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Center for Integrated Professional Development

Instructional Strategy Consultations

  • I want my students to participate in class discussions, but they just sit there.
  • My class meets at 8:00 a.m. and half the seats are empty every day.
  • What do I need to include in my syllabus?
  • I’d like to assign a group project, but I’ve tried them before without much success.
  • I want to add an online discussion component to my course, but I don’t know how.

Instructional Strategy Consultations provide one-on-one support for faculty members facing a wide variety of issues related to teaching and learning. Our popular topics include general classroom strategies, teaching with technology, clickers, online/blended course design, service learning, active learning and multimedia integration. Other topics are available upon request.

Process

The Instructional Strategy Consultation will include one or more of the following, depending on the instructor’s needs and time constraints:

  • 1

    Initial Meeting

    At the initial meeting, we will ask you to provide a context for the process by answering some questions about the course, your students, and your teaching.

  • 2

    Information Gathering/Research Period (optional)

    A Center consultant will gather additional information through classroom visits, material reviews, and/or reviews of relevant literature.

  • 3

    Feedback Phase

    The Center consultant will meet with the instructor to share relevant findings from the information gathering/research period.

  • 4

    Action Phase

    Once you have received our feedback, we ask that you determine a “plan of action” for putting our findings into action to enrich your teaching.

Policies

Voluntary

Only instructors can request a consultation.

Formative

The Center for Integrated Professional Development is not in the business of evaluating teaching. Consultants provide information to be used to improve teaching and learning.

Confidential

No information we gather as a result of the consultation process will be shared with anyone else at the university or beyond without the instructor’s express consent. Upon request, we will provide a letter documenting an instructor’s efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning in a specific course classroom, and instructors are welcome to use those letters in any way they deem appropriate (as an addition to their teaching portfolio, as part of their annual ASPT report, etc.) We would also be happy to send a copy of the letter to a dean, chair, mentor, or DFSC, but only at the written request of the instructor.

Timely

Center facilitators will work with interested faculty to determine appropriate timing for consultation.

More to Explore

For more information, please contact the Center at ProDev@IllinoisState.edu.