Workshops, Courses, & Events

Lunch & Learn Gatherings

Our popular Lunch & Learn series involves brief and interactive presentations from members of our campus community on a wide range of topics – from teaching tips, to career development, to support for co-curricular experiences. Come gather with us over lunch to hear from campus partners about promising practices, relevant campus processes and procedures, and novel ideas to support teaching, learning, and scholarship. Have you got an idea for a Lunch & Learn event? Please submit your proposal here and if you have any questions, contact us at fdc@furman.edu. Beginning in 2022, many Lunch &  Learn session recordings are available on the FDC Moodle Commons website. 

Learning by Design Studios

Our Learning by Design studios are focused on-demand sessions that explore a specific skill, technique, tool, or strategy. Watch these videos at your convenience and participate in a linked asynchronous discussion board. Access studio videos here.

Interdisciplinary Reading Circles

The goal of our reading groups is to enable small but sustained communities of scholars at Furman to work together to explore particular problems or themes through established research/literature, with outcomes that might range from new or revised courses to published work inflected by the reading and discussions that have taken place. Are you looking to expand your intellectual horizons through discussion with peers across the University?  Have you got an idea about a future book we should read? Suggest a reading circle book here.

Annual Learning Exchange

Each year, during spring study day, the Faculty Development Center facilitates the Furman Learning Exchange, an annual gathering of faculty, instructional staff, and students to exchange teaching and learning strategies, professional development hacks, and research in support of high impact practice in and beyond the classroom. One recent event included an asynchronous Escape Room (with a timed mission, puzzles, and “promising practices” content curated from our community). You can register to access the escape room here.

Our 2024 event will take place in April 2024!

MayX Pro Series

This series of engaging professional development short courses is designed to provide space for important but time-consuming collaborative work that is often difficult to accomplish during the busy school year. During each MayX session, we sponsor several opportunities for concentrated professional development activity. Each hands-on, individualized course is designed to facilitate focused, guided activities that allow participants to meet individual goals and objectives. Course participation involves 3-4 concentrated sessions during the MayX term each year, with associated self-directed tasks.

Summer Course Redesign Institute

Our institute is offered at least once a year for anyone interested in enhancing their course design and structure, typically during the summer months. Whether you are hoping to make minor tweaks or a major overhaul, join us for a multi-week redesign process. Our institute involves a series of self-guided planning tasks and interactive synchronous sessions as we work through a step-by-step process designed to build a thoughtful, pedagogically sound course informed by the transformative power of liberal learning. Participants can anticipate 6-8 hours of investment per week. Using principles from Dee Fink’s Designing Significant Learning Experiences backwards design process, universal design for learning, and inclusive pedagogy, participants will have the opportunity to apply research-based teaching and learning principles to course design by: 

• Reflecting and refining learning outcomes; 
• Incorporating active, learner-centered design principles into course activities 
• Identifying assessment strategies to strengthen connections between student learning and course assignments 
• Identifying and refining components of classes that can be made more inclusive 
• Networking and collaborating with colleagues across campus. 

Summer SoTL Scholars

If you are working with summer research students to learn qualitative coding analysis—especially for data related to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)–and would like to join a cohort of faculty and student researchers learning the same methodology, the Summer SoTL Scholars program may be beneficial to you and your students.  For more intel email Diane Boyd.