Matthew McHargue, M.Ed.

Instructional Designer, Northwest-Shoals Community College
Professional Development
Faculty Development
Faculty Learning Community

Thus far, the FLC has had two cohorts. The first consisting of 11 faculty members and the second consisting of 6 faculty members, 1 administrator, and 2 staff members. Each cohort went through the same process. At each of the first 3 meetings we discussed 3 chapters from the book Small Teaching written by James Lang. Each chapter discussion was led by a faculty member. The result was several hours of conversation about teaching and learning and the sharing of many instructional strategies and resources. The fourth and final session served to wrap up our journey and just enjoy one another's company over breakfast. At this final session I handed out an overview document which summarized the book itself as well as the specific insights and resources we had accumulated as a group.

This website contains a wealth of information, resources, and tutorials for faculty to access on-demand. It was especially helpful to have this existing framework in place when the initial lock down occurred due to Covid-19. We simply added a new tab to the website and curated the necessary resources for faculty to continue teaching in an online format.

This nine-week course covers a variety of topics from understanding learning styles to designing hybrid courses to utilizing e-tools. For more information about the course curriculum visit the LERN website.
.