University of Central Florida: Summer Faculty Development Conference

Every May, the Faculty Center at UCF hosts the Summer Faculty Development Conference. Full-time faculty members from all colleges submit proposals to transform courses or programs according to goals and objectives related to a defining theme. The theme of the conference this year is “High-Impact Practices for Integrative Learning,” which we define as opportunities built into a course or program that have been shown to increase student engagement and retention. High-impact academic practices allow students to integrate and apply their learning to complex problems and projects that are important to students and society. They include student-centered practices within courses, capstone courses and projects, developmental portfolios, faculty-supervised research, service-learning, community-based learning, internships, cross-cultural experiences, study abroad, and field work.