Faculty Learning Communities

The Office for Teaching and Learning (OTL) hosts various faculty learning communities in an effort to cultivate a sense of engagement and collaboration related to teaching and learning.  These communities consist of a small group of faculty (8-12 members), who meet regularly throughout the year to explore teaching and learning issues in a collaborative and meaningful way.  Current learning communities on campus include large lecture and hybrid and online course design groups.  To learn more about our faculty learning cmmunities, contact the OTL at (313) 577-0001 or OTL@wayne.edu. 

Scholarly Writing Series

The OTL sponsors a monthly writing retreat, where faculty have an opportunity to accelerate writing projects from any stage of their process.  You could build an outline, sort notes, organize, edit, draft, or continue works in-progress.  Some faculty have used these retreats to collaborate on scholarship of teaching and learning projects. 

University Libraries' staff (e.g., liaisons, digital publishing) are available to assist you in locating and accessing resources, identifying publishing venues, and utilizing citation management applications.

For more information is available on the Scholarly Writing Series website.

Warrior Teaching Days

Warrior Teaching Days is a week-long, campus-wide opportunity for you as a Wayne State University (WSU) instructor to attend a colleague's course and engage in informal conversations about teaching.  Offered during the Fall semester, the program is meant to spark conversations about teaching, give WSU instructors the rare opportunity to sit in on each other's classes, and explore interesting topics and teaching styles that may be within or outside of your own academic department.  Opportunities to observe teaching in traditional, hybrid, and online environments are available to you.   

Participation happens in two ways:

1. You can open one or two of your class sessions to welcome colleagues to observe you teach (you get to determine which class session you open up and how many colleagues to welcome).
2. You can observe a class yourself by choosing from a list of classes where the instructor has agreed to welcome visitors.

Visit our Warrior Teaching Days page  to learn more about this event, sign-up to open your classroom, or visit another class.

Teaching Portfolio Review

Portfolios are particularly useful for the academic job market and often include a philosophy of teaching statement and selected examples of discipline-related teaching materials.  During a job search, teaching portfolios can help you articulate teaching development goals and accomplishments and prepare for job interviews.  Teaching Portfolios are often part of the promotion and tenure process for full time faculty and can benefit instructors preparing for annual reviews and/or seeking contract renewal.  The OTL offers workshops and individual consultations on teaching portfolios (print and digital) and teaching philosophies.