UTC’s new library houses a number of useful support services, including the Walker Center for Teaching and Learning, which provides faculty with information, learning sessions, and consultation in the areas of teaching, learning, and technology integration.
The Walker Center offers faculty support in a number of ways; through workshops and seminars throughout the week, one on one or group consultations, and phone consultations for minor help. Faculty members can walk in from 8 – 5, though appointments are encouraged by calling 425-4188 or emailing wctl@utc.edu. The Center now has private classrooms available to better work with individuals or groups.
The Walker Center encourages faculty to make course content available online, as well as utilizing technology in the classroom.
“This helps to make faculty use of time more efficient, making it easier for faculty, while helping students learn,” said Dawn Ford, Executive Director of the Walker Center.
Another one of the Center’s major initiatives is helping faculty move courses online using best practices in teaching and learning. Faculty can make use of course redesign programs in which the Center will work one on one or in teams to redesign courses.
“For example if a faculty member wants to take a face to face course online, we help them reorganize the course and use the technology they need to make that happen,” Ford said.
Training is also available on the various tools in Blackboard: gradebook, discussion boards, using rubrics to do grading, using Safe Assign.
“Any tool on Blackboard, we can help them learn how to use it, which saves time for them and helps the students too. We’re here to improve student learning,” Ford said.
The Walker Center also provides specialized software for faculty use.
“For example, if faculty are interested in recording lectures, we can help them do that. We encourage them to try out desktop recording to record 15 minute mini lectures they might post online,” Ford said.
Additionally, the Thinkachieve quality enhancement plan is housed in the Walker Center.
“We encourage faculty to incorporate student critical thinking and experiential learning activities into the classroom and outside the classroom,” Ford said.
Accessibility is another focus of the Walker Center.
“We want to make sure programs, courses, and materials are accessible to every student, so that every student can succeed. In the past, we have made accommodations for students with disabilities, but we’re moving in the direction of making sure all services, programs, and content are accessible to everyone all the time,” Ford said.
“For example, this spring this office provided a template for a syllabus that was in an accessible format: it had page numbers, headers and headings in the text, so that it is easily read by a screen reader. Any images need to have alternate text, so there is a description of the text on a screen reader,” continued Ford. “It will take some time, because many faculty already have their class content created, but we are training faculty to create accessible content to help us move in that direction.”
The Walker Center will be hosting the Instructional Excellence Conference on May 5, 2 – 5 PM and 5:30 – 7 PM, in the Chattanooga Rooms. The Center has partnered with the Provost’s Office, the Honors College, and Thinkachieve to offer a workshop on creativity in the classroom as well as sessions on accessibility, experiential learning, and online teaching. The conference is free and open to all UTC faculty and staff.
