History of FaCET

By Barbara Kacer and Sally Kuhlenschmidt

Shortly after Kacer arrived at Western, Ed Counts, faculty in Library Media Education, shared with me that he was writing a section of a Title III grant to fund a faculty development center. The grant was funded and Western’s faculty development center, the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) began operations in the fall of 1990. It was housed on the ground floor of the Cravens Library building.

After a period of time of dual reporting to the Associate VP for Academic Affairs and to Telecommunications (the forerunner of Information Technology) the Center was established under the Academic Affairs branch of the university. The members of the first Faculty Advisory Committee were: Dr. Richard Aldridge, Accounting; Mr. Phil Duff, Psychology; Dr. Joseph Glaser, English; Dr. James Heck, Glasgow Campus; Dr. Peggy Keck, Finance and MIS; Dr. Cheryl Keyes, Modern Language and Intercultural Studies; Dr. Kenneth Modesitt, Computer Science; Dr. Eula Monroe, Teacher Education; Ms. Frances Perdue, English; Dr. Curtis Wilkins, Chemistry; and Ms. Peggy Wright, Library Public Services. You can view the current members of the Faculty Advisory Council at http://www.wku.edu/teaching/Fac.htm.

At that time the staff consisted of the Coordinator (Ed Counts), an Instructional Technologist (Leslie Frank), a Media Producer (Ronald Schildknecht) and a Secretary (Lorie Ann Poole). During Dr. Counts’ tenure the center provided seminars to graduate students who were teaching and offered a small computer lab, media production (primarily overhead transparencies and slides), video observation, a few seminars on media production and interactive video teaching for faculty, consultation on instructional design, small travel grants, and a newsletter.

Ed remained at the Center until 1994 when he moved to The College of Education and Behavioral Science in Tate Page Hall to become a faculty member in Library Media Education. Dr. Sally Kuhlenschmidt stepped in as interim and then, after a search, as director of the CTL. Over the past 15 years the following have served as Instructional Coordinator: Jan Meek Phillips, Dawn Hall, Nancy Givens, Julie Fields, and Wren Mills, who began in January 2010. Office Associates were: Vonda Davis, Susan Payne, Josh Marble, Stephanie Randol, Pat Ault, and Vickie Payne. In this period seminars for faculty were expanded, the Center was nationally recognized with several innovation awards from the Professional and Organizational Development Network (POD), and the Center managed 3 of the POD Network conferences. During this time the state faculty development workgroup was also established and an annual state-wide faculty development conference was held on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, again often managed by the CTL. The Center offers online seminars and weekly listserv messages on teaching, and supporting teachers who are teaching online through a May workshop co-hosted by Academic Technology and DELO.

We also implemented a Faculty Associate program in which faculty were assigned to the Center half time. The following have served in that capacity: Carol Graham, Management, Margaret Curtis, Philosophy and Religion, Darleen Pigford, Computer Science, Ted Hovet, English, Ken Kuehn, Geography and Geology, Paul Bush, Academic Support, and Barbara Kacer, School of Teacher Education.

In December 2003 the Center moved from Cravens to a house at 1783 Chestnut Street. The name was changed in spring 2004 to Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching (FaCET). In 2005 the Basic Skills for College Teaching program was established to assist graduate students and other beginning teachers with the transition to teaching. The director is responsible for the Quality Matters initiative which provides external peer review of online course design and for the Newspapers in the Classroom program, a part of the American Democracy Project which provides the New York Times to classes. The Center remains active in New Faculty orientation, individual consultations with faculty, a full seminar schedule and producing booklets, newsletters, and video tutorials on ways to build excellence in teaching and learning.