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Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence (CAFE)

ASimson-ChE
KWright-Thermo
GSidebotham-ME
Ben Davis
DMLuchtenburg-ME

VISION & MISSION

The Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence (“CAFE”) provides practical resources in instructional development, faculty development, and organizational development efforts involving faculty at the Albert Nerken School of Engineering (“SoE”).

CAFE aims to support the continuous pursuit of faculty excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service at the SoE. CAFE is committed to delivering the highest quality support for SoE faculty at all career stages through onboarding and faculty development workshops, online resources, collegial learning experiences, innovative learning spaces and technology, and collaborative problem-solving.

CAFE will help develop, facilitate, and deliver:

  • Practical 24/7 online reso​​urces to support full-time and adjunct faculty
  • Faculty Development Workshops and onboarding into new roles
  • Collegial faculty conversations to share existing expertise and guidance

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Welcome to the Albert Nerken School of Engineering!  CAFE offers orientation and onboarding resources to help you get off to a strong start.

Onboarding

CAFE has organized key steps, links to important resources, and answers to common questions for both full-time and adjunct faculty in the Faculty Quick Start Guide. Please use and share this resource with your new faculty colleagues in the weeks and months before they begin work so they can get off to a strong start. New faculty are welcome to begin reviewing and taking steps outlined in this resource.

Faculty Development Workshops ("FDW")

Details about the location, times, agendas of these orientation activities will be e-mailed to new faculty. If you are a new faculty member with questions about FDW, please contact Professor Lisa A. Shay, Associate Dean for Educational Innovation.

New Full-Time and Part-Time Faculty

New full-time and part-time faculty beginning will be contacted directly regarding the timing and format of our faculty development workshop ("FDW"). CAFE will support new full-time and part-time faculty through a combination of real-time (synchronous) and asynchronous online means. ​Before the start of each semester, there is normally a week of college, department-level meetings and activities before classes begin. New full-time and part-time faculty should factor these activities into their plans for preparing for fall courses.

Getting Started at the SoE: Overview of Online Resources

TEACHING AND LEARNING

Practical Resources for Teaching

This section gathers concise, practical help on common topics in teaching. Quick Guides are super-concise resources that condense key points on a topic into 1 sheet and includes hyperlinks to other useful resources if you would like to go further. Templates or Worksheets are editable documents to help you shape and clarify your thoughts. How-to's/job aids provide instructions for how to complete a task, such as working with a particular type of technology.

Topic Quick Guides Templates/Worksheets How To's/Job Aids
Starting the Semester

First Day of Class

Making a Welcome Video

 Syllabus Template

Responding to Student Situations

Referring Students:

Academic Advising Guidelines

Center for Writing

Student Affairs
Enhancing Learning

Using the Four-Questions Technique to Enhance Learning

Enhancing Student Learning: Seven Principles for Good Practice

Getting Students to Read Well

Brain Breaks

 Parting Ways: Ending Your Course Active Learning Techniques for the Classroom
Increasing Student Engagement

Using MS Teams

Using Zoom

 How to create polls using Teams & Zoom  
Giving & Receiving Feedback

Effective Feedback for Learning

The Power of Feedback

Delayed versus Immediate Feedback

Recommended Best Practices for Course-End Surveys

Student Asssessment of Learning Gains (SALG) Surveys

 How to give written, audio or video feedback
Recording Instructional Material 12 Principles of Multimedia Learning   How to record a narrated PowerPoint Presentation
Group Assignments/Multi-Media Assignments and Collaboration Supporting Student Collaboration Template for Group Contract How to use Teams for collaboration
Philosophy of Teaching Learning Styles    

 

RESEARCH

SoE IRB-Institutional Review Board Page

For more information on our current research click here or you can download our SoE Research Brochure.

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