Our Programs

The CTE offers a workshop on a plethora of topics for face-to-face and online teaching including setting goals and objectives, aligning activities to course objectives, using alternative assessments, practicing active lecturing, engaging discussions, methods of getting feedback from students, creating classroom community, culturally responsive pedagogies, constructing a teaching philosophy, effective use of groups, fostering critical thinking, wrapping up your course, and using methods for getting students to read more effectively. Workshops vary in length from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours. These are highly interactive sessions providing evidence-based teaching and learning techniques, with practical application to the college classroom. Faculty across campus connect with their colleagues to share ideas and best practices. Short, targeted workshops are also delivered by the CTE staff to faculty during Department or College meetings as requested.Workshops are delivered virtually and f2f.

The Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) is a program that begun in 2020 on the NCA&T Campus.  

Currently 125 faculty have earned the ACUE National Credential in Effective Teaching Practices or Effective Online Teaching Practices, awarded to all completers of this rigorous program. ACUE’s mission is Student Success through Quality Instruction. The full ACUE program in ETP or EOTP consists of 25 online modules within 5 separate categories: 1) Designing an Effective Course; 2) Establishing a Productive Learning Environment; 3) Using Active Learning Strategies; 4) Promoting Higher Order Thinking; and, 5) Assessing to Inform Instruction and Promote Learning.   

Numerous studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of this program with results indicated as follows: 

  • Improved Student Learning among ACUE-credentialed faculty (City College of San Francisco);  
  • Equity Gains in which the achievement gap between pell-eligible and other students results in a 25% increase in completion in developmental mathematics (Cal State LA);  
  • Increases in Grades in which students enrolled in classes taught by ACUE-credentialed faculty were more likely to earn an A, B or C. (Rutgers University)  
  • At the Northern Arizona, ACUE-Credential faculty lead the transformation of Bio 181-from a ‘weed out’ course to a success story with DFW rates dropped by 50%;  
  • At Texas Women’s University, ACUE faculty closed the course completion rate for African-American students in 113 classes with 1800 students.  
  • GPA’s improved by 0.19 to above 3.0, across 100 courses taught by ACUE faculty, impacting 6100 students at Miami Dade College.  
  • ACUE credentialed Faculty outperformed matched faculty on course evaluations that improve over time and student grades were higher than matched courses at the University of Nevada Reno.  

ACUE also offers a micro-credential opportunity for faculty who may not be able to finish the complete course or need more time to complete it. Micro-credentials lead to Digital Teaching Badges that faculty can use for various purposes including tenure, promotion, professional development requirements, etc.  

Each semester, the CTE staff selects 2-3 books for small group reading circle discussions. Faculty select the discussion book they are interested in and arrange with other members to decide on meeting times and dates. Reading circles that meet in the Faculty Commons are also provided with snacks and drinks.

Faculty with particularly good skills and substantial experience in online teaching can be designated as a Faculty Fellow, and offer peer consultations and other forms of support to improve the online teaching skills of all faculty across campus. Fellows are selected by the Directors of the CTE, the Assistant Provost of Distance Education, and the Extended Campus (DEEL). Fellows submit an application for the Fellowship with recommendations from their Dean and Dept Chairs.  Fellows also design a special project related to online teaching. Fellows receive a small stipend for their work.  Every effort is made to offer this opportunity to a faculty member of each College.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is a synthesis of teaching, learning, and research in higher education that aims to bring a scholarly lens—the curiosity, the inquiry, the rigor, the disciplinary variety—to what happens in the classroom.  It involves asking and answering meaningful questions about student learning, and about the teaching activities designed to facilitate student learning. 

The CTE staff are available for consultations about any stage of the SoTL process (question generation, project design, gathering evidence of student learning, analyzing evidence of student learning, presenting or publishing the work). 

For more information on conducting a SoTL study, contact Dr. Audrey M. Dentith (amdentith@ncat.edu). To arrange a SOTL consultation, email Ms. Misha Blount, University Specialist in the CTE. The current focus of our SoTL work is student learning using iPad technology in the classroom. A second focus on current SoTL projects is student engagement and motivation in classes taught by ACUE Credentialed Faculty.  

The New Faculty Forum is held each August and consists of 2 days of interactive workshops and presentations from administrators, Faculty Fellows and peers on a wide variety of topics including: NC A & T History, Teaching, Technology, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Community Engagement and Research.  The Forum is currently offered in a virtual platform.

The CTE and Instructional Technology Training and Development (ITTD) have combined efforts to offer a series of sessions focusing on seven essential topics to help faculty make their online or hybrid (flipped or blended) teaching experience successful. The workshops provide valuable information and best practices for preparing courses and instructing students remotely. Faculty select from a menu of workshops leading to 17 hours of training. Each workshop is 1.5 - 2 hours in length and offers opportunities for engaged and active learning among faculty. Follow the link here for the full curriculum Aggies Teach Curriculum 2021. Visit learn.ncat.edu. The  aggiesteach.ncat.edu also offers a plethora of information on teaching practices, classroom models and other key information related to the current needs for teaching in these unusual circumstances.