Centering Centers

Professors are expected to have extensive expertise in their fields of study in order to qualify to teach at the post-secondary level, but can graduate coursework in quantum mechanics or X-ray crystallography prepare you to be a supportive advisor and an inclusive educator? Ashley McNeill, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Springfield College in Springfield, MA, and Elizabeth McDonald, Instructi...

Is it time that your teaching center started its own podcast? That’s the question that brought four POD Network colleagues together in a breakout session at PODFest 2022 to talk about teaching center podcasts. What goals might a teaching center podcast have? How would you know if you were meeting those goals? And how would your center go about planning and producing a podcast? This episode feature...

I do not know which to prefer,    The beauty of inflections    Or the beauty of innuendoes,    The blackbird whistling    Or just after.    -- Wallace Stevens, "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"   In this season of Centering Centers, we are speaking with educational developers from diverse centers about their inspirations and innovations – what drives their work and approaches that have...

In this episode of Centering Centers, guest host Derek Bruff talks with Jessica Riddell, professor of early modern literature and the Stephen A. Jarislowsky Chair of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence at Bishop’s University in Quebec, Canada. Jessica is also the executive director of the Maple League of Universities, which is not, in fact, a group of Canadian super-heroes, but rather a consortium o...

“I want my people to look like the experts they are, because I want them to be treated as colleagues, even though we are a service organization.” In this episode of Centering Centers, guest host Derek Bruff talks with Shawn Miller, director of Learning Innovation at Duke University. Shawn’s unit combines faculty development, instructional technology, online program management, and more. Shawn shar...

In this episode of Centering Centers, we are concluding our trifecta of episodes on the AI disruption by sharing a specific example of how one center is responding to the challenge. Many of us have been benefitted from sharing examples of policies, statements, assignments, and ideas online through the AI for Educators Google group and pod listserv, in that spirit, I wanted to share out through thi...

In our last episode, we learned about ChatGPT with Cynthia Alby. Today we are diving deeper into the ethics of AI and how we as educational developers might best support the conversations happening across our campuses. To guide us in this conversation, we are speaking with Dr. Kevin Yee, Director of the Faculty Center at the University of Central Florida. Kevin has held numerous faculty and leader...

Today on "Centering Centers", we are speaking with Cynthia Alby,  who is Professor of Teacher Education and Faculty Director of Georgia College Journeys, in Milledgeville, Georgia, USA. She shares her perspectives on ChatGPT and how it can catalyze needed change in the teaching landscape of  higher education. Learning that matters: A field guide to course design for transformative educat...

Today on "Centering Centers", we are speaking with Teresa Focarile who is the Associate Director for Educational Development at the Center for Teaching and Learning, and Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Theatre, Film and Creative Writing at Boise State University. We discussed the many-layered approach they are implementing to support adjunct faculty's professional learning as well as job sati...

Today on "Centering Centers", we are speaking with Tom Laughner who is the Director of the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center Teaching and Learning center, in Memphis, Tennessee.  Our conversation explores his work supporting faculty in the health professions and the successful micro-credentialing program called the Medallion Program. Learn more about the Medallion initiative ! Tr...

Today on "Centering Centers", we are speaking with Dana Grossman Leeman who is the Senior Associate Director of the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning at Tufts University. We discussed her experiences, noticings and wonderings from attending the POD conference in person in Seattle this fall. Episode Transcript

This is Episode 30 and we are speaking with Cassandra Volpe Horii and Martin Springborg about their new free, open-access book: “ What Teaching Looks Like: Higher Education through Photographs .” Click on the title to go to access the book through the Elon University's Series on Engaged Learning website.  Cassandra Volpe Horii (@cvhorii ) is the associate vice provost for education and direct...

This is episode 29 of the CC podcast. This is the next installment in our chapter on SoEd. Our guest is Dr. Laura Baecher. Laura is an Associate Professor of TESOL at Hunter College (which is part of cuny system)  and she is a leader in their Academic Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. We know Laura as the founder and co-host of the centering centers podcast and that is the focus...

This is Episode 28 of the Centering Centers Podcast. I’m your host for this episode, Lindsay Doukopoulos. I serve as Associate Director for Educational Development in the Biggio Center at Auburn University. I also serve as co-chair of PODs Digital Resources and Innovations committee. This episode is the next installment in our chapter on the Scholarship of Educational Development and today I’m thr...

Julie Timmermans is a Senior Lecturer in the Higher Education Development Centre at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Julie is a teacher, researcher, and academic developer with experience facilitating learning in various universities and countries, including Canada, Japan, France, and now, New Zealand. Her research interests focus on academic development and threshold concepts. Jul...

Should educational development seek to define itself as a discipline? What are the urgent conversations around our research and practice? Is the academy improving?  In today's episode, I am excited to share my conversation with Michael Palmer and Lindsay Wheeler, Co-Editors of To Improve the Academy (TIA for short), which is the flagship peer-reviewed journal of the POD Network. It is an...

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 ar...

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 te...

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...

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 ass...

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 i...

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 Coll...

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 suppo...

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...

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 D...