Teaching Support Through the Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE)
The Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) provides structures and opportunities to empower faculty excellence and help Simmons faculty thrive in their professional lives. CFE works to support President Wooten’s strategic priority of Empowering Faculty Excellence by developing and offering a wide array professional development programs and services related to all areas of faculty work, with a particular emphasis on excellence in teaching and learning, research and service, and support for career development.
Supporting Teaching & Learning
The CFE provides a wide array of programs and services to support Simmons’s long-standing dedication to teaching. Our support of excellence in teaching includes pedagogy and learning science, course and instructional design, assessing student learning, teaching for inclusive excellence, online education, instructional design, and improving teaching with technology. We also support curriculum development and program-level assessment. CFE staff design programs and services to build a teaching community across disciplines, facilitate the sharing of ideas and resources, encourage collaboration, and provide a space for innovation and experimentation.
Teaching Institute
Each summer, CFE runs our annual four-day intensive Teaching Institute. This program is oriented toward faculty who are newer to teaching (although all are welcome to attend), and focuses on learning theory, teaching methodologies, course design, and application to practice. During this Institute, participants will experience evidence-based, engaging teaching practices that are applicable across disciplines.
If you'd like to be put on the interest list for this program, please let us know at cfe@simmons.edu.
Simmons Syllabus Template
The syllabus template is based on current best practices for syllabus design articulated in the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee's best practices syllabus checklist. The syllabus template offers guidance on what elements to include in the syllabus and suggestions for content rather than taking a prescriptive approach. Please note that using this template is recommended, but is not required.
Instructions for Using the Syllabus Template:
To make an editable copy of the syllabus template, click on “File” in the top-left corner and then “Make a copy.” You can then rename the document and choose a folder to save it to in your Google Drive.
The syllabus is broken into discrete sections which can be rearranged, removed, or modified to best fit your course.
Text that is italicized and included in brackets are used as placeholders to provide suggestions for content, so be sure to delete these notes before finalizing your syllabus.
In order to keep the syllabus accessible, the style (headings, paragraphs, etc.) should be maintained.