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Services
Teaching Effectiveness Workshops:
Each semester, the Center offers a wide variety of seminars, workshops, and conference presentations. A brochure describing the up-coming workshops is sent via campus mail to faculty and teaching assistants at the beginning of each semester. If you would like a copy mailed to you, please contact us with your address. These workshops are free. Faculty and GTA's attending twenty or more hours of Center-sponsored workshops per year will receive Certificates of Achievement.
Individual Consultations:
Instructors can request individual assistance with a variety of teaching concerns. Help is available to those interested in
- designing or redesigning courses,
- exploring alternative teaching strategies,
- creating instructional materials,
- improving classroom tests, and
- resolving classroom problems.
Technology-Enhanced Teaching:
Center staff can assist faculty efforts to employ technology to maximize student learning in areas such as
- course redesign,
- developing computer-aided instructional materials (e.g., multimedia presentations),
- using e mail and the World Wide Web as teaching and course delivery tools, and
- teaching skillfully in the televised classroom.
Classroom Observations:
Research shows that classroom visits by knowledgeable consultants are one of the most powerful instructional improvement tools available to faculty. For maximum impact, these activities should involve
- a short pre-visit discussion to identify the specific types of feedback the instructor desires,
- a classroom visit on a date designated by the instructor, and
- a confidential post visit feedback session to describe what was observed and explore instructional improvement possibilities. A two-week notice is required to schedule a classroom observation.
Videotape Feedback
In addition to class observations, videotape feedback can be a valuable resource for refining one's teaching skills. In conjunction with USF's Audio-Visual Media Services Department, the Center offers videotape feedback consultations. To use this service, faculty should first contact Audio Visual Media Services, at 974-2380, and request that one or more class sessions be videotaped. The faculty member will be handed the videotape at the conclusion of the filming and it is hers or his to keep. Afterwards, the faculty member can contact the Center to schedule a viewing and consultation session.
Student Feedback
The Center is available to help instructors design efficient course-specific strategies to collect timely student feedback. The methods and materials developed for this purpose are often different from commonly used end-of-the-semester student rating questionnaires and are more useful to one's self-improvement efforts.
Collaborative Research
Another goal of the Center is to assist faculty and graduate students in developing classroom research projects (i.e., designing, conducting, analyzing, and publishing qualitative or quantitative studies of the teaching and learning processes).
Reading Resources
The Center's library houses a large collection of books, article reprints, workshop handouts, and bibliographies addressing a wide variety of issues in higher education.
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