In 2016, the faculty members in three academic units dedicated more than 1,960 hours of professional development toward enhancing the student experience at Illinois State. Those three units were honored earlier this month at the annual Teaching & Learning Symposium with the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology’s Path to Excellence Award. The award recognizes departments whose faculty committed the most time to professional development programs, including course design and redesign workshops, through the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology (CTLT). Winners this year are the following:
- First place—Department of Family and Consumer Sciences
- Second place—Department of Criminal Justice Sciences
- Third place—Mennonite College of Nursing
“It’s always inspiring to see our faculty’s commitment to making student learning even better,” said Claire Lamonica, CTLT director. “President (Larry) Dietz and others often talk about our university as ‘strong and stable.’ The departments we recognize with this award certainly embody that. We have a faculty that continually strives for teaching excellence through rigorous professional development. That is one important reason why Illinois State thrives even in trying times.”
The winners of the Path to Excellence Awards are calculated by the number of hours each department has invested in CTLT-sponsored professional development programming. This number is then divided by each school or department’s number of full-time equivalent (FTE) faculty. In 2016, Family and Consumer Sciences devoted 28.29 hours per FTE faculty member to professional development though CTLT. Criminal Justice Sciences devoted 23.93 hours per FTE, and the Mennonite College of Nursing committed 21.27 hours per FTE.
The 2016 winners are in good company. Faculty members representing every academic unit on campus committed at least some time toward professional development through CTLT in 2016. In total, instructors and support staff on campus spent more than 11,230 hours at CTLT.
