Faculty Development
Faculty Development activities are conducted as a part of the capacity building strategy for SDSU-G project. The program to bring faculty from the partner universities to San Diego is a part of the capacity building strategy for this project. The objectives of the visit are to:
- Build general familiarity with SDSU
- Build awareness and familiarity of SDSU curricula, both overall and within specific courses
- Develop teaching skills within specific courses that the visitor might later assist or teach in Georgia
- Develop laboratory skills in cases with laboratory courses
- Develop an understanding of SDSU’s assessment practices
- Build collaborations with SDSU faculty, both in terms of teaching and research
- Build awareness and familiarity with SDSU culture and function
- Training Faculty to coach the Capstone Projects
During their visits, each of the Georgian faculty members is paired with a faculty member in their discipline who they work closely with on delivery of courses needed in the SDSU-Georgia program. This SDSU host serves in a mentoring capacity, with the responsibility to help craft the visit to support the teaching and research interests of the visitor and to guide the overall experience of the visitor. Teaching-related training is focused on approaches used for instruction at SDSU, including both academic content and pedagogy. The visitors observe instruction, required course materials (focused on expectations of accreditation agencies for syllabi, course schedules, program and course student learning outcomes, exams and homework, course and student assessment, advising, etc). Visitors are given opportunities to observe interactions between SDSU professors and students in advising and course-related capacities. By observing advising, visiting faculty gain the opportunity to develop more familiarity with SDSU curricula. By observing course-related interactions (such as office hours), visiting faculty gain the opportunity to develop more familiarity with the range of pedagogical methods used in informal settings.
Training on accreditation-related assessment instruments (both direct and indirect) is also provided. The training also includes the use of online tools, such as Blackboard (course management system) and WEAVE (assessment archiving system), which are used in the SDSU-Georgia program. Some professors have also gained experience with asynchronous video casting platforms used at SDSU, which will support their participation in co-teaching in different modalities once they begin instruction.
Where appropriate (e.g. in Engineering disciplines), visiting faculty also receive training in ABET accreditation standards. All visiting Georgian faculty also meet with SDSU Department Chairs and Deans.
Georgian visitors with administrative appointments met with the SDSU Provost and other administrators at SDSU for discussions about administrative structure and shared governance involving administrators, faculty, staff, and students.