The work we do at ACERT to support faculty learning is actually part of a field of study known as “educational development”. Across the landscape of colleges and universities, the way this takes place varies. In some contexts, there are large centers for teaching and learning with full-time directors, large staff, and extensive offerings and resources (e.g. Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching and Learning); in other contexts, the work of faculty development occurs in small centers of one, where a single staff member or assigned faculty, lead the work (e.g. Berea College). In all cases, those who lead the educational development of faculty care deeply about student learning outcomes, and understand that the teaching skills of faculty are the foundation for student success.

I have created this podcast to explore the work of centers of teaching and learning and the vision and insights of educational developers in higher education. Each episode, I will be interviewing educational developers in a range of contexts as a way to contribute to the community of faculty developers, and to connect our wonderful Academic Center for Excellence in Teaching and Research at Hunter College, City University of New York to other centers and to the essential work we do.

In the first podcast episode of “Centering Centers”, Holding Tight to our Convictions and Lightly to our Ways, I interview Kylie Korsnack, Educational Developer at the University of Richmond in Virginia, USA and Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Berea College, Kentucky, USA. Here is a link to the article they co-wrote that we discussed in this episode. Here is a transcript of the podcast.

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