Faculty Learning Communities

Galle presents a blueprint for building faculty knowledge of teaching methods that help undergraduates succeed, applicable in every academic discipline. At its core are faculty learning communities, and hundreds of them receive ongoing support, while the individuals who lead them receive training and guidance. Through this structure, an entire university system holds shared conversations about a chosen set of teaching approaches.

The approaches were selected because they are supported by evidence and can be applied in any field to improve student success in undergraduate courses. They include transparency in learning and teaching (TiLT), inclusive pedagogy, course redesign, mindset, High Impact Practices, strategies drawn from neuroscience, Small Teaching, and SoTL.

The process begins when institutional academic leaders nominate Chancellor's Learning Scholars (CLS) to serve as facilitators. Candidates also apply individually, and each applicant must be confirmed. The system's Office of Faculty Development trains the CLS, with support from the directors of the institutional teaching centers. Each community's formation, the course materials and changes it produces, and its full history are documented in an annual report.

So far the program has involved 2500 faculty and led to thousands of course changes. The book evaluates the program in three ways: through a review by a USG office, through an assessment by the system's teaching center directors, and through an analysis of the final reports submitted each year.