| University of Iowa
PROGRAM NAME INFORMATION Center for Teaching, WWW INFORMATION http://www.uiowa.edu:80/~centeach/index.html QUICK REFERENCE INSTITUTIONAL INFORMATION University of Iowa PROGRAM INFORMATION The Center for Teaching began in 1996 and is under the Office of the Provost. Staff consists of a half-time director (faculty member), a full-time associate director, and a half-time secretary. We’ve had some paid assistance from work-study students and some volunteer assistance from two graduate students. Our major expenditures (in a first-year budget of $110,000 in hard money are for printing, travel, and resource purchases. In addition to the Center for Teaching, the University of Iowa supports the Office of Consultation and Research in Medical Education for the university’s medical school, and the school of pharmacy initiated its own such office in 1996. Programs for Graduate Teachers are offered through the departments that hire them; in some cases Graduate Teachers receive an "inoculation" before classes begin, in others, e.g. rhetoric and foreign languages an intense fall workshop is followed by ongoing activities, sometimes in the context of a formal, for-credit course. PROGRAM GOALS AND ACTIVITIES Our mission of supporting excellent instruction by both faculty and Graduate Teachers is acted on in various ways. The director promotes conversation about teaching by appearing before faculty committees as well as groups such as parents of undergraduate students. He attends key meetings aimed at shaping the policies of the university and works with administrators and our technology unit on promoting the increased knowledge and use of technology. We published four newsletters this year and one "Occasional Paper." Our publications are weighted toward conceptual pieces rather than teaching tips. On person-to-person matters, our services include call-in or--more often--drop-in consulting, videotaping class sessions, holding brown-bag lunches and workshops. The workshops have been aimed this first year at Graduate Teachers, though we’ve also responded to departments asking for specific programs for their faculty; their requests have derived from our brochures or from periodic letters describing some services. Other activities include a fair, weekly meetings for new faculty and for women faculty, and videoconference co-sponsorship. |