Examining Our Practice: Engaging in a Faculty Learning Community to Enhance an Online Graduate Program

BackgroundWhile many research-based instructional strategies in STEM have been developed, faculty need support in implementing and sustaining use of these strategies. A number of STEM faculty professional development programs aim to provide such pedagogical support, and it is necessary to understand the activity and learning process for faculty in these settings. In this paper, a taxonomy for describing the learning opportunities in faculty (online) learning community meetings is presented. Faculty learning communities, meeting either in-person or (increasingly) online, are a common form of professional development. They aim to develop the pedagogical and reflective skills of participants through regular meetings centered on conversations about teaching and learning.ResultsThe tool presented in this paper, the Taxonomy of Opportunities to Learn (TxOTL), provides a structured approach to making sense of the dynamic interactions that occur during faculty learning community meetings. The origins and development of the TxOTL are described, followed by a detailed presentation of the constructs that make up the TxOTL: communicative approach used in a conversation, the concepts developed, and the meeting segment category. The TxOTL characterizes the learning opportunities presented by a faculty learning community conversation through describing the content of the conversation as well as how participants engage in the conversation. Examples of the tool in use are provided through an application to a faculty online learning community serving instructors of a physical science curriculum. A visual representation used to compactly display the results of applying the taxonomy to a meeting is detailed as well. These examples serve to illustrate the types of claims the TxOTL facilitates.ConclusionsThe TxOTL allows one to examine learning opportunities available to a faculty learning community group, analyze concept development present in their conversations, track change over time in a given group, and identify patterns between meeting segment categories and communicative approaches. It is useful for researchers as well as facilitators of these STEM faculty professional development groups. The taxonomy is most applicable to faculty (online) learning communities, with limited use for workshops and K-12 professional development contexts.

As learning contexts emerge and transform within the realm of online graduate education, educators face the ongoing challenge of fostering interactive, learner-centered experiences, and there is a greater need to explore teaching and learning in their various modalities. Researchers and practitioners have increasingly highlighted the importance of developing a sense of community in online courses and programs. Learning communities offer a potential informal context for shared and collaborative learning among peers, helping students overcome feelings of isolation and positively impacting individual learning. Many questions remain, however, about ways to develop community in online higher education, and which facilitation strategies within the online learning environment are most effective and impactful. This qualitative study utilized a phenomenological research design with in-depth interviews to explore the experiences of a sample of doctoral alumni who had studied in a one-to-one online graduate program. The conceptual framework was based on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model, which highlights the significance of presence and transactional distance in the online environment. Research questions focused on participants’ perceptions of an online learning community and what they understood as the contributing factors to building and sustaining community and collaborative learning. Thematic analysis yielded nine themes, illustrating the richness and depth of the learning community experience, shedding light on how community develops and the resulting benefits that online graduate students derive. In the context of a rapid global adoption of online learning, this research underscores the need for community and collaboration throughout the doctoral process, offering a deep understanding of the student experience. The implication is that an instructor’s thoughtful facilitation will pave the way for the quality of the interaction and connections that contribute to community-building. The findings of this research will be valuable to educators in designing and implementing a more collaborative and interactive online learning environment, ultimately fostering peer connections, improved student engagement, deeper learning, and enhanced academic performance. This study was nominated for the AERA 2026 Exemplary Contributions to Practice-Engaged Research Award in recognition of a collaborative research project that has a sustained and observable effect on contexts of practice.

INTRODUCTION As the landscape of scholarly communication and open access continues to shift, it remains important for academic librarians to continue educating campus stakeholders about these issues, as well as to create faculty advocates on campus. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM Three librarians at Miami University created a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) on Scholarly Communication to accomplish this. The FLC, composed of faculty, graduate students, staff, and librarians, met throughout the academic year to read and discuss topics such as open access, journal economics, predatory publishing, alternative metrics (altmetrics), open data, open peer review, etc. NEXT STEPS The members of the FLC provided positive evaluations about the community and the topics about which they learned, leading the co-facilitators to run the FLC for a second year. The library’s Scholarly Communication Committee is creating and implementing a scholarly communication website utilizing the structure and content identified by the 2012-2013 FLC.

