Charge Letter
December 6, 2023
- Lynn Dietrich, assistant dean, Undergraduate Programs and Teaching Professor, College of Education
- Mary Kay Gugarty, associate dean for Teaching & Learning and professor in Nonprofit Management, Evans School of Public Policy & Governance
- Cinnamon Hillyard, associate vice chancellor for Student Success and associate professor, School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell
- Darcy Janzen, director, Digital Learning, UW Tacoma
- Penelope Moon, director, Center for Teaching and Learning, Academic and Student Affairs
- Joel Ross, associate teaching professor, Information School
- Casey Self, associate teaching professor, Department of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences and chair, Faculty Council on Teaching and Learning
- Ken Yasuhara, director and instructional consultant, Office for the Advancement of Engineering Teaching & Learning , College of Engineering
- Marisa Nickle, senior director, Strategy and Academic Initiatives, Academic and Student Affairs (ex-officio)
Dear Colleagues,
Last year the Future of Teaching & Learning initiative was launched to build on instructors’ increasing familiarity with instructional modalities and the importance of creating equitable learning experiences for students. Two working groups were tasked with addressing issues of access and instructional quality, respectively, and each provided recommendations in the Spring 2023.
The working group on Instructional Quality was charged with a variety of topics, tactics and implications to explore to “develop means to promote, aid and assess efforts to maintain/improve instructional quality for ALL modalities of student learning.” The working group focused its efforts on “Establishing a shared language, common criteria and processes to promote and achieve quality instruction across modalities.” They determined that a shared understanding of what the UW means by quality instruction will facilitate a shift to more reflective teaching practices. It will enable future conversations about how teaching is valued and decision-making about how teaching is supported, and evaluated. This foundational work makes it possible to create a more cohesive, UW-wide approach that evolves and aligns evaluation mechanisms, assessment strategies, and instructional support services based on a common set of criteria.
To that end, last year the group developed a draft definition based on faculty input, peer benchmarking, and existing UW definitions. They gathered preliminary feedback from academic leaders and instructors on all three of UW’s campuses and refined the draft. Finally, they recommended the work continue in AY 2023-24 to finalize the draft definition of teaching excellence based on broad instructor input, to share a final version along with recommendations for implementation with the Faculty Council on Teaching and Learning (FCTL), and to support the work of faculty governance partners to incorporate this definition of instructional quality into existing processes and policies.
This year, we ask you to do just that – gather broad input to create a truly shared understanding of quality instruction at the UW and, once finalized, provide bold yet practical recommendations to FCTL around how to implement a coherent, aligned approach to supporting instructional quality at the UW. Specifically, this working group is charged with:
- Gathering broad feedback from instructors of all ranks and titles on all three UW campuses on the draft shared language around teaching excellence at the UW developed by the Instructional Quality sub-group last year.
- Unit-specific conversations
- Open feedback sessions for those in units not hosting unit-specific feedback opportunities
- Asynchronous options for providing feedback
- Analyzing feedback for common themes and updating the draft language accordingly.
- Developing a set of recommendations for the FCTL to consider on how to implement the shared language to improve the criteria, processes and support for instructional quality at the UW, including:
- how it could help the UW inform and evolve our current course, peer, and self-evaluation strategies
- the intersection of instructional quality with Tenure and Promotion that faculty governance groups might explore
- instructional supports needed to ensure faculty are well-supported as they attend to instructional quality in all modalities
- Working with FCTL, other faculty governance groups, and your advisory council to prepare for the inclusion of this work in course, peer, and self-evaluations and any potential legislation that could result from this effort.
You will participate in bi-monthly meetings to make progress on this charge. In addition, you will meet monthly with an advisory council made up of faculty governance, academic administration, and student government leaders as well as tenure-track, teaching-track, and clinical faculty members. This group is charged with acting as your sounding board, to help ensure your work is truly representative and results in realistic, transformative recommendations, and to advise you as you develop recommendations and work with FCTL on next steps.
As you undertake this work, we ask that you:
- Review past charge letters and reports to familiarize yourself with work to date
- Complete the feedback form on the draft core elements of good teaching at UW to become familiar with the current draft.
- Take a broad view – the good of the UW community as a whole across our three campuses – rather than that of a particular group, school, college, or unit.
- Represent the groups of which you are a member, gathering their feedback as needed and taking responsibility for communicating back with them, as and when appropriate.
- Be prepared to implement and act on the recommendations the group puts forward. This is not merely a recommending body. We will need your leadership going forward.
- Adopt a bias toward action and continuous improvement, both for this committee’s work and resulting recommendations and actions. It is preferable to recommend an idea that can be piloted and refined as we go than to get bogged down in perfecting it.
- Keep UW’s diversity and equity goals in mind when making recommendations.
We ask that you update us on your group’s progress at the end of autumn and winter quarters, and engage stakeholder groups for vetting and discussion along the way. Related deadlines and deliverables are as follows:
Deadlines and deliverables
Jan 26, 2024: A preliminary report on key findings from the Autumn feedback sessions and an updated draft defining instructional quality at the UW.
Mar 22, 2024: A final version of the shared language on instructional quality and related recommendations for the FCTL on incorporating it into existing processes.
Thank you for your willingness to join this group and engage in this important work.
Sincerely,
Tricia R. Serio
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Professor, Biochemistry
Cynthia M. Dougherty
Faculty Senate Chair
Professor, Biobehavioral Nursing & Health Informatics
cc: Phil Reid, Vice Provost, Academic and Student Affairs