Institute | Karakoram International University

Introduction

Mission

The Center for Faculty Development provides new and experienced faculty a space to learn about research-based teaching strategies and to share their insights and experiences with a community of colleagues.

Goals

Promote the professional growth of faculty through effective and innovative programs.
Develop and identify materials and resources that support the faculty with their effective teaching practices.
Conduct both formal and informal research to determine the professional development needs of faculty.
Collaborate with the Human Resource Department and Quality Enhancement Cells to develop policies and strategies that promote excellence in teaching and learning practices.

The Center for Faculty Development (CFD) at the Karakoram International University is established to provide a platform where novice and experienced faculty can get help and support with their teaching-related responsibilities. Regardless of individuals’ mastery in their own specialization, there is still a need for the faculty to engage in activities, discussions, and deliberations that will help them to understand the nuts and bolts of the best teaching practices at the university level. Today’s students are more enlightened, due to their access to modern technologies and a variety of social media. They might have prior and better understanding about the topics the instructors are teaching and they might know what the best teaching practices are. Under these circumstances, it is essential for the faculty to better prepare themselves to harness students’ potential and prepare them to enter a complex, diverse, global workforce and to secure the trust of students on their capabilities and the level of their knowledge.

Structure of the Programs

Instead of relying on traditional approaches to faculty development, the CFD strives to offer programs that invite faculty members’ interaction and deliberation as the key intellectual activities-in other words, we hope to create a more active and reflective teaching and learning culture on campus that will influence the quality of teaching and learning in the classrooms. The aim is to motivate the instructors to practice the same processes of interaction and deliberation learned from the CFD, while teaching different subjects at different levels. Besides offering regular workshops with the involvement of instructors who possess relevant expertise, the CFD arranges online workshops and seminars. The duration of each session will be two and half hours, (with a 30 minute break), in which two instructors conduct sessions in an interactive manner. Also, one-on-one consultations are available for individual faculty members in which they can get guidance on their teaching practices from CFD staff.
Although the programs are designed to meet the needs of either newly appointed or experienced faculty, the uniqueness of the center is that it offers programs to students as well. An example of such a program is one that provides information to students with their reading related challenges; further details are available on the website under students’ sessions.

Thematic Areas

Faculty development has been reorganized as a cornerstone for bringing excellence to the quality of teaching at the higher education level. This recognition has led to the development of a myriad of research in which various dimensions of teaching and learning have been investigated. Therefore, the thematic areas selected for faculty development are based on empirical evidence conducted locally and globally, including:

Developing course outlines
Teaching approaches and methodologies at the university level
Reading materials and reading strategies at the university level
Developing understanding about online instructional resources
Designing class assignments
Assessment/Rubrics
Students’ sessions

In the resource section (on the left) several links, tutorials, research papers, journal articles, and videos retrieved from multiple sources, have been provided to further help the instructors with the above mentioned topics.

Course Outlines

Developing course outlines

Duration: 3 Hours

Developing a course outline helps the students to predict the academic activities that an instructor designed for them. The objective of this sessions is to discuss with the faculty the importance of course outlines, as well as providing detailed information about the nuts and bolts of a clear and comprehensive course outline. Some of the areas that are discussed during the sessions are:

Purpose of developing course outline
Essential components of outline
Course Description
Learning Outcomes
Policies
Recommended Books/Literature
Evaluation/Assessment
Description of Assignments
Purpose of developing course outline
Weekly Reading

Methodologies

Teaching approaches and methodologies

Duration: 3:00 hrs

Selection of teaching strategies and methodologies at the tertiary level requires a lot of research and effort, because the target group is generally an adult population that needs different approaches. The session is designed to expand the understanding of prospective instructors regarding the variety of interactive teaching approaches, including:

Interactive lectures
Directed Discussion
Group Work/learning
Case Methodology
Project Based Learning
Make it Personal
The Half Class Lecture
Think Break

Strategies

Reading materials and reading strategies at the university level

Duration: 3:00 hrs

It is expected that the instructors will maintain a teaching culture in their classrooms which is based on interaction and deliberation, which is only possible when students have background knowledge about the class lecture. This is only possible when students do their reading before coming to class. This session provides opportunities to the instructors to understand those dynamics of learning processes that motivate the students to become good readers. Through an interactive process, instructors are provided with knowledge of how they can motivate their students to complete their readings before class. The session discusses the challenges students face and remedies to overcome those challenges. Additionally, the session provides information about the volume of readings assigned to students for each lecture.

Resources

Online instructional resources

Duration: 3:00 hrs

One of the challenges instructors might face is limited or unavailable instructional resources that they have suggested as required reading for the students. Since information technology has largely been integrated in the educational processes at different levels, the university faculty is expected to be well-versed in the usage and application of computers and the internet, while teaching different subjects and overcoming the problem of the lack of instructional resources.

The aim of this workshop is to help the instructors see how they can overcome the challenges brought on by a lack of resources. Instructors are provided with information about online resources that could become part of assigned readings, such as eBooks, journal articles, research reports, etc. The sessions are very helpful for those instructors who don’t have prior knowledge about online resources.

Assignments

Designing class assignments

Duration: 3:00 hrs

Designing effective and thought-provoking assignments is another area where the instructors need some guidance, since this component of teaching and learning can be used to motivate the students to develop a link between theories and real world problems. While preparing a course syllabus, instructors need to consider multiple factors that can make their assignments interesting and doable. This session helps the instructors to learn about the strategies and resources helpful for developing class assignments.

While preparing a course syllabus, instructors need to consider multiple factors that can make their assignments interesting and doable. This session helps the instructors to learn about the strategies and resources helpful for developing class assignments.

Sessions

What makes the students do the readings?

Duration: 3:00 hrs

This session is exclusively designed for first semester students who are enrolled in different programs. Since the majority of the students of the Gilgit –Baltistan area come from backgrounds where they speak multiple languages; the English language, which is the medium of teaching at the university level, is either the third or fourth language they have learned.

This enhances the challenges of students in terms of their understanding of the reading material provided to them and makes their learning questionable. This session provides in-depth information about the strategies and approaches that will help the students overcome said challenges.