Educational developers understand the importance of a strong new faculty program (NFP). When designing an NFP, what do new faculty need and when do they need it? What learning goals facilitate transition and help faculty cultivate important knowledge and skills? In a multi-stage, institution-wide collaborative planning process, we adapted Fink's…

Our faculty development (FD) work applies Dee Fink's (2013) integrated course design model. In this article, we describe the situational factors related to supporting faculty who teach a required, academically-focused First Year Seminar course at a large public university. We then describe how we designed a suite of FD opportunities with goals…

Maximizing the positive impact of first-year experience (FYE) courses on students relies on effective collaboration between academic and student affairs. Professional development activities, especially with faculty, can be difficult to institute as power struggles, discordant goals, and unclear expectations abound. A Learner-centered Professional…

In this article, we discuss the importance of theory driven program development and present the empowerment framework using two case studies at a center for teaching and learning (CTL). We describe the empowerment framework, offer programmatic examples aligned with this framework, and make specific recommendations for those wishing to pursue this…

Utilizing FYE courses to support retention and college success requires a systematic understanding of, and effective tools to support, historically underserved students. Traditional, short-term faculty development programming is unlikely to support faculty needs when teaching FYE courses, especially for experienced instructors. This article…

This brief communication essay offers practical suggestions for maintaining an active teaching and learning scholarly agenda and building a teaching and learning scholarship culture on campus. The strategies offered here hopefully present faculty and faculty developers with tangible ideas to maintain their scholarship as general expectations and…

This article focuses on techniques used in professional development to strengthen the community of faculty in FYE courses, while aiming at improving the classroom experience for today's learners, specifically those related to providing content, building community, and strengthening understanding. To provide a solid foundation, creating a course…

"The Wisconsin Experience Seminar" is an extended-orientation style first-year seminar (FYS) that is intended to support students' transitions to college. The course is held each academic semester at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is taught by instructors in a variety professional roles at the university. The program is housed…

The author explores the process for development and implementation of a plan to help faculty identify early risk factors for first-year students and adopt practices to help students overcome difficulties. The article focuses on the importance of faculty participation throughout the process and the role research can play in increasing the…

This research describes a new method of peer evaluation for faculty who implement team learning in their course. It explored whether students preferred this method to other methods created by the course instructor. After creating a peer evaluation instrument using the Student-Driven Peer Evaluation Method in a team-based learning course and…

Faculty training and development for First-Year Seminar (FYS) faculty at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC) is conducted in the form of training workshops, bi-annual teaching institutes, and various professional development opportunities. Facilitated workshop content is based on student-centered teaching and learning theories.…

Faculty development is a critical component to the success of any first-year seminar. This article explains the nationally recognized faculty development model of University 101 Programs at the University of South Carolina, including the philosophy behind why we do what we do, descriptions of the various initiatives, and best practices underlying…

In fall 2018, our university launched revised first-year experience course. The curriculum focused on topics of identity, self-awareness, inclusion, diversity, and community, along with the existing outcomes of socialization, wellness, and university-level skill development necessary to transition successfully through the first semester of…

In 2012, Randy Bass challenged educators to "disrupt" themselves expanding the notion of teaching to include multiple high-impact practices (HIP). First-year seminars are a HIP that, when done successfully, encourages retention and persistence in students. On our campus they function similarly, but they also create opportunities for…

The success of the first-year experience (FYE) course hangs on the effectiveness of the individual faculty members who are given the task of educating first-year students in a particularly important developmental period. This article applies a flipped classroom strategy for kickstarting meaningful classroom discussion in Mathematics Education to…