DE Oracle @ UMUC

Faculty Development Certificate Program

Center for Teaching and Learning

Staff of Center for Teaching and Learing

Center for Teaching and Learning

Published: March-April 2006

Category: » Fac-resources » Faculty-development

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) offers a Workshop Certificate Program (WCP). The WCP is intended to assist faculty in planning a well-articulated, systematized path for faculty development. Faculty development workshops are included in the category of "workshops" mentioned in the Faculty Promotion Policy 181.4A under the Professional Activity criterion.

The formation of this program is the result of more than a year's careful development during which CTL considered feedback from faculty and consulted with representatives of UMUC's global academic administrative and service units.

Types of Certificates

There are two certificates available: the Basic and the Advanced. The award of the Basic Certificate provides evidence that faculty have attained a basic set of essential skills and knowledge needed for teaching at UMUC. The award of the Advanced Certificate is intended to demonstrate additional breadth and depth in subjects critical to successful teaching and learning.

Certificate Program Workshops

Workshops included in the WCP are assigned to one or more of six main categories:

1. Teaching and Interaction Skills
2. Assessment and Evaluation
3. Design, Integration, and Implementation
4. Technology Mastery
5. University Policies, Guidelines, and Resources
6. School and Discipline-Specific

The School and Discipline-Specific category is for workshops that are the result of CTL's collaboration with a school, discipline, or program to offer workshops that are either required or highly recommended for their faculty. They are intended for the global UMUC faculty in a particular discipline and have been developed by the sponsoring discipline with the input of global academic directors and the support of CTL.

Examples of workshops in each category can be found on CTL's workshop web page. Click on the link to Online Workshops and then select the PDF document link in the CTL Workshop Lineup box.

Certificate Requirements

Basic Certificate Requirements:

Successful completion of 4 workshops over a two-year period 

Options: 

1. Best Instructional Practices OR Understanding the Needs of the Adult Learner
2. The Art of Feedback OR Rubrics: Grading Effectively and Efficiently
3. Academic Policies
4. Beyond Library Basics: Choosing, Using, but Not Abusing Information Resources

Advanced Certificate Requirements:

Successful completion of a total of 6 workshops from at least 4 categories within 3 years, including the following:

1. Completion of the Academic Policies workshop is required unless it has already been completed and applied under the Basic Certificate requirements.
2. CTL's library workshop, Beyond Library Basics, is required unless it has already been applied as part of the Basic Certificate.
3. At least 1 workshop from the Technology Mastery category is required. The category encompasses workshops that review or highlight new WebTycho features as well as those focusing on low-threshold multimedia tools.
4. If a department offers a required or highly recommended workshop with CTL through category 6, faculty from that department would be required to include that workshop as part of their Advanced Certificate.

Additional Rules

• The Basic Certificate is not a prerequisite for the Advanced Certificate program.
• Up to 2 workshops from the Basic Certificate may be applied toward the 6 workshop requirement for the Advanced Certificate.
• Workshops that are cross-listed in more than one category may only be applied to one category for the purpose of credit toward the certificate.
• Faculty interested in qualifying for a second Advanced Certificate based on a different set of 6 courses may do so. Again, courses must be successfully completed within another 3-year cycle.
• Faculty must submit a form to CTL when ready to qualify for either certificate.
• Retroactive credit: Those who have successfully completed qualifying workshops since CTL's Fall 2004 semester may petition to have these workshops counted toward the Basic Certificate. (Workshops offered during or after Fall 2004 conform to new requirements.) In addition, the LIBS 150 faculty version may be substituted for the Beyond Library Basics workshop for the Basic Certificate.
• If a department administrator requests or requires that a faculty member take a training workshop offered outside the CTL certificate program, the faculty member may request consideration for credit toward one workshop in the School/Discipline-Specific category to fulfill the Advanced Certificate distribution requirement. A minimum of 8 hours of participation/deliverables must be involved in the activity in order to qualify. Prior notification and approval must be obtained from CTL through the appropriate administrator, as well as verification of participation after the activity.
• Completion of selected SkillSoft technical courses reviewed by CTL and equivalent to 8 hours of instruction may be applied to meet the Technology Mastery category. To see the current list of eligible Skillsoft courses, please visit our CTL website.

Those who complete the Basic Certificate or Advanced Certificate will be awarded a hard-copy certificate by CTL.