Under the umbrella of Academic Affairs, Faculty Affairs is a mechanism for creating knowledge about teaching practices that can help resolve inequities in access to higher education learning opportunities. The department promotes an interdisciplinary interrogation of teaching and learning theory that is committed to 1) understanding the whole, contemporary student beyond the classroom 2) leveraging that understanding toward effective and equitable content delivery and instructional practice and 3) revision of legacy practice and thought to enhance access to knowledge for contemporary learners and educators.
In service of this mission, Faculty Affairs is charged with advancing the UAGC faculty body’s capacity achieve instructional excellence both in and out of the classroom and UAGC. A key to this advancement is a unified faculty body – One UAGC Faculty – wherein full-time and associate faculty are equally knowledgeable about, engaged in, and prepared to contribute to institutional work. Faculty Affairs’ supports One UAGC Faculty by offering learning and engagement opportunities focused on connecting instructional best practices and institutional goals. These offerings include formal self-reflection exercises; formative feedback via course observations; faculty communities of practice; quarterly internal faculty publications; an annual conference; and delivery of learning materials and consultation with Faculty Affairs staff that support the abovementioned commitments.
Faculty Affairs Leadership Team
Faculty Development
The Faculty Development branch of Faculty Affairs connects the UAGC faculty body to institutional work by creating training and professional development content on embracing UAGC student success priorities and facilitating their execution in each classroom. As the Associate Director of Faculty Development, Kate Johnson ensures that professional development supports faculty success by pushing a continuous engagement with literature on teaching and learning and partnership with Faculty Engagement and a broad set of institutional stakeholders whose work defines curricular, instructional, and student support expectations. Her scholarly agenda deals with articulating a research-based definition of caring online instruction and identifying improvements to core teaching practices – specifically leveraging formative assessment to support students – that bring it to fruition.
Faculty Engagement
The Faculty Engagement branch of Faculty Affairs supports the alignment of faculty classroom practices to UAGC values by regularly communicating institutional student success priorities; facilitating discussion of instructional perspectives; and linking classroom challenges to resources that support resolution. Under the leadership of Haley Pestner, the Associate Director of Faculty Engagement, the team partners with Faculty Development and institutional stakeholders whose work impacts the faculty experience to amplify the faculty voice and optimize opportunities for faculty support and development. Haley and the Faculty Engagement team see every interaction with a UAGC faculty member, staff member, or student as a chance to create a supportive learning environment for all.
UAGC Teaching & Learning Conference
Learn MoreThe University of Arizona Global Campus Teaching & Learning Conference (TLC) is a free, virtual, annual community of practice event. For the past eight years, the conference has sought cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional conversations about scholarly, practical, and experiential dimensions of adult learning, with the goal of addressing issues of equity in access to higher education. TLC hosts upwards of 800 teaching and learning professionals representing higher-education and K-12 institutions and continuous learning-focused departments of businesses and public service organizations from across the United States and abroad.