Affiliates of the Faculty Center

The Karen L. Smith Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning belongs to a number of local, regional, and national/international organizations associated with faculty development.

• POD Network: Professional and Organizational Development Network. POD is the national organization for faculty developers. POD believes that people have value, as individuals and as members of groups. The development of students is a fundamental purpose of higher education and requires for its success effective advising, teaching, leadership, and management. Central to POD's philosophy is lifelong, holistic, personal, and professional learning, growth, and change for the higher education community.

  The Three Purposes of POD are:

  • To provide support and services for its members through publications, conferences, consulting, and networking.
  • To offer services and resources to others interested in faculty development.
  • To fulfill an advocacy role, nationally, seeking to inform and persuade educational leaders of the value of faculty, instructional, and organizational development in institutions of higher education.
• SRFIDC: Southern Regional Faculty and Instructional Development Consortium. The Southern Regional Faculty and Instructional Development Consortium (SRFIDC) is an organization of faculty and instructional development programs (teaching centers, instructional technology centers, faculty development committees, etc.) in two- and four-year degree-granting institutions in the greater South. Units in member institutions typically: focus on improving instructional effectiveness, have assigned staff, are funded, at least in part, by the institution, and offer services such as teaching enrichment workshops, consultations, mentoring programs, instructional technology support, etc. SRFIDC aims for a retreat-like feel to its annual event.
• FFDC: Florida Faculty Development Consortium. This state-level organization similarly targets faculty developers, but meets twice a year (and has no membership dues).
• MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching. MERLOT is a free and open online community of resources designed primarily for faculty, staff and students of higher education from around the world to share their learning materials and pedagogy. MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, collection of peer reviewed higher education, online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services. MERLOT's strategic goal is to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning by increasing the quantity and quality of peer reviewed online learning materials that can be easily incorporated into faculty designed courses. MERLOT's activities are based on the creative collaboration and support of its Individual Members, Institutional Partners, Corporate Partners and Editorial Boards. Integral to MERLOT's continuing development of faculty development support services are its major priorities:
  • Building and sustaining online academic communities
  • Online teaching and learning initiatives
  • Building, organizing