VCU CTE - Faculty Learning Communities Program

A Faculty Learning Community (FLC) is a cross-disciplinary group of 8 – 12 faculty members who engage in an active, collaborative, yearlong program that consists of both individual and group teaching and learning projects. Participants immerse themselves in exploratory research as “expert” learners attempting to solve various teaching and learning issues. The program is modeled after the very successful FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education) project on FLC's directed by Milt Cox at Miami University in Ohio http://www.units.muohio.edu/flc/index.shtml.

The Center for Teaching Excellence started an FLC program in the spring of 2005 in an effort to address two over-arching issues. One, faculty members have traditionally worked in some degree of isolation from each other—in silos. Research on FLCs indicates that FLCs are very effective at promoting collegiality and collaboration—both within and between academic units. The second issue pertains to the new strategic plan—VCU 2020. Theme II charges us to become “national recognized as a learning-centered research university.” We saw this as an opportunity to move VCU in the direction of learning centeredness. In a learning-centered organization, everyone is a learner—not just students.

In general, there are two types of FLCs: cohort-based and topic-based.

Cohort-based FLCs address the unique teaching, learning, and developmental needs of a particular cohort of faculty. In some cases these cohorts have experienced some degree of isolation, or neglect as in minority faculty. In other cases they simply share a common experience and common challenges as in the case of new or junior faculty.

Topic-based FLCs are created to address specific needs, issues, or challenges the relate to teaching and learning. These topics can pertain to university-wide initiatives or departmental. Topics can be generated from an outside mandate i.e. teaching large classes, or topics can emerge from internal needs i.e. promoting the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).

In the Spring of 2005, the first FLC at VCU addressed the issue of Teaching Large Classes. One of the key results of this FLC was the creation of an online resource guide on Teaching Large Classes at VCU. A second FLC was created to help establish a resource base for faculty who wanted to add a service learning component to an existing course.

In the Fall of 2005 the CTE launched its first cohort-based FLC on Junior Faculty Development. This FLC was responsible for identifying some of the issues and content that currently resides in our Junior Faculty Resource Guide.

In the Spring of 2006, as we began to implement VCUs Strategic Plan: VCU 2020: Vision for Excellence, the CTE launched another topic-based FLC that continues to explore the question, "What is a learning-Centered Research University?" In addition, a second FLC was created to explore the challenge of Enhancing Teaching and Learning with Technology. Below you will find a list of the FLCs at VCU. Each one links you to a description of the FLC, the results of former FLCs, and application materials for current FLCs.

Please note: Only FLCs that are labelled as NEW are accepting applications.

For more information on how to start your own FLC, or how to participate in a CTE sponsored FLC, please contact Zachary Goodell at 827-0562 or by email cte@vcu.edu.