The development of students is a fundamental purpose of higher education and requires for its success effective advising, teaching, leadership, and management. This annual volume by the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education offers examples and resources for the enrichment of all educational developers. The current volume has 21 chapters, which are separated into seven sections based upon the topics they address. The first section, “Broadening Our Scope,” has articles focusing on the challenges of faculty and institutional development in the 21st century. The second focuses on educational development outreach to new audiences within the faculty. Section Three’s articles deal with building stronger relationships among faculty and administration when it comes to such educational development. Section Four focuses on the practice of innovative engaged learning in the classroom, while Section Five deals with assessment of student learning. The final two sections deal with “Promoting Diversity” and “Integrating Technology into Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development,” respectively.
The articles presented in To Improve the Academy are peer-reviewed by members of the POD Network and represents the primary source to disseminate the expertise, “best practices,” and current research in the field of faculty development to others who are interested. As we within the “Academy” are diverse in terms of the size of our institutions, the choices of pedagogy for teaching, administrative support for educational development, etc., the individual articles presented may have a more meaningful impact for some than others. For example, Chapter One addresses the following question: “As distance learning is becoming more of the norm in higher education, how do we make sure that those faculty providing this style of education receive similar professional development support as those who teach on the main campus?” For those at institutions without distance learning as part of their curriculum, this article would not be of much help. However, it does provide insight as to how this topic is being viewed and addressed at those institutions that do. This common understanding provides a framework for faculty, administration and support staff from any institution to engage in meaningful conversations on educational development and its impact on the learning of our students.
The knowledge that the “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning” is becoming more vital to the success of all academic institutions, from the small liberal arts college like my own to the large research universities, is what should make educational development a topic we all should be thinking about and discussing more than we currently are. This current volume of To Improve the Academy is an excellent resource to help those already involved in faculty development at the personal, organizational, or institutional level to continue their pursuits and for those who have yet to become seriously engaged in these topics to join the conversations.