Librarians are deeply invested in the scholarly publishing lifecycle. This investment, in tandem with an evolving scholarly communication system, has encouraged librarians to become advocates for transformation in this landscape. At the same time, some faculty members have been slower to understand the complexities of the current system and its evolution. At Miami University, traditional communication methods weren’t sufficient to meaningfully engage faculty in these evolving trends. As a response, several librarians designed and cofacilitated two Scholarly Communication Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) for two academic years. These FLCs have been the most successful method of increasing faculty understanding about scholarly communication and academic publishing issues. The FLCs brought together university community members comprised of faculty, staff, and graduate students interested in learning more about scholarly communication. Each group spent two semesters doing readings, attending panel presentations, and meeting for seminar‐style discussions about current issues and trends in scholarly publishing. Over the course of the year, FLC members became more aware of the nuances in the lifecycle of scholarly publication and learned which scholarly communication issues affected them most. As a result, the cofacilitators saw a rapidly growing understanding about problems inherent in the current system of scholarly publishing, a substantial increase in faculty discussions on scholarly communication, and greater faculty‐led advocacy for open access publishing. Additionally, community members appreciated the cross‐ disciplinary nature of the FLC, which afforded them the opportunity to escape traditional disciplinary silos. This article will discuss how the facilitators used the learning community format to successfully change faculty behavior about issues in scholarly communication and how these experiences altered librarian perceptions and improved interactions with faculty.

Purpose:Many US medical schools have adopted learning communities to provide a framework for advising and teaching functions. Faculty who participate in learning communities often have additional educator roles. Defining potential conflicts of interest (COIs) among these roles is an important consideration for schools with existing learning communities and those looking to develop them, both for transparency with students and also to comply with regulatory requirements.Methods:A survey was sent to the institutional contact for each of the 42 Learning Communities Institute (LCI) member medical schools to assess faculty opinions about what roles potentially conflict. The survey asked the role of learning community faculty in summative and formative assessment of students and whether schools had existing policies around COIs in medical education.Results:In all, 35 (85%) LCI representatives responded; 30 (86%) respondents agreed or strongly agreed that learning community faculty should be permitted to evaluate their students for formative purposes, while 19 (54%) strongly agreed or agreed that learning community faculty should be permitted to evaluate their students in a way that contributes to a grade; 31 (89%) reported awareness of the accreditation standard ensuring “that medical students can obtain academic counseling from individuals who have no role in making assessment or promotion decisions about them,” but only 10 (29%) had a school policy about COIs in education. There was a wide range of responses about what roles potentially conflict with being a learning community faculty.Conclusion:The potential for COIs between learning community faculty and other educator roles concerns faculty at schools with learning communities, but most schools have not formally addressed these concerns.

