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AY06/07 Annual Report
Our Mission
The staff of the CTL are committed to
enhancing the teaching and learning
environment at Fitchburg State College
through interdisciplinary collaboration, and
we are dedicated to providing a wide
variety of professional development opportunities to full-time, tenure-track and
adjunct faculty and librarians.
We sponsor a faculty speakers’ series
devoted to the scholarship of teaching and
learning, as well as instructional technology workshops, book signings, and artists’
presentations. We also host a mentorship
program for incoming faculty, and we
award a series of “faculty innovation”
grants to encourage the adoption of new
teaching methods and/or instructional
technologies in the classroom.
Moreover, we offer a wide variety of
services to our patrons. We have both slide
and flatbed scanners for the reproduction
of images and documents, along with a
host of software for the manipulation of
those files for instructional technology
purposes. We also provide a digital
conference phone for interviews or longdistance meetings; and on a limited basis
we offer video- and audio-editing.
A New Center
During the AY03/04 strategic planning
effort, the Technology Task Force recommended to the Strategic Planning Committee the creation of a “Faculty Teaching,
Technology, and Learning Center.” In the
AY05/06, this proposed FTTLC merged
with the existing Faculty Center for
Teaching and Learning, and in the Spring
of 2007 the combined Centers became the
Center for Teaching and Learning.
Construction of the new Center began
in the summer of 2006 and was completed
in early 2007. Dedication of the new space
took place on the 25th of January. Our new
facilities offer two instructional technology
workspaces for the development of instructional materials, a “soft seating” area
for informal get-togethers and discussions,
and a technology enhanced conference
space with seating for twelve; this conference space reproduces the most
sophisticated of technologies in our
technology enhanced classrooms.
and librarians new to FSC and to offer
ongoing support and encouragement to
existing tenured and tenure-track as well as
returning adjunct faculty.
(Paul Weizer, AY06/07 and 07/08 mentor.)
Faculty Innovation Grants
(FSC Librarians in the new informal space.)
Faculty Mentorship
The CTL annually sponsors two faculty
mentors. Throughout the academic year,
these mentors participate in workshops,
symposia, and more informal gatherings.
The goal of the mentoring process is both
to provide a smooth transition for faculty
Each year the Center for Teaching and
Learning encourages the use and development of innovative methods of technologies in the classroom through its
sponsorship of Faculty Innovation Grants.
This past academic year grants were
awarded to Profs. Mel Govindan and Jane
Zhang for their work on “process oriented
guided inquiry learning” (or POGIL) and
“geographic information systems” (or
GIS), respectively. They will present their
findings to the campus in a fall term, 2007,
symposium.
Over the last academic year the Center for
Teaching and Learning expanded its
regular program of events considerably. In
nine months we hosted fifty-two events
with a total of nearly six hundred participants. Every academic department was
represented, and more than half of our
patrons participated in events in the last
three months of the academic year.
Some forty-five percent of the events
in the AY06/07 were sponsored by the
Center and its staff. This in turn meant that
the majority of the programming originated
with our faculty colleagues. Particularly
gratifying were the new “Conversations
with the President,” which have now become a regular series of meetings between
the President and FSC faculty and
librarians. Two research groups, run by
faculty in the English Department and the
Criminal Justice program, also met regularly throughout the year.
Events at the Center for Teaching and Learning in the AY06/07
Luncheons and
Conversations
15%
Research and
Planning
Workgroups
25%
Grow th in 2007 Event Attendance
150
130
110
90
70
50
30
Feb - March
March - April
April - May
Speakers' Series
12%
Instructional
Technology
Workshops
25%
Brownbag
Discussions
15%
Vendor
Presentations
8%