Advisory Council On Instructional Excellence

About the Provost's Advisory Council On Instructional Excellence

Provost James V. Maher established the Advisory Council on Instructional Excellence in 1998, and chaired the Council during the 1998 - 99 academic year.

Since 1999, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Andrew Blair has served as chair. Since its inception, the Council has operated both as a committee of the whole and on the basis of a functional committee structure.

The current Council committees are: 1) Planning and Best Practices; 2) Faculty Development; 3) Instructional Grants.

Recognizing the special challenges facing faculty at a large, comprehensive research university, the mission of the Council is to “advise the Provost on the means to encourage instructional development and teaching excellence at the University of Pittsburgh.”

Notable Council achievements during the past year (2001-2002) were

In the third year of the program, the implementation again of an ambitious instructional grants program (Innovation in Education Awards), which was available to all faculty throughout the University.

16 awards, totaling approximately $210,000

The October 2001 issue of Teaching Times featured the award winners for 2001-2002; the 2002-2003 awards will be the focus of the October 2002 issue.

Teaching Times is a publication of the Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education (CIDDE), whose mission is very consonant with the Council’s objectives.

Provided oversight and guidance to CIDDE in developing its faculty development efforts, including its series of Summer Institutes.

Oversaw the launching of the first annual Teaching Excellence Fair, which was held on Friday, November 16, 2001 in Alumni Hall.

Open to the University of Pittsburgh community and beyond, the Fair consisted of displays and presentations by the 2000-2001 Innovation in Education Awards winners, demonstrations of the use of modern instructional technologies, and discussions on teaching philosophies and techniques led by past winners of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

Initiated a “Best Practices” exercise to identify innovative approaches to fostering teaching excellence and elimination of barriers to promoting teaching excellence at a selected number of other comprehensive research universities.

During 2001-2002, with Council oversight, CIDDE staff conducted this Best Practices project.

Began to collect data on the Innovation in Education Awards program, preliminary to conducting an evaluation of the program during 2002-2003.

As baseline information, data has been collected for the last three years on proposal submissions and awards by School as well as other background factors,.

Enlisting support from CIDDE, work also began on the development of a dynamic web page for the Advisory Council. This web page will be available early in the fall term.

The Council plans to engage in the following activities during 2002-2003:

Once again, develop and distribute on timely basis an “RFP” on the Innovation in Education Awards program to all University faculty.

The Council will continue to refine the proposal review process on the basis of the experiences of the past three years.

Evaluate the submitted proposals in the same balanced fashion as in prior years and make recommendations to the Provost concerning those it believes should receive support under this awards program.

Provide an evaluation of the impact of the instructional grants program in terms of the objectives that the program is designed to achieve.

Provide a report on the Best Practices effort as well as the best practice uses of instructional technology at the member universities of the Learning Technology Consortium (of which the University of Pittsburgh is a founding member)

The University will host the fall meeting of the Learning Technology Consortium on November 7-8.

Work with CIDDE to effectively publicize the Friday November 15 second annual Teaching Excellence Fair.

Continue to provide oversight and recommendations with respect to CIDDE’s Faculty Development programs.