Introduction Teaching and learning are not often highlighted in research-intensive science,technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduate training. Thus, many faculty in STEM fields are unfamiliar with the ways educational theories can inform how to transform their teaching to reflect the contextual awareness and critical sensibilities needed to lead diverse groups of students. Professional development has traditionally served as the “on-the-job training” for faculty and instructors to improve their teaching skills, and communities of practice, such as faculty learning communities (FLCs), have emerged as a promising training outlet, including for inclusive teaching practices. Methods To explore faculty’s implementation of inclusive practices, we convened inclusivity-focused FLCs at three partner institutions across different institutional levels (i.e., department-, school-, and institution-wide). To this end, we conducted surveys and experiential interviews with faculty participants, including those who also served as FLC facilitators, from each institution. Results The faculty participants reported positively on their experiences within their FLCs, and they provided feedback that resulted in three key findings: (1) institutional context must be considered when developing and planning FLCs, (2) catalyzing trust and vulnerability are required for inclusivity-focused FLCs, and (3) sustaining active engagement from FLC members can be difficult given institutional opportunities and faculty demands. Discussion These findings can help inform improvements to FLC implementation and support faculty in adopting inclusive strategies in their classrooms, ultimately creating better learning environments for students. This study’s findings, discussion, and conclusions are likely to be interesting to engineering and STEM faculty, faculty developers, and university leadership seeking to weave inclusivity into their classroom culture.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the role faculty learning communities (FLCs), a common ADVANCE intervention, play in retention and advancement; and the ways in which FLC spaces foster professional interactions that are transformative and support the careers of women, underrepresented minority (URM) and non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty in research universities.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employed a mixed methods case study approach set at a large, research-intensive institution, which had received an NSF ADVANCE grant to focus on issues of gender equity in the retention and advancement of STEM faculty. Land Grant University implemented retention and advancement efforts campus-wide rather than only in STEM areas, including five FLCs for women, URM faculty and NTT faculty. The primary sources of data were retention and promotion data of all faculty at the institution (including the FLC participants) and participant observations of the five FLCs for five years.FindingsThe analysis of retention and advancement data showed that participation in FLCs positively impacted retention and promotion of participants. The analysis of participant observations allowed the authors to gain insights into what was happening in FLCs that differed from faculty’s experiences in home departments. The authors found that FLCs created third spaces that allowed individuals to face and transgress the most damaging aspects of organizational culture and dwell, at least for some time, in a space of different possibilities.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors suggest additional studies be conducted on FLCs and their success in improving retention and advancement among women, URM and NTT faculty. While the authors believe there is a clear professional growth and satisfaction benefit to FLCs regardless of their effect on retention and advancement, NSF and NIH programs focused on increasing the diversity of faculty need to know they are getting the return they seek on their investment and this line of research can provide such evidence as well as enhance the rigor of such programs by improving program elements.Practical implicationsFLCs offer higher education institutions a unique opportunity to critically reflect and understand organizational conditions that are not inclusive for groups of faculty. Professional interactions among colleagues are a critical place where academic and cultural capital is built and exchanged. The authors know from the authors’ own research here, and from much previous social science research that women, URM and NTT faculty often experience exclusionary and isolating professional interactions. FLCs should be created and maintained alongside other more structural and cultural interventions to improve equity for all faculty.Originality/valueThe study’s contribution to the literature is unique, as only a few studies have tracked the subsequent success of participants in mentoring or networking programs. Furthermore, the study reveals benefits of FLCs across different career stages, identity groups and position types (women, URM and NTT) and suggests the investment that many NSF-funded ADVANCE programs have made in funding FLCs has the potential to produce a positive return (e.g. more women and URM faculty retained).

This chapter outlines the use of a modified Faculty Learning Community (FLC) model for faculty development employed within a large academic department to create communities of practice. This model promotes faculty reflection and learning about pedagogy and also serves as a means for developing projects in different aspects of the scholarship of teaching and learning. Current intra-departmental discussion of this modified FLC model revolves around a question at the heart of faculty development—what exactly is being developed? There is a sense that faculty development should be about providing faculty members the opportunity for individual development (singular “faculty”), but this can be in tension with developing the collective strength of the faculty as a whole (in the plural sense) in fulfilling its mission to the University. We use an FLC model for faculty development in this multivalent sense, to address this dilemma that we have named “the faculty/faculty conundrum.” FLCs are smaller circles within a larger community of practice intent on two goals: (1) developing individual projects in pedagogy and scholarship and (2) supporting the department mission by stimulating collaboration and creating knowledge. Our FLC model promotes faculty development in a multivalent (plural and singular) sense.

The Covid-19 pandemic prompted a rapid transition to distance education internationally. Higher education institutions have since been challenged to adapt and support faculty needs for online teaching practices and pedagogical approaches that differ from face-to-face teaching. One approach to consider is the fostering of faculty learning communities, peer-led communities with faculty members of varied status or experience, generally selected by a facilitator or programme coordinator. Faculty learning communities have been found to provide effective environments for faculty development initiatives through members’ collective encouragement, support and collaboration in the development of teaching practices.This article examines a university in the United Arab Emirates that looked at fostering faculty learning communities to deliver training and support in learning design and teaching pedagogy to improve online teaching practices. Findings suggest that faculty learning communities thrive when experienced members facilitate learning through shared goals alongside collective input, participation and collaboration in the community. Given the current pertinence of this topic, more research is needed to better understand if learning communities have long-term impact to promote effective planning and development of online teaching practices in distance education.Keywords: change management; community of inquiry; communities of practice; distance learning; faculty learning communities; learning design; online learningPart of the Special Issue Technology enhanced learning in the MENA region <https://doi.org/10.21428/8c225f6e.1fd869f8>

Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) are voluntary faculty communes to share expertise, skills, and strategies facilitating self‐directed life‐long learning and constitute an interactive faculty development mechanism. Faculty development programs ensure faculty readiness, continued improvement in skills and strategies, and the creation of a positive, self‐directed, self‐sustaining and collegial work environment. Therefore, faculty development is included in accreditation standards for healthcare education degree granting programs. FLCs offer a social and easy‐to‐integrate platform for creating hands‐on faculty development programs. FLCs allow sharing of skills and strategies and directly enhance teaching by going beyond a regular “seminar” design through encouraging attendee faculty to adapt their course to incorporate the strategies being discussed. FLCs are usually run as a continuous faculty‐led course which culminates with attendees showcasing how they adapted the discussed strategy for their teaching. We implemented a summer 2019 FLC to promote technology usage in healthcare education across the California Northstate University colleges of Pharmacy, Medicine, Psychology, Dental Medicine and Health Sciences, our undergraduate program. Our six‐week long FLC included participation of 26 faculty from these colleges in implementing course design principles and techniques for creating hybrid and online class content, particularly focused on foundational sciences such as pharmacology. There were six two‐hour long sessions led by experts in topics such as “elements of hybrid course design”, “use of Active Presenter to create interactive lecture videos”, “assessment strategies for online and hybrid courses”, “communication strategies for hybrid and online courses: challenges and opportunities”, with each session divided into an hour‐long lecture followed by participating faculty working with experts to incorporate technological ideas into their existing courses. The FLC itself was designed as a blended course with resources available through Canvas and online follow‐up time provided to help attendees complete “home‐work” assignments, which typically consisted of completing the next phase of their developing course. A final session was reserved for participants to present courses in their respective disciplines that incorporated learning from the FLC. We adapted the SALG instrument with 45 questions to survey perception of the FLC. The response rate was 41%, with 80% respondents indicating that the FLC enabled 1) examination of the design, potential usage and steps for the implementation of online and hybrid technology platforms in their teaching, and 2) identification of an area of technology‐assisted or distance learning to incorporate into their teaching, while 90% felt that the session facilitators 3) demonstrated expertise in their subject matter and 4) were responsive to questions, comments and opinions. Suggested areas of improvement included time and resource allocation. Overall, the FLC facilitated awareness of university programs and enhanced technology usage in curricular design.

A Review of: Burress, T., Mann, E., &amp; Neville, T. (2020). Exploring data literacy via a librarian-faculty learning community: A case study. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 46(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2019.102076 Abstract Objective – To describe a librarian-lead faculty learning community (FLC) focused on data literacy. Design – Case study. Setting – A public university in Florida. Subjects – 10 participants in the FLC. Methods – Two librarians proposed the Data Literacy Across the Curriculum FLC as part of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. Participants were recruited from all full-time instructional faculty. The group met for monthly 90-minute meetings throughout the fall and spring semesters. Meetings were focused on group goal-setting, lightning talks, open discussion, data tool demonstrations, and the planning and development of work projects. In addition, the group designed an informal survey on the use of data tools across the institution. Main Results – At the conclusion of the year-long FLC, the group developed a frame for data literacy competencies that can be utilized across the curriculum. The FLC participants created a Data Literacy Faculty Toolkit that presented that theoretical framework, as well as providing sample activities and other resources to help faculty to practically implement that framework into their instruction. The student success librarian also integrated data literacy into the first-year student information literacy curriculum. Conclusion – Participation and facilitation of the FLC by librarians served to further librarian-faculty collaboration, as well as demonstrating library value. The work of the Data Literacy Across the Curriculum FLC raised awareness about information and data literacy on campus, and provided support to faculty members looking to further integrate data literacy into their instruction.

