The modern university is supposed to be equal parts research and teaching. However, faculty members are often not required to develop their teaching skill set. For most faculty, the art of teaching is often an afterthought until they get into the classroom. The reality of this lack of experience may be a barrier to faculty success. For decades this was the sink-or-swim moment for faculty. Figure it out, and a successful career is on the horizon, fail to learn to teach, and it cuts short a chance to impact students. However, in the past 25 years, there have been increasingly robust efforts to help teachers. Not only to be content experts but to be seasoned pros at delivering that content. After all, students arrive in the classroom with different learning styles. Information needs to be more than narrative.
To help these professors, many universities have developed stand-alone teaching and learning centers that help faculty with their teaching skills. Usually, these are limited to a workshop or one-on-one consultation. However, there has been a recent increase in teaching and learning conferences by national organizations and universities. In May 2023, the University of Central Florida brought back its teaching and learning conference for the first time since the pandemic began.
Called the Sunshine Teaching and Learning Conference, this three-day event was held at Lake Buena Vista near the Walt Disney World Resort and brought over 150 faculty from all over the United States. Using an agenda developed by the University of Central Florida's Director of the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, Dr. Kevin Yee, there were dozens of interest, educational, and poster sessions. Faculty learned best practices in online learning, new pedagogy, course design, learning styles, active learning, and more! The participants learned from more than 30 faculty members from all over the United States.
Faculty and Staff at the 2023 Sunshine Teaching and Learning Conference gather around a poster session presentation.
Professor of Speech and Mass Communication, Dr. Edie Gaythwhite of Valencia College, was impressed, "I had a wonderful time and really enjoyed the focus on teaching as a discipline and how we can combine it with learning to form 'Active Learning' opportunities for our students. And I was happy to see faculty embedding that into their presentations." And that is the core feature of this event, to immerse faculty into other teaching and learning activities that will help faculty transform their classrooms and accelerate learning.
Dr. Vickie Lynn from the University of South Florida School of Social Work was attracted to the event because "being a new faculty instructor, I was eager to connect with individuals beyond my immediate environment and gain valuable insights from their diverse perspectives."
The opportunity to connect this way does not happen often. Many faculty conferences are subject-specific and can stagnate teaching and learning in that academic community. The Sunshine Conference is trying to create its own lane the opposite way by offering a bright, breezy conference with maximum diversity in teaching style and discipline.
There is also a keen interest in what is on the new frontier. Dr. Lynn added, "I am particularly intrigued by the opportunity to delve into the understanding and application of ChatGPT and other AI models in the context of teaching and learning.
The impact of AI on teaching was a hot topic at the conference, with faculty discussing how it could help to teach through helping with course content or test bank preparation to their worries it will create less motivated students who do not deliver their honest, original work.
Dr. Sandy Pettit, a faculty member from the College of Engineering at the University of South Florida, summed up the conference when she reflected, "This conference brings together many different disciplines. It is great to hear how different teaching strategies are utilized in various disciplines, classroom environments, and modalities. I came away with many new ideas!"
While this conference has come and gone for 2023, the planning has already begun for the 2024 conference. If you are interested in future dates, please bookmark their website at: https://fctl.ucf.edu/programs/sunshine-state-tl-conference/ The Sunshine Teaching and Learning Conference was co-sponsored by the Florida Consortium.