Arts and Sciences | Business and Industry | Featured | Health Education and Human SciencesAugust 21, 2024

UAFS Establishes Center for Teaching and Learning

Written By: Rachel Putman

The University of Arkansas - Fort Smith is set to introduce a Center for Teaching and Learning this fall, a strategic development aimed at advancing faculty expertise and student engagement through innovative educational strategies. The center’s establishment marks a significant stride toward two of the university’s strategic plan pillars, investing in academic excellence and student success.

"A center for teaching and learning is something I've hoped we would create on this campus since my arrival,” said UAFS Chancellor Terisa Riley, who began her tenure at the university in 2019. “It's a major component of faculty development and a way we can truly invest in our people. By enhancing our mission, vision, and commitments through this pedagogical hub, we are laying the groundwork for our faculty and our students to thrive in their academic pursuits."

The timing of the launch comes after a major investment by First National Bank of Fort Smith, which contributed $500,000 to endow the center.

"We at First National Bank believe in the capacity of education to advance our region in ways few other initiatives can,” said First National Bank President Sam Sicard. “When Chancellor Riley explained the vision for the Center for Teaching and Learning at UAFS, I knew it was a way First National could invest in the future of our community, ensuring that we continue to develop knowledgeable and skilled individuals who want to live, work, and serve our region after graduation.”

UAFS Provost Shadow Robinson emphasized the gift’s potential: "A center for teaching and learning is one of the few places on a college campus that has the potential to directly impact every faculty member, and thereby, every student.”

As part of the programming that will be available through the center, the University now provides LinkedIn Learning to every full-time faculty, staff, and student at the university. LinkedIn Learning offers more than 16,000 convenient online courses taught by industry experts.

The university is currently conducting a search for a member of faculty to serve as the inaugural teaching and learning fellow. The fellow will begin the process of leveraging internal and external expertise to offer collaborative programming.

Initially, programming for the center will be housed in the Boreham Library, which serves as the campus's central learning hub and provides open access to faculty from all disciplines and college affiliations. The center will leverage internal and external expertise to offer collaborative programming.

"A teaching and learning center does not take the approach of being the one with the most knowledge," Riley said. "Instead, it's tasked with finding out where expertise lives on and off campus and how we can utilize that expertise to meet the needs of our faculty and our students."

Robinson noted how the pedagogical challenges introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic increased the need to train faculty continuously. “Literally every student graduating from 2020 through 2030 has been affected,” he said. “Every traditional student who enters our classrooms for the next decade will have had 15 months of their emotional and psychological development impacted by the pandemic.”

“With the rapid changes in student background driven by nigh simultaneous impact of C-19 and the rapid development of AI, the launch of the center could not be better timed to impact our student population.”
“We know that developing and improving our faculty’s understanding of pedagogy and pedagogical innovations absolutely makes a difference in student learning,” said Riley. “It makes a tremendous impact on student success.”

Looking ahead, Riley and Robinson also hope the center helps deepen cross-campus relationships that contribute to student success, featuring collaborative workshops with the student health clinic, the counseling center, the academic success center, the Babb Center for Career Services, and more.

“In today’s world, students expect more than a professor who is a content area expert or even a leading researcher,” said Robinson, who taught and researched nuclear physics for 15 years. “They expect a professor who can tie those classroom concepts to their careers or their graduate programs.”  By helping faculty identify holistic methods of preparing students for hands-on learning experiences, internships, and job paths, Robinson said, the center will empower these faculty, who already have exceptional mentor relationships with their students, to engage them even further.

As the center develops, the university plans to use existing assessment tools, such as the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement and the National Survey of Student Engagement, to gauge its effectiveness. This approach will provide a data-driven understanding of how the center enhances engagement and learning across the campus.

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