.

Full Transcript

This is episode 23 of the Centering Centers podcast. This is the first of a two part interview with Dr. Arshad Ahmad, Vice Chancellor of LUMS, which is the top raked university in Pakistan.

In part one of our conversation, Dr. Ahmad shares his journey from a professor of Accounting who struggled with his teaching to 3M National Teaching Fellow - Canada’s most prestigious recognition of teaching at the post-secondary level to director of the MacPherson Institute at McMaster University and now to the ultimate leadership role at LUMS. His story is of interest to all educational developers but will be particularly inspiring to those on the path to provost, president, or other distinguished leadership positions in higher education.

Dr. Ahmad completed his PhD in Educational Psychology at McGill University and was a Professor of Finance at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada for over 20 years. In 2014, he was appointed Vice-Provost, Teaching and Learning and Director of the MacPherson Institute at McMaster University. He also held academic leadership positions as Chair of Teaching and Learning Canada, President of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, and Vice President of the International Consortium of Educational Developers. In 1992, he was awarded the 3M National Teaching Fellowship--Canada’s most prestigious recognition of excellence in educational leadership and teaching at the post-secondary level. His research interests include student evaluations of teaching, approaches to teaching, teaching philosophies and student partnerships. In 2018, he became the sixth Vice-Chancellor of LUMS University.

Full Transcript

This is Episode 22 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. We are speaking with Tracy Zou (@ZouTracy) who has worked as an educational developer at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and who has now transitioned back to a faculty role as an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong. In addition to teaching, she is an associate editor of IJAD – the International Journal for Academic Development and an editorial member of Asian Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as well as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Our conversation centers on the lessons learned in the shift from faculty to developer and back, as well as the importance of fostering collaboration and critical friendships with people who not only support but challenge us to think and do things differently. And why those connections are so important to grow and sustain one’s teaching.

Connect with Tracy on Twitter - @ZouTracy

Acknowledgement: Part of this sharing is based on the findings from the research project Professional Development at a Meso-level: Conceptual Development and Impact Analysis funded by the Research Grants Council of the government of HKSAR (Project no. 17609318).

Transcript of the Interview

In this episode, we speak with Stephanie Doscher, Director of the Office of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) at Florida International University, and Eva Haug, who works as Educational Advisor for Internationalisation of the Curriculum and COIL in the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Our conversation focuses on their leadership of COIL programs at their respective institutions, the challenges and opportunities of recruiting and developing faculty to participate, as well as approaches for assessing impacts of the program on students, faculty and developers like themselves. Finally, they share the unique cultural experiences and motivations that brought them together and sustain them as leaders and as professional collaborators in this effort to, as Stephanie eloquently put it, "connect faculty and students across the borders of difference." 

Here is a transcript of the conversation. 

Resources for getting in touch with Stephanie and Eva & for getting started and engaging with the COIL program:

This is Episode 20 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Laura Lukes, Assistant Professor of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver Campus), providing an overview of the Virginia SoTL Collaboratory.  Click here for the episode transcript.

This is Episode 19 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Jill McSweeney-Flaherty, Educational Developer at the Centre for Learning and Teaching at Dalhousie University, providing insights on how educational developers can approach supporting faculty with the ethics of SoTL research.

This is Episode 18 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Marsha Lovett, Senior Associate Vice Provost for Educational Innovation & Learning Analytics, Director, Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation and Teaching Professor, Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, discussing how a research-mindset is being infused into teaching practice at her institution.

Eberly's Teaching as Research website: https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/teaching-as-research/index.html

This is Episode 17 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Maria Gallardo-Williams, Teaching Professor and Director, Organic Chemistry Teaching Laboratories and SoTL Faculty Fellow, and Diane Chapman, Executive Director for Faculty Development, Office of Faculty Excellence at North Carolina State University, discussing their tips to run successful SoTL faculty institutes.  Here is a transcript of the podcast.

Some of the resources mentioned in the podcast are linked below.

What is SoTL?

2021 SoTL Institute

This is Episode 16 of "Centering Centers", a POD Network podcast that explores the work of Centers of Teaching and Learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. This episode features Carlos Guevara, Co-Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and Director of the Office of Educational Technology at Hostos Community College, City University of New York. Here is a transcript of the podcast.

Links:

Wolfe, K. S., Lyons, K., & Guevara, C. (Eds.). (2019). Developing Educational Technology at an Urban Community College (1st ed.). Springer International Publishing.  https://www.amazon.com/Developing-Educational-Technology-Community-College/dp/3030170373. 

https://library.educause.edu/resources/2022/4/2022-educause-horizon-report-teaching-and-learning-edition