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Center for Integrated Professional Development
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Early Career Certificate Program

The first years in a faculty role tend to arrive all at once: courses to design, students to advise, service commitments to weigh in, and a wide range of colleagues and resources to discover. The Early Career Certificate Program, sponsored by the Center for Integrated Professional Development, is designed to make that stretch more navigable. Over the course of the semester, you'll meet other early career faculty, get a clearer picture of how to document key dimensions of your career, and leave with practices you can put to use in the classroom right away. The commitment is modest: three required sessions and two of your choosing, and the return is a network and a set of resources you'll draw on well past your first few years here. Registration is required.

The ECCP is open to any pre-tenure or NTT faculty member with a start date of August 2022 or after. To earn their certificate, participants will engage in three (3) in-person meetings and then select two (2) additional in-person or virtual CIPD offerings to complete their experience. As a reminder, all supplemental programming is available to anyone at Illinois State.

Series Outcomes

  • Build a professional community with early career colleagues from across campus to strengthen teaching effectiveness and sense of belonging at Illinois State.
  • Identify professional development resources and articulate a plan for engaging with mentors, department chairs/directors, and campus support systems to support their success as early career faculty.
  • Explore innovative teaching practices, measure their impact, and communicate your work in promotion and tenure materials.

Sessions

To accommodate a variety of teaching schedules, we are offering two (2) meeting times for each session: Tuesdays from 3 to 4:30 p.m. and Wednesdays from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

Location: Alumni Center, 119

Session 1: Welcome and Professional Development Overview

The goal of our first session is to network and to learn about the professional development opportunities that can best prepare you for success at Illinois State. We will go over key dimensions of your career, consider how to use those dimensions to engage in conversation with your chair/directors and mentors, and set some goals for the Fall 2026 semester.

Facilitators:
Gwen Tarbox, Center for Integrated Professional Development
Dana Karraker, Center for Integrated Professional Development

Session 2: Teach It, Track It, Tell It

A Framework for Documenting Teaching Impact

Trying something new in your teaching is only half the story. Session 2 walks you through a simple three-part framework for introducing an innovative teaching practice, measuring whether it's actually improving student learning, and turning the results into evidence for your annual reports, teaching portfolios, and tenure and promotion files. You'll leave with a concrete plan for one change in your own course this term and a lightweight method for tracking and reporting its impact.

Facilitator:
Marko Dumančić, Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Education

Session 3: Using Blended Learning to Create a Community of Inquiry

Blended learning uses online spaces, like a Canvas course page, to engage learners between in-person or synchronous class meetings. One simple, high-impact practice is the course recap—a brief post-session summary that keeps learners connected to the material until you meet again. But course recaps can do far more than jog memories: paired with engagement activities, they can build a community of inquiry that carries back into the classroom, and they offer surprising benefits for you as an instructor, as well. In this workshop, you'll discover what makes a recap effective, explore strategies for encouraging learners to engage with them, and learn how this practice can pay dividends for your own teaching and professional growth.

Facilitator:
Gwen Tarbox, Center for Integrated Professional Development

 

For more information, contact Dr. Dana Karraker, Assistant Director for Educational Development Programs, or call (309) 438-5110.