We offer several campus-wide Professional Development opportunities throughout the year.
For an up-to-date list of all events related to Furman’s transition to remote learning during the Spring 2020 semester, please see here.
Summer 2020 Vision Series
Although our recent unexpected move to remote instruction this spring required that we adapt our courses and student engagement opportunities rapidly, we thankfully have more lead-time to invest in the intentional design of online course and research experiences for students for the summer ahead. To support the intentional and strategic design of summer courses and/or student research experiences, we’ve developed a Summer 2020 Vision Series so that we can journey together as a community to design learning experiences that highlight the unique and transformative value of a Furman education.
Our Lunch & Learn events bring together people from across our community in an informal atmosphere to collaborate and learn from each other. Event topics range from very practical tips for the classroom to more reflective discussions about student support, professional challenges, or the scholarship of teaching and learning. All Lunch & Learns take place in the Trustees Dining Room. You just need to sign in and spend an hour with us listening to different speakers and sharing ideas.
Information about upcoming Lunch ‘n’ Learn events is forthcoming.
Propose a Lunch ‘n’ Learn for Spring 2020.
To meet, dialog, and learn with (and from) our colleagues on campus, the Faculty Development Center hosts periodic Faculty Interest Groups inspired by the group study approach of Roxå and Mårtensson (2009). A faculty interest group (FIG) is an informal faculty-initiated and faculty-led forum that brings together an intentional group of people of mutual interest for approximately one month, although the duration is up to the group. Any faculty member can propose and lead a FIG of a particular topic and every faculty member can participate in a FIG.
Propose a faculty affinity group.
These workshops are part of the New Faculty Orientation Program. They include a brief presentation from the faculty peer-mentors, followed by Q&A, sharing, discussion and practical activities.
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 in related disciplines? Ideally, this includes at least 2-4 faculty from at least two departments/programs.
Propose an interdisciplinary reading group.
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.
For the spring 2020 semester, in lieu of the Learning Exchange originally planned for this year, the FDC and the 2019-2020 Reflection Fellows cohort invite you to take part in a “Reflect to Reframe Breakfast” similar to Fall 2019’s Study Day event. Join us Wednesday, April 29th from 9-10:30 AM for a “bring your own breakfast” interactive conversation about the lessons we’ve learned this semester transitioning our work, research, courses, and student interactions online. To register, visit this link. The final registration question asks you to share a “small win” from the semester in detail (with an option to share or keep confidential your initial reflection). We look forward to connecting with you on the 29th!
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. Each MayX session, we sponsor several opportunities for concentrated professional development activity. In 2020, we invite participants to consider participating in one or more of two unique courses focused on re-imagining and redesigning an online course (part of our Summer 2020 Vision Series), or planning or analyzing a scholarship of teaching and learning project. 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.