The following is a list of educator professional development tools, resources, and supports at MSU. This collection is just that, a sampling of offerings aimed at providing anyone who supports student success by contributing to the teaching and learning mission with a place to start when they're looking for ongoing opportunities for growth outside of the #iteachmsu Commons.
- SOIREE: The SOIREE (Spartan Online Instructional Readiness Educational Experience) workshop was created to help you better prepare to teach online. You will learn online pedagogical principles and develop proficiency with a variety of technologies. You can check out SOIREE for more information. (Fall programming TBD)
- ASPIRE: The ASPIRE (Asynchronous Program for Instructional Readiness) workshop was created to help you better prepare to teach online. ASPIRE is entirely self-paced and will guide you through the processes and issues you'll need to address in order to develop an online version of your course. You can check out ASPIRE for more information, including enrolling in ASPIRE.
- The College of Education’s Mini-MOOC on Remote Teaching: The Master of Arts in Educational Technology Program (MAET) at Michigan State University is honored to support the amazing work that educators are doing around the world as they transition to a range of remote teaching contexts. You can check out CED Mini-MOOC for more information, including enrolling in the Mini-MOOC.
- #iteachmsu: You teach MSU. A wide educator community (faculty, TAs, ULAs, instructional designers, academic advisors, et al.) makes learning happen across MSU. But, on such a large campus, it can be difficult to fully recognize and leverage this community’s teaching and learning innovations. To address this challenge, the #iteachmsu Commons provides an educator-driven space for sharing teaching resources, connecting across educator networks, and growing teaching practice. #iteachmsu Commons content may be discipline-specific or transdisciplinary, but will always be anchored in teaching competency areas. You will find short posts, blog-like articles, curated playlists, and a campus-wide teaching and learning events calendar. We cultivate this commons across spaces. And through your engagement, we will continue to nurture a culture of teaching and learning across MSU and beyond.
- Teaching and Learning Bootcamp: The Teaching and Learning Boot Camp is offered to bring together educators new to MSU from across campus to explore and exchange ideas about quality and inclusive teaching, as well as find community among the large group of people who are engaged in the important work of creating the best learning environments possible for our students. The focus is to assist educators in developing practical materials that are needed for immediate use in their teaching and to best prepare them for their courses and work with students. For more information, check out Teaching & Learning Bootcamp.
- Accessible Learning Conference: For the last five years, the Accessible Learning Conference has provided a forum for students, educators, community members and leaders to connect, share knowledge, and foster innovation in accessibility in higher education. You can check out the Accessible Learning Conference for more information.
- MSU Dialogues: MSU Dialogues is an intergroup dialogue program for students, faculty and staff at Michigan State. It is a face-to-face learning experience that brings together people from different identity groups over a sustained period of time to: understand our commonalities and differences; examine the nature and impact of societal inequalities; explore ways of working together toward greater equity and justice; prepare individuals to live, work, and lead in a complex, diverse stratified society. Go to MSU Dialogues on Race, Religion, or Gender for more information.
- Course Review Process: Quality Matters (QM) is a nationally recognized, faculty-centered, peer review process designed to certify the quality of online courses and online components. MSU purchased a campus subscription to the QM Rubric to assist faculty and instructors in creating quality courses that will improve online education and student learning. For more information on getting started with peer course review and Quality Matters at MSU, please visit MSU SpartanQM Webpage.
- Alternative assessment/Online exam workshops: These workshops ran live in 2020 and provided information and examples of designing online exams and assessing students with alternative assessments beyond exams. Recordings of the workshops can be accessed asynchronously via #iteachmsu Commons.
- Learning Communities: Learning Communities provide safe and supportive spaces for complicated conversations about curriculum and pedagogy. Michigan State University has supported these initiatives since 2004 and continues to do so through a funding program administered by the Academic Advancement Network. Learning Communities at MSU are free to select their own topics and determine the structures that best support their inquiries. Accordingly, communities tend to vary greatly in their practices, interests, and agendas. All communities, however, share three things in common: they meet monthly across the academic year, explore important educational themes, and welcome all members of MSU’s instructional staff, regardless of rank or discipline. Please go to Learning Communities (AAN) or Learning Communities (#iteachmsu) for more information.
- Cohort programs: Lilly Fellowship - The program is intended to advance the University’s continuing efforts to support excellence in teaching and learning. The program supports a cohort of six faculty or academic specialists at all ranks with at least five years of service to the institution. The Program also provides an opportunity for Fellows to expand relationships and collaborative engagement with peers and colleagues within their own college and across the University. The program is supported by matching grants from AAN and the Fellows’ departments and/or colleges. The goal is to develop academic leaders who will guide the University into the near future with regard to learning, teaching, and educational programming. Participants are expected to focus their work on a project of their choosing that will make a substantial contribution to a unit’s educational efforts. The unit can be a program or a department, but it can also be a college or a University unit or initiative. Using the proposed project as a foundation, participants will also learn leadership concepts and models, build specific skills, learn more about how the University works, and practice what they learn through the activities of their project and small group mentoring and coaching. Adams Academy - The Walter & Pauline Adams Academy of Instructional Excellence and Innovation is named in honor of former MSU President Walter Adams and his wife and MSU faculty member emerita, Pauline Adams, in recognition of their sustained commitments to promote instructional excellence. The program brings together a cross-disciplinary group of faculty and academic staff for a year-long fellowship focused on teaching and learning. Adams Academy Fellows explore the literature on effective university teaching and learning practices and consider how this robust body of research can be used to guide instructional decisions in the courses they teach. Participants learn from and contribute to a community of teacher-scholars committed to excellence in teaching and learning.
- Technology and Tools: IT Services offers many different resources to support teaching and learning efforts. For more information, check out Tech and Tools workshops from IT.
- MSU Libraries Workshops: MSU Library & Archives provides a series of events, seminars and workshops on a wide variety of topics including but not limited to: Mendeley, data management, 3D models, special collections, distinguished lectures, Zotero, geocoding and more. Go to MSU Library Workshops for more.
- The Graduate Teaching Assistant Institute: The New Teaching Assistant Institute is a university-wide orientation for graduate teaching assistants, in partnership with academic and support units on campus. It is up to departments to decide to require or recommend that their students attend this program (*graduate students should ask their graduate program directors if they are unsure about participating). All attendees must register and are expected to attend the entire day. Go to Graduate Teaching Assistant Institute for more information.
- Certification in College Teaching: The Michigan State University Certification in College Teaching program is an initiative of The Graduate School, in partnership with departments and colleges. The program is designed to help graduate students organize and develop their teaching experience in a systematic and thoughtful way. Program participants partake in a series of workshops, enroll in a graduate course devoted to teaching in higher education, engage in a mentored teaching experience with a faculty member and develop a teaching portfolio to highlight, organize and reflect upon their teaching experiences. Upon completion of the program, students receive an MSU Certificate in College Teaching and the accomplishment is noted on their transcript. Visit Certification in College Teaching for more information.
