Ready to share your expertise, foster collaboration, and build lasting connections with colleagues across campus? The Center for Faculty Excellence is accepting proposals to lead communities of practice for the 2025–2026 academic year! These semester- or year-long learning experiences bring members of the BGSU teaching community together regularly to explore a topic of interest and work together on a shared initiative.

Community of practice facilitators can be CFE Faculty Associates and other BGSU faculty members and instructors, campus partners, or other members of the BGSU teaching community interested in fostering connection, discussion, and community. By facilitating a community, you’re helping cultivate a culture of teaching and learning for the public good.

Communities of Practice should:

• Have a clear topic that is reflected in the title of the community and supports the mission and vision of the Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE).
• Have clear learning outcomes.
• Provide relevant examples of concepts, skills, and practices.
• Provide opportunities for participant collaboration, interaction, and/or engagement.
• Be relevant to a wide spectrum of the BGSU teaching community (when possible), including full-time faculty, adjunct faculty, graduate students, and staff (classified and administrative).
• Have outcomes that can be accomplished within a semester or academic year.

If you are proposing Community of Practice that has not been offered by the CFE before, follow these steps:

1. Download and complete the CFE Community of Practice Proposal Template, outlining your proposed CFE community of practice. Please do not edit the template directly in Sharepoint. 
2. Refer to the CFE Community of Practice Facilitator Guide for information on each of the required sections. 
3. Upload the completed proposal template as a Microsoft Word document to the 2025-2026 CFE Community of Practice Proposal Form by the appropriate deadline.

If you are proposing a Community of Practice that has been offered by the CFE before and do not have any significant changes to make to your community and/or community description, follow these steps:

1. Copy and paste the Meeting Schedule portion of the CFE Community of Practice Proposal Template into a Microsoft Word document and complete the schedule for the upcoming community.
2. Complete the 2025-2026 CFE Community of Practice Proposal Form by the appropriate deadline and upload the meeting schedule to the file upload section of the form. 

2025-2026 Community of Practice Proposal Submission Deadlines

If you are proposing a community of practice for the 2025-2026 academic year, we ask that you submit your proposal by the appropriate deadline outlined below.

Proposals will be reviewed and evaluated by the CFE Team based on the following criteria:

• The proposed community has a clear topic that supports the mission and vision of the Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE). 
• The proposed community has clear learning outcomes.
• The proposed community will provide relevant examples of concepts, skills, and practices.
• The proposed community will provide opportunities for participant collaboration, interaction, and/or engagement.
• The community is relevant to members of the BGSU teaching community (when possible), including full-time faculty, adjunct faculty, graduate students, and staff (classified and administrative).
• The community has outcomes that can be accomplished within the requested community duration. 

After reviewing your proposal, the CFE team will reach out to you about the next steps for your proposed community.