The GLCA Consortium for Teaching and Learning (CTL) has completed the development of its web site, which is now available at: http://glcateachlearn.org/

The Consortium seeks to enhance the community of faculty members working to strengthen liberal arts teaching and learning – in their own classrooms and institutions, and across the GLCA’s member colleges, through dialogue and collegial engagement.

This new web site will be a source of convergence, featuring thinking and information from faculty members of multiple disciplines and colleges.  It invites contributions in several forms from faculty and staff members with practical and research experience in teaching and learning, as well as those who want to discuss with others topics of interest to teachers in higher education. The Consortium encourages faculty and staff at GLCA colleges to consider submitting contributions for publication on the website in the following areas:

• Essay for Action (a research-based essay addressing aspects of teaching with implications for educational practice);
• Article of the Week (a brief thought piece on a particular element or teaching approach);
• Research Annotations (two or three paragraphs describing a salient contribution to the research literature on a topic of pedagogy); and
• Try This, (a summary account of a research project in which a faculty member adopts an alternative approach to teaching a class).

Beyond serving as a library for articles and recommendations on teaching and learning, the GLCA CTL is a venue where faculty and staff can become acquainted with an extended community of colleagues across multiple campuses who share an interest in teaching and learning.  One section of the home page offers a video feature entitled “Teaching Tips.”  In our initial unveiling of the web site, this feature presents Steven Volk, Professor Emeritus of History at Oberlin College and Co-Director of the GLCA Consortium, describing features of the web site itself.  Future installments will provide brief video presentations offering succinct practical advice for teaching.

Another venue of engagement is “Meet your Colleagues,” a brief video clip presenting an opportunity to learn of a fellow faculty member’s interests and experiences as a teacher.  The initial video features Deanne Bell, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Antioch College, on the subject of increasing engagement in students.

The web site includes a consortial calendar, listing topics of interest across the GLCA colleges as well as important national conferences on teaching and learning.  These events offer a glimpse of topics that people are thinking and talking about at GLCA campuses.  These listings can help identify people or groups at other colleges who share an interest in particular topics.  We believe that some of these connections can lead to collaborative engagements such as a webinar or consortial brown-bag discussion, linking interest groups at different colleges.

Please consult this web site on regular occasions through the academic year.  Beyond that, please consider becoming a contributor to this community of practice through any of the modes described above. If you have any  about contributing to the Consortium, please contact the Coordinator of Faculty Development (Neil Schmitzer-Torbert) or the Co-Directors of the Program – Greg Wegner, of the GLCA and Steven Volk of Oberlin College.

Even though the Consortium web site in its current state reflects a great deal of thinking and development, it is fair to call it a work in progress. That also describes the program itself, which seeks to build a community of shared interest and practice across the GLCA’s member colleges. The continued evolution of this project will reflect the contributions we receive from interested faculty and staff members going forward.