What do you think about when you hear the word orientation? Michelle Fitzpatrick and Chelsea Biggerstaff Austin Community College described their efforts to launch and a year later completely relaunch due to COVID the Faculty Onboarding and Orientation program they oversee. The program was carefully designed, rolled out in phases, and beautifully described by these two Lilly Conference presenters. I never thought I would enjoy and learn so much from the faculty development sessions! I now appreciate the difficult tasks faculty development and onboarding are! Fitzpatrick and Biggerstaff described how they planned the orientation process for full time and adjunct faculty, invited numerous student support units, pivoted to online sessions, and evaluated the participant experience. Throughout their presentation, I could sense their excitement and energy. They both mentioned they are extroverts! Indeed! It was also great to hear how they used eloquent and thoughtful language to program events with equitable and inclusive teaching, fostering a sense of belonging, and using low stakes and alternative assessments explicitly stated as goals. They also mentioned that they received funding to allow participants to start orientation two weeks before classes. Their sessions were also offered monthly with options for seemingly everyone. Quality Matters (QM) training was part of the program to support online teaching for learning. They even included swag bags. Beyond that, the cohorts and sense of community were strong. It was fun to hear about their successful program and the trainings offered to their faculty. The evaluation showed it made an impact on faculty. Their materials are publicly available on their website: austincc.edu/facultyonboarding I’m hoping to continue learning about this and other programs to better support the training needs of our postdoctoral teaching scholars.
