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So now that the word is officially out about the Teaching and Learning Commons (TLC), some of you may have questions. What’s going to stay the same about the Faculty Center? What’s going to be different? Is co-create just a buzzword or will there be meaningful opportunities for multiple voices and perspectives to help shape the commons?
Let me start with what’s staying the same. The space the Faculty Center occupies in BEH will always be available for you to reserve and use. This document walks you through how to do that. The programming that the Faculty Center was providing (e.g., faculty fellows, the best teaching practices expo) will also be continuing, although there will be a focus on teaching and learning from here on out. The Office of Faculty Affairs will be supporting your tenure and promotion journey and the Division of Research will be providing support for your research needs. In other words, you will continue to have support with research, tenure and promotion while the emphasis of the Faculty Center shifts to teaching and learning.
One of the main differences will be in the staffing of the TLC. Haroon Sahotra, a professor in the College of Engineering, has graciously agreed to serve as the first faculty director of the commons. The faculty director position will be similar to a curriculum coordinator or chair role in that it’s a time-limited position. This structure allows for multiple faculty to have opportunities to serve as director, enabling the TLC to benefit from a diversity of teaching expertise. How the second faculty director is selected is a great example of one of the things we need to co-create.
Other meaningful opportunities to help shape the TLC include, but aren’t limited to, the sort of hubs connected to the commons, how to bridge the gap that sometimes exists between teaching support and learning support, and how to evaluate the impact of the TLC on the Top Tier 2.0 goals. To get our co-creation efforts started, I created a one question form where you can share what you hope a UNLV TLC will include.
In closing, I want to express my gratitude for the opportunity to work together to build the TLC. The teaching we do is important and I want to make sure everyone has the support they need. I see our students sacrificing their time and money to learn from us and, for too many of them, that's a very large opportunity cost. So much of their success depends on our teaching. I consider it a great honor to partner with all of you on this work.
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