The increasing complexity of societal challenges requires interdisciplinary approaches in education to cultivate critical thinking, adaptability, and a holistic understanding of global issues.In response, the Quebec college system's Social Science program introduced the Thematic Issues course (TI), a single-instructor course designed to engage students in interdisciplinary inquiry through instructor-selected themes and three prescribed social science disciplines.To navigate the challenges of teaching across disciplines in an unstructured framework, instructors formed a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) to collaboratively refine course design and instructional strategies.This paper examines three TI course models: the serial model, offering compartmentalized insights; the spiral model, promoting cumulative, integrated learning; and the jigsaw model emphasizes collaborative synthesis by combining specialized disciplinary perspectives into a cohesive understanding.By analyzing these models, this practice-centered study highlights the pedagogical affordances and constraints of single-teacher interdisciplinary instruction. ContextAs societal issues grow more complex, interdisciplinary education is increasingly recognized as a way to help learners make sense of them.Curricula must prepare students for real-world challenges by fostering critical thinking, adaptability, and transferable skills (Peiqi & Xionghu, 2003).This paper presents a practitioner-centered perspective on the development of a multidiscipline course aimed at fostering interdisciplinary thinking.The course was collaboratively designed through the efforts of nine instructors (practitioners) at a large urban college in Quebec, part of the province's unique 2-year post-secondary CEPEP system (1).These individuals were tasked with developing and teaching the first cohort of a 45-hour, third semester Social Science course called Thematic Issues (TI), which prepares students for a self-directed interdisciplinary project in their final (fourth) semester.As a core course within the program, the TI is offered in 20 sections annually, serving approximately 500 students.Operating as a Faculty Learning Community (FLC; to be defined shortly), the nine instructors brought expertise from six disciplines: psychology, anthropology, philosophy, religious studies, sociology, and business administration.These instructors had no experience working within an explicit theoretical framework to prepare for the design of the interdisciplinary course.Beginning in late May 2024, the instructors held initial meetings of the FLC before pausing for the summer, during which independent course planning took place.Bi-weekly meetings resumed in Fall 2024, leading to the course's first large scale offering that semester.This piloting phase is currently ongoing (Winter 2025) and will extend into Fall 2025.Early design decisions were driven by pragmatic reasoning and practitioner insights.However, one FLC member--the first author-was simultaneously involved in a research-practice partnership focused on interdisciplinary instruction, allowing for the integration of research-informed insights of this process.Inasmuch, her role is characterized as that of boundary spanner (Akkerman & Bakker, 2011), bridging theory to practice and enriching the FLC's pedagogical approach to interdisciplinary course design. The faculty learning communityDrawing on the Cox model of Faculty Learning Community (Cox, 2004), an FLC is a structured, collaborative group of educators who engage in an ongoing, scholarly, and collegial process to enhance teaching, learning and professional development (Richlin & Essington, 2004).This participatory approach offers several advantages including fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, enhancing teaching practices and building a supportive

Problem-based learning (PBL) and case-based instruction (CBI) are instructional techniques that have been successfully implemented in a variety of disciplines. PBL and CBI promote students' skills in problem-solving, analysis, self-directed learning, and collaboration. It is, however, a creative and often time-consuming task to discover, design, and present a good problem or case that is attractive to students, appropriate for course content, and relevant to the subject. We have attempted to master PBL and CBI techniques through a faculty learning community (FLC), in which a group of six faculty members from diverse disciplines worked together to develop a joint, multi-faceted case study. As the FLC explored PBL and CBI techniques, the group discovered that the FLC provided a rich environment for sustained intellectual exchange. In this paper, we describe the experience of the group as a whole as well as the learning experiences of individual FLC members. Our experiences show that FLCs are an effective, engaging, and inexpensive way for faculty members to learn new teaching approaches such as PBL and CBI

Exploring data literacy via a librarian-faculty learning community: A case study

Faculty learning communities (FLCs) play an increasing and important role in enhancing student learning and engagement in classrooms and institutions at the higher education level. Research on Black men professors in FLCs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) is lacking, especially in teaching Black male collegians. This chapter shares the professional experiences of an interdisciplinary group of Black men with different faculty positions and roles planning, leading, and teaching in an academic learning community designed to expose first-semester Black male collegians to majors and careers in education during the coronavirus pandemic. This collaborative autoethnography study utilized African American Male Theory and Scholar Identity Model to design the faculty and student learning communities and conduct research. This manuscript will examine the FLC utilized to advance and enhance student learning, engagement, and the relationships between students, faculty, and staff. This chapter will share the study findings through two themes that describe how the Black men’s philosophy, pedagogy, student relationships, and interactions shaped the FLC and impacted student learning and engagement during the pandemic.