The Institute for Faculty Excellence offers a variety of consultation models, each designed to provide faculty with resources, services, and advice to enrich their teaching.

What We Do

We'll discuss any teaching concern.

We will come to your office or meet over a hot cup of something to talk with you about your issue and brainstorm ideas. These conversations are confidential and are focused on whatever teaching topic is on your mind.

We'll perform classroom observations.

We have a helpful three-stage process for observing a face-to-face class: first, we'll meet with you to talk about some area of teaching that you'd like us to focus on; second, we'll sit in your chosen class, observing how that area relates to the function of the class; and third, we'll offer our observations and discuss methods and strategies. If you wish, we can document this process in a confidential letter, as well.

We'll help you with course design and assessments.

If you are building a new course or looking to redesign an existing one, we can offer suggestions about best practices. We can also talk with you about formative and summative assessments for any point in the semester, along with ways to interpret and utilize the results to help you enhance your teaching.

If you're unsure if one of these one-on-one services would work for you, then call us to talk more about your needs. See our Services page for details.

What We Will Not Do

We will not take referrals.

Our services are entirely voluntary. Although the IFE will often run workshops and facilitate discussions, we will not force anyone to participate. If you would like help or ideas, you're free to call upon us.

We will not share discussions with others.

We maintain confidentiality for faculty regarding their teaching choices. The results of your observation or consultation are yours and yours alone. We don't report back to anyone but you.

We will not assume control.

The IFE is a service provider, a broker of resources and connections. Although we know about pedagogy, we aren't content experts. You know your content. Through discussion and collaboration, we work with your to craft specific solutions or tools.

Because the IFE is a faculty-driven service unit, we strive to offer resources, ideas, and tools to enrich teaching, but only for faculty to choose to seek our help. See our Services page for details on the help we can provide.