Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)
What is a PLC?
A Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a cross-disciplinary group of 8-12 faculty and academic staff who engage in a collaborative semester-long program to ask questions about innovations in teaching and learning, explore teaching innovations, and generate products of value to the campus community (e.g., surveys, policy papers, teaching tools, presentations, and manuscripts).
A PLC usually consists of several basic traits:
Cross-disciplinary (often combining faculty and professional staff)
8-12 members (plus two facilitators)
Active, collaborative learning experience
Regular structured scholarly activities and discussions
Semester-length (though some run one year)
Often creates an end product (e.g., scholarship, conference, presentation, syllabus revision).
Fall 2018 Professional Learning Communities
Critical Reading
Dr. Jill Parrott
Initial Meeting Time: Mondays or Wednesdays at 2:30; Tuesdays or Thursdays at 2 or 3:30 based on registraints
Meeting Location: Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning (FCT&L)
Critical reading is a foundational skill for success in college, yet students often can't or don't read assigned texts in their classes. Using Critical Reading in Higher Education, a recent, multidisciplinary study as a guide, this PLC will examine the role of reading for learning in our courses, practice metacognitive strategies for active reading, and design critical reading assignments and assessments that can help students read with purpose and develop as critical readers. Participation is limited to those who have attended at least one critical reading Teaching and Learning Innovative series session or the Learner Level of the Critical Reading DEEP Course.
Register for Critical Reading PLC
A September Series: High-Impact Practice Within and Beyond the Classroom
Dr. Beth Polin and Dr. James Wells
First Meeting Time September 6, 13, 20, 27 from 4:00pm-5:00pm
Meeting Location: Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning (FCT&L)
As the two recipients of the 2018 High Impact Practice Teaching Award, we are offering a four week series centered on the use of high impact practice within and beyond the classroom. The first session will share the theoretical framework of high impact practice. The second and third sessions will center around each of us sharing our experience of high impact practice. The fourth and final session will propose a discussion of extending high impact practice beyond the classroom.
Register for High-Impact Practice PLC
Assignment Design and Assessment
Dr. Ryan Baggett and Cindy Judd
Initial Meeting Time: Fridays (4 or 5 meetings) throughout the semester; either 9am or 10am
Meeting Location: Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning (FCT&L)
In this PLC, we will work with our faculty colleagues to identify some of the best practices in assignment design. The strategies discussed will be based heavily on Dr. L. Dee Fink’s work and will incorporate assignment assessment strategies from the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) among others. Participants will use a checklist to assess a current assignment they are using and will redesign at least one assignment by applying the best assignment design practices.
Register for Assignment Design and Assessment PLC