Faculty TRAINING

Re-Training for Faculty

Making sure that ODU's faculty, administrators, and staff are prepared for today's students by utilizing the most effective and innovative teaching methodologies, learning through consistent professional development, and knowing how to serve as mentors.

Concept

To address inequity, we need to reimagine faculty, administrator, and staff training at ODU from the ground up.
This will be done by a series of workshops, re-training, and professional development workshops.

Professional development opportunities not only need to be encouraged, but need to be integrated into the culture at ODU.

In doing so, faculty, administrators, and staff at ODU will
- - Be trained and/or kept up-to-date on latest understanding of effective teaching and mentoring.
  - Have opportunities to establish cultural humility and process how their own privilege impacts their teaching and mentoring.

Everyone is a teacher; everyone is a mentor.

Reasoning

Current state of affairs:
- There is, at best, minimal training in how to effectively teach or mentor students, let alone how to do so with students of color.
- Instead, most learn how to teach and mentor based on their own experiences as student/mentees or through trial and error.

This is problematic for a number of reasons.
1. Faculty, particularly, are placed in situations in which they must learn, on the fly, not only how to effectively teach and mentor, but how to navigate a number of different platforms (e.g., Blackboard, LeoOnline, etc.).
2. Trial and error learning comes at the expensive of students' own learning experiences, whether inside the classroom or outside in formal/informal mentoring experiences.

Execution

As part of this proposal, we suggest a multi-phase approach:
- Phase 1
  - Encourage Department Chairs and Division Heads to integrate professional development opportunities into standing faculty meetings twice a semester.
  - Over the summer of 2021, we will reach out to faculty chairs to start a program where twice a semester professional development opportunities and training happen during scheduled meetings.
- Phase 2
  - Expand faculty and administration orientation to include a second day with series of optional workshops.
    - Partnering with the Center for Faculty Professional Development, Human Recourses, ITS, ODU Libraries, and more, to create a series of workshops during which ALL faculty, administrators, and staff are encouraged to take during annual New Hire Orientation.
    - Topics will range from effective teaching and mentoring to utilizing Blackboard and learning how to navigate Leo Online.
- Phase 3
  - Expand faculty training on teaching and mentoring by establishing certification programs.
- Phase 4
  - Revise Tenure and Promotion guidelines to emphasize mentoring and professional development.
  - Expand on successful initiatives to include staff.

Measurement of SucCess

We propose that Phase 1 be started in Fall of 2021 and at the end of the semester, have all participating faculty complete a survey to find out if including these opportunities within the departmental meeting format is helpful or not. Make adjustments for the Spring of 2022 as needed based on results.

Throughout the Summer and Fall of 2021 partner with HR, the Center for Professional Development, ITS, the Library and more to implement Phases 2-3, so that they can be integrated into ODU culture by Spring of 2022.

Phase 4 is a long term goal which requires partnering with the Faculty Senate and other major stakeholders like Human Resources. Implementation and success is primarily based on the findings and developments of Phases 1-3.

Giving faculty, administrators, and staff the tools to be INNOVATIVE instructors, mentors, and learners.

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