Sign up for the quarterly newsletter to receive updates from the FTI about engagement opportunities for all physics and astronomy faculty.
The new FTI podcast and quarterly FTI newsletter are coming soon! In addition, the FTI team will organize meet-ups and other professional development opportunities for alumni in the future.
Faculty Teaching Institute Online Learning Communities (FTI-FOLCs)
What is a Faculty Online Learning Community?
How do I effectively implement what I learned at the Faculty Teaching Institute? Join an FTI-FOLC! Enrollment opens in July 2023;
What is the structure of an FTI-FOLC? FTI-FOLC participants will engage in virtual, bi-weekly meetings to discuss timely issues related to their teaching with each other. At some of these meetings, experienced practitioners of the techniques you learn about at the Workshop will join. These guest are chosen based on participant interests. To communicate between meetings, participants use an online environment that is like Facebook, but designed specifically for the FTI-FOLC and open only to FTI-FOLC participants. This environment will allow you to ask and answer questions, solicit and provide feedback, share materials and resources, and cheer for each other, all with the aim of improving your teaching. Additionally, during the second half of the FTI-FOLC participants will have the opportunity to complete a small Scholarship of Teaching and Learning project to practice assessing changes they try in their classroom.
What are the benefits of joining an FTI-FOLC?
By joining an FTI-FOLC, you will have the opportunity to share your concerns, your issues, your questions, and your successes with a group of peers at a similar stage in their careers as you. This is a group who can help you in ways that go beyond what can be accomplished during a single meeting at the Faculty Teaching Institute and who can provide perspectives on teaching different from those at your home institution. Upon successful completion of your year in the FTI-FOLC, you will receive a letter recognizing your participation and commitment to improving your teaching that can be used in promotion and tenure files.
How do I join the FTI-FOLC?
You will have the opportunity to hear more about our FTI-FOLCs at one of the sessions at the Faculty Teaching Institute, so make sure to attend! At the FTI-FOLC session, you'll hear from past FTI-FOLC participants and facilitators and have an opportunity to sign up!
Publications
The NFW-FOLC is an NSF sponsored project. We are in the process of analyzing all aspects of the NFW-FOLC experience. Below are links to our published papers on this work :
Lau, A., Dancy, M., Corbo, J., Henderson, C. and Rundquist, A. An analysis of community formation in faculty online learning communities. Proceedings of the Physics Education Research Conference, Summer 2017 (In press).
Dancy, M., Lau, A., Corbo, J., Henderson, C. and Rundquist, A. Participants' perceptions of the Faculty Online Learning Community (FOLC) experience. Proceedings of the Physics Education Research Conference, Summer 2017 (In press).
J. C. Corbo, A. Rundquist, C. Henderson, and M. H. Dancy. Using Asynchronous Communication to Support Virtual Faculty Learning Communities, Proceedings of the Physics Education Research Conference, Summer 2016.
Rundquist, A., Corbo, J., Martinuk, S., Chasteen, S., Henderson, C., & Dancy, M. Faculty Online Learning Communities to Support Physics Teaching. Proceedings of the Physics Education Research Conference, Summer 2015.
