Taking Flight: Making Your Center for Teaching and Learning Soar

Taking Flight synthesizes research on best practices for running centers of teaching and learning, providing practical guidance and resources for educational developers who are looking to open new centers; revitalize an underperforming center; or sustain and enhance an effective center. The authors offer the necessary background, relevant examples, and practical exercises specifically designed to support the sustained vitality of educational development and its role in fostering organizational change. The book is practical in nature, with step sheets, diagrams, and similar materials designed to facilitate reflection and application.   

The book guides educational developers in enhancing and applying their knowledge, skills and abilities to establish a leadership role which, in turn, will enable them to play a pivotal role in translating visionary strategies into meaningful actions across their respective campuses. An effective, well-managed center for teaching and learning has the potential to benefit its institution’s faculty, staff, students, and community members. Through fostering a productive relationship with campus administration, centers can improve morale, contribute to shaping and achieving institutional learning mission and outcomes, enhance institutional reputation, and make a contribution to the practice of teaching and learning across the academy.  

The materials in Taking Flight were honed through a series of national workshops developed under the aegis of the POD Network – the professional organization for educational developers in the United States. This book answers a need for a resource for directors and staff of centers that has been identified by leaders in the field. It also provides valuable context for all leaders concerned about student learning and the improvement of teaching.

Laura Cruz is an Associate Research Professor for Teaching & Learning Scholarship with the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at Penn State. She previously served as the director of two Centers for Teaching and Learning; as editor-in-chief of three teaching-related journals, as elected member of the national board for faculty developers in the United States, and as principle investigator for four externally funded grants.  

Her publications and invited presentations include work in her first discipline (history) as well as the areas of instructional design, educational development, the scholarship of teaching and learning, organizational change, and educational innovation.

Michele Parker is from Brooklyn, NY. She was a non-traditional college student at SUNY Stonybrook. Encouraged by the excellent mentoring received in college, Parker pursued a Master’s degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration. Later she earned a Ph.D. in Research, Statistics, and Evaluation at the University of Virginia and then joined the faculty at UNC Wilmington (UNCW). In the Educational Leadership department, Parker teaches inquiry courses. Also, she teaches for the college teaching certificate and the coaching and mentoring certificate programs. At the University, she serves on University-wide Task Forces. In educational development, Parker previously worked in a Center for Teaching and Learning. Currently, she leads faculty development initiatives transnationally.

Brian Smentkowski is the Founding Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Director of Service Learning, and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Idaho. He is the past editor of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development and has published and presented extensively in the fields of educational development and political science. He has led faculty and educational development programs and initiatives at four universities, with an emphasis on institutional culture change, SoTL, and supporting student success through faculty and educational development.

Marina Smitherman is Chair of the Department of Life Sciences and Professor of Biology at Dalton State College. With two decades of college teaching experience, Smitherman has specialized in Educational and Organizational Development; serving as Director of the Center for Academic Excellence leading faculty development in Teaching and Learning, leading High Impact Practice curriculum innovations, chairing the Georgia Consortium of Teaching and Learning Directors, and working collaborative on scholarship with POD, CUR, and AAC&U colleagues. She won the University System of Georgia Felton Jenkins Jr. Faculty Hall of Fame Teaching Excellence Award in 2020.