We in the CLT are so excited to see faculty, staff, and students coming back to campus! You may have noticed that we’ve enhanced our web presence, and we’ll be rolling out new opportunities this fall. Since we met some of you for the first time during the pandemic, we’d like to take advantage of the opportunity to re-introduce ourselves, and let you know what we do.
What does “CLT” stand for, anyway?
Since 2019, “CLT” stands for the Center for Learning & Teaching. But what we really stand for is helping all faculty grow in your teaching, no matter where you are in your career.
Located at the top of the campus, the Center for Learning & Teaching is the hub of the Champlain College culture of teaching excellence and life-long learning. We support faculty members in all aspects of their teaching, scholarship, and sense of belonging within the culture of higher education. We aim to foster a true teaching praxis that welcomes and encourages the sharing of ideas, and to model life-long learning.
With our core values of hospitality, intentionality, quality, and innovation, we offer faculty several kinds of support:
- A space to reflect, collaborate, envision, and innovate (and get coffee!)
- Self-paced individual coaching, and small and large group coaching and professional development opportunities
- Curated resources
See below for more details.
What do you do?
The CLT is probably best known for assisting with Canvas, but that’s only one part of what we do! Other services we provide include:
- Events, trainings, and semester-length faculty learning communities
- Reading and writing groups
- Self-service training and tutorials via our website
- Curated resources online and in our suite
- Course, project, and assessment design support
- Strategies for developing classroom community and encouraging student success
- Classroom observations (by request) and coaching on soliciting and using feedback
- Support with developing your teaching philosophy
- Advising and feedback on the promotion process
- New and emerging faculty development
- And much more!
The CLT doesn’t set policy, but we do help Academic Affairs and Faculty Senate communicate policies like course standards to faculty.
Who works in the CLT?
The CLT has three full-time staff members. Rebecca Mills, the Director of Learning and Teaching, has been at Champlain since 2017 and has directed the CLT since 2019. Freddy Angel, Sr. Learning Experience Technologist, came to Champlain in 2007 and has been with the team supporting learning technologies at Champlain through its transitions from eLearning to the Center for Learning and Technology to the current CLT. Caroline Toy, Learning Experience Designer, joined the CLT in January 2020 and is looking forward to meeting many of you in person for the first time!
The CLT team also includes one to two faculty leads each academic year. This year’s faculty leads are Miriam Horne and Kristin Novotny of the Core Division. Miriam helps faculty take part in scholarship of teaching and learning and encourages everyone to pursue research and writing. Kristin is undertaking internal research to advise us about the CLT’s procedures and relationships with faculty and other offices on campus.
If you’ve sought advice or coaching with us in the past, especially this past year, you may be asking “what about [person]? I thought they worked in the CLT!” The CLT has wonderful allies on campus, some of whom have worked with the former Center for Learning and Technology or eLearning teams over the years, and many who pitched in during Covid-19. We work particularly closely with Ursula Jones (a Canvas expert and project manager with Information Systems), Ellen Zeman (Sr. Director of Assessment, Curriculum, and Accreditation), and Josh Blumberg (Director of Academic Technology). You may also have met our past or current student workers like Taylor, Marissa, or Maya, as well as Library staff members Natasha Murray and Erica Donnis, who share our office suite.
How can I connect with you?
Come by our office on the second floor of the Miller Information Commons (suite 211)! We have coffee, tea, and a comfortable and quiet space. Most days, we can help with quick problems on a drop-in basis. The physical CLT is currently staffed every weekday, 9am-5pm.
Scheduled appointments (virtual or in-person) are available, which we recommend if you have a complex question, need to speak to a specific person, or want to work through a larger project like a full course or assignment redesign, developing reflective practice, or your teaching philosophy.
Special drop-in hours are available around the start of each semester. We also offer weekly in-person and virtual after-hours office hours for adjunct faculty who cannot come to campus during regular business hours (see your Champlain calendar). And you can always join us for our events, which will appear on your Champlain calendar, and follow us on social media!
