APUS faculty are encouraged and expected to increase their level of scholarship and/or scholarly practice in their academic fields or disciplines, as well as to advance their teaching proficiency, particularly in the online environment. The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), through the Community of Inquiry model, furthers this philosophy of ongoing professional development through its mission to improve student learning through teaching excellence while providing training, support, and resources for faculty to be innovative and effective. Beginning with Faculty Candidate Training, candidates complete lessons designed to offer both the student and faculty perspective as they work through online teaching concepts, support technologies, interactive simulations, and university policies to ensure the transfer of critical information necessary for candidates to excel in online instruction.
Once a candidate becomes a member of the APUS faculty they have access to MyClassroom. This training portal offers professional development opportunities from brown bag webinar series to certification programs through a variety of asynchronous, hybrid, instructor-led, on-demand, and self-directed learning opportunities. Training is being developed continuously to ensure that faculty stay informed of instructional best practices and the latest learning technologies.
Leading with Coaching Competencies to Inspire Teaching Excellence
Professional coaching has been shown to have a positive impact on cultivating leaders, improving communication, increasing productivity and fostering a positive work environment. Development and integration of our coaching program foster an academic environment that promotes student and faculty engagement, enhances student learning, reinforces existing retention efforts, and embodies teaching excellence. Using this coaching framework and an ongoing series of “curious conversations,” APUS faculty are empowered to become an active and integral part of the university’s most significant initiatives.
APUS Certified Professional Coach Program (CPC)
Consisting of courses designed and developed to provide the knowledge, skills, abilities and experience required to effectively coach/mentor faculty members. All are aligned with the Board Certified Coach and International Coach Federation’s Certified Professional Coach competencies and ethics to position the program for internal/external delivery, recognition, and certification/accreditation.
Forum Engagement Assessment Process
The forum framework, delivered by CTL’s Instructional Specialist team, provides a tool to help focus efforts on the courses and faculty where coaching can have the greatest impact on teaching excellence and increasing student and faculty engagement.
Group Mentoring Community of Practice Project
Consisting of asynchronous and synchronous facilitated group and team sessions. These sessions align efforts associated with student success, increasing retention and persistence, addressing key performance indicators, and challenging faculty to develop new knowledge, skills and abilities.
Group mentoring community projects enhance student and faculty engagement in the classroom to maximize student satisfaction, increasing persistence and, ultimately, graduation rates. Professional coaching empowers our CTL coaches to model engagement for our faculty members, one-to-one and in groups, as they ask thought-provoking questions designed to inspire teaching excellence and increased faculty-to-student engagement.