• FAs selected to serve in general positions will develop and facilitate one learning community per semester or one learning community that continues for the course of the academic year. The learning community(ies) will focus on a professional development theme of the FA’s choosing.
• FAs in this position must design and facilitate at least one session per semester of their service.
• The term of service for this position is one academic year.

• Offered in collaboration with the CFE and the Office of the Provost.
• The FA selected to serve in this position will develop and facilitate a new Course Design Institute that will provide faculty and instructors dedicated time to re-envision their course design and pedagogy to support student success. In the fall, the FA will be responsible for designing the curriculum and developing an application process. In the spring, the FA will implement the application process and facilitate the institute. The timeline for development and facilitation is flexible. CFE team members will be available to support the FA throughout the development and implementation process.
• The FA in this position must design and facilitate at least one workshop or session per semester of their service. Session topics should be related to supporting student success in the classroom via curriculum, assessment, and/or pedagogical changes.
• The term of service for this position is one academic year.

As a Faculty Associate, you are expected to identify a professional development theme and design a learning community around that theme. 

The learning community should:

• Have clear program learning outcomes.
• Have clear participant expectations.
• Meet regularly throughout the semester.
• Result in participant-created deliverables to document participant learning.

Proposed learning communities on the following professional development themes are of particular interest for the 2025-2026 academic year:

• Active teaching & learning
• Authentic assessment strategies
• Faculty well-being
• Generative AI in higher education
• Inclusive pedagogy & assessment
• Research, scholarship & creative activities
• The Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SOTL)
• Thriving as an adjunct instructor
• Teaching large courses

Participation in learning communities may be open to all members of the BGSU teaching community or be limited to a specific demographic of the BGSU teaching community (e.g., graduate student instructors, new full-time faculty, etc.). Learning communities are usually limited to 10-15 participants.

Learning communities may last one semester or for one academic year. Learning communities that last one semester will be offered during both the fall and spring semesters. The frequency, length, and modality of learning community meetings may be determined based on the goals and activities of the community. 

Participants in the learning community will complete and submit learning community deliverables either individually or collaboratively. Learning community deliverables may include written works (e.g., discussion board posts, reflection papers, etc.), sessions or presentations (e.g., CFE workshop or panel discussion, Teaching & Learning Summit session, conference presentation, etc.), resources (e.g., Just-in-Time Resource for the CFE website), or other materials (e.g., infographic, multimedia presentation, rubric or assessment tool, creation of a new certificate program or online course or module, etc.).

After designing the learning community in collaboration with the CFE team, you will provide a description of the community to the CFE to be published on their website, and you will participate in CFE’s marketing efforts. 

At the end of each semester, the CFE will collect learning community participant feedback and share the feedback with you.  At the culmination of each learning community, the CFE will collect the community’s deliverables from the Faculty Associates. The data gathered from the participant feedback surveys and deliverables will be used for CFE annual reporting and program evaluation and to inform future offerings as well as overall CFE continuous improvement plans.  

As a Faculty Associate, you are expected to design and facilitate one CFE session per semester that addresses a professional development theme. The same session may be offered for the fall and spring semesters, or you may design two different sessions to be offered. These sessions may be an interactive workshop, a facilitated dialogue session, a panel  discussion, a working session, a technology demonstration, or another session-type of your choosing. To see the list of CFE session types and their descriptions, visit the Session Catalog page of the CFE website.

The session should:

• Have a clear topic that is either related to your learning community’s professional development theme or another area of your expertise.
• Have clear learning outcomes.
• Provide relevant examples of concepts, skills, and practices.
• Provide opportunities for participant collaboration, interaction, and/or engagement.
• Be approximately one hour in length.

While CFE sessions are generally open to all members of the BGSU teaching community, your session may be designed to be focused on a specific demographic of the BGSU teaching community (e.g., graduate student instructors, new full-time faculty, etc.). Participation in CFE sessions is generally not restricted to a specific number of participants unless requested by the facilitator. Average participation in CFE sessions is 10-30 participants.

You are expected to develop and share at least one instructor support resource that will be posted in the Just-In-Time Resources page of the CFE website and/or shared with the CFE’s audience as needed. 

These resources may include materials you developed to support your workshop or learning experience (e.g., presentation slide deck, Zoom recording of a session, video of a webinar or demonstration, etc.), materials designed and developed in collaboration with your learning community (e.g., conference presentation slide deck, rubric or assessment tool, article, infographic, etc.), and/or materials designed to address another area of your expertise (e.g., how-to guide, recorded instructional video, etc.). 

During your tenure as a Faculty Associate, you will serve on the CFE Advisory Board to assist with long-term initiative development and strategic planning. The Advisory Board meets one to two times per academic year.

You will collaborate with the CFE team and other Faculty Associates in the piloting of a new professional development initiative or the revision of an existing professional development initiative. 

The professional development initiative for Faculty Associates serving the 2024-2025 Academic Year is to develop an informal peer observation guide. This guide will be designed to be used by faculty and instructors to engage in informal and self-directed peer observations of teaching and inspire reflective teaching practices.

The following members of the BGSU teaching community are eligible and encouraged to apply for this program:

• Full-time faculty (tenure-track and QRF) 
• Adjunct faculty who are instructors of record for a BGSU course during the 2024-2025 academic year
• Administrative or classified staff who are instructors of record for a BGSU course during the 2024-2025 academic year

This program is not open to graduate students, graduate student instructors, and administrative or classified staff who are not instructors of record during the 2025-2026 academic year. 

If you have any questions about your eligibility for this program, please reach out to the CFE at cfe@bgsu.edu

Yes, as long as you meet the above eligibility criteria and are able to meet the program requirements, you do not need to teach at BGSU’s Main Campus to apply for this program. Faculty and instructors who are located at Firelands campus and/or work remotely or on a hybrid schedule are welcome to apply for this program.

Yes, if you are a full-time faculty member, you may use your service as a Faculty Associate as evidence for merit and/or promotion. Additionally, you may request a letter from the CFE Director stating your terms of service as a Faculty Associate to be uploaded to Faculty180, BGSU’s faculty activity reporting system.

Yes, faculty members who have served as Faculty Associates in previous academic years are welcome to apply for the program. The CFE also encourages faculty members who have not yet served as a Faculty Associate to apply. In the case of two equally strong applications, preference may be given to applicants who have not yet served as a Faculty Associate.

The CFE will provide requested books to support the research and development of your learning community. If you assign a book to your learning community, the CFE will purchase one book per learning community member. The CFE will also provide material resources needed for the facilitation of a learning community and/or learning experiences (e.g., handouts, classroom or conference room space, classroom technology, writing materials, etc.) as well as support for learning communities and/or learning experiences (e.g., marketing, scheduling, registration, evaluation, etc.).