Welcome to the Faculty Development Center (FDC)
The Faculty Development Center provides a centralized place to support the teaching of all EMU faculty, lecturers, teaching GAs, and student success staff. The FDC promotes excellence in teaching, learning, and scholarly activities in accordance with the core values of respect, inclusiveness, care, and commitment. The Center grounds itself in awareness and support for cultural diversity and community-building.
Resources and Services
Teaching Spotlights
Read about our newest teaching spotlight and those from this past year. If you know an EMU instructor that you'd like to be recognized, consider nominating an outstanding faculty member!
Latest Newsletter
Take some time to read our weekly newsletter Happenings at the Faculty Development Center. Each issue features exciting FDC programming and events, blog posts, and much more.
Teaching Blog
We are excited to host the Teaching Blog as a platform for faculty to share their opinions and outlooks on teaching. Keep an eye out for upcoming entries and check out some of our posts from last year!
Upcoming Events
Stay up-to-date on all the upcoming programs and events that the FDC provides in support of excellence in teaching, learning, and scholarly activities here at Eastern Michigan University.
Happenings at the Faculty Development Center
Teaching and Learning Together
The Teaching and Learning Together (TaLT) initiative aims to form strong communities of learners by engaging educators and students together to explore collaborative partnerships. We seek to facilitate efforts to shape the student-faculty collaborative culture at EMU in a way that can improve both the student experience (including in such things as retention and persistence), as well as the faculty experience.
Research Writers' Collaborative
The Writers’ Collaborative is an annual opportunity for EMU faculty to support each other while achieving realistic writing goals (i.e. developing a conference paper, drafting an article, revising a book chapter, etc.). Giving and getting helpful feedback is also included in this program. This program will meet throughout the winter 2024 semester on Wednesdays from 1-3 PM. Sessions will take place virtually on Zoom.
Generative AI Programming
Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) emerged in December of 2022, and since then, our faculty, staff, and lecturers have posed numerous questions and started engaging in thoughtful conversations about how to approach and use Gen AI in an academic context. The Faculty Development Center and the University Writing Center have been hosting various programs related to Gen AI. Learn more about recent sessions by clicking the link below.
2024 Thank-An-Eagle
The Faculty Development Center hosts a university-wide event called Thank-An-Eagle, where EMU community members have a chance to thank an instructor, staff member, coach, GA, or mentor who has helped them during their time here at EMU. The 2024 Thank-An-Eagle event will be held on Thursday, April 18th, at 3:30 PM.
Summer Research Writing Sprint
Are you ready to kickstart your summer research agenda? Join us for a two-day writing retreat on Wednesday, May 22 and Thursday, May 23. You bring your laptop and your works in progress. We’ll bring the snacks and the supportive environment to keep you focused and productive. Take two days away from the usual distractions and demands on your time.
Collaborative Course (Re)Design Learning Community
Applications for the fall 2024 Collaborative Course (Re)Design (CCRD) learning community are now open. In CCRD, you and one of your former students work together collaboratively to redesign portions of a course that you want to update and improve.
Fulbright Workshop
Through this informational workshop, participants will hear several experts talk about the various types of Fulbright grants and how to navigate the application process through EMU, as well as personal success stories of recent EMU faculty Fulbright grantees.
The AS-L Summer Institute
The AS-L Summer Institute is an opportunity for faculty and lecturers to reflect on prior AS-L courses and think deeply about the value of community engagement. We will revisit student coursework with AS-L outcomes in mind, engage in revising course assessments, and otherwise work to improve AS-L courses we teach.
2024 Summer and Fall Mini-Grant Winners
The Bruce K. Nelson Faculty Development Center and the Dean of Students Office, with support from the Department of Recreation and Intramurals (Rec/IM) and E|Dining, invited faculty and students to potentially work together to implement a wellness practice into the classroom. We have six Mini-Grant Winners for the summer and fall of 2024.
Spotlighting Student-Faculty Partnerships
Dr. John McCurdy and Chris Baker
Dr. John McCurdy and Chris Baker
In this partnership spotlight, Dr. John McCurdy (L) and Chris Baker discuss how a graduate class assignment blossomed into a partnership, which led to presentation opportunities. They also share with us the benefit that being open-minded can have for a partnership.
Nominate a Student-Faculty Partnership
This segment of our website, "Partnership Spotlights," highlights student-faculty partnerships on campus. If you are interested in being featured in a Partnership Spotlight or know of a student-faculty pairing worth highlighting, please complete the short form below.
In previous semesters, the Faculty Development Center has spotlighted lecturers and faculty from a variety of departments. To view these spotlights, please click the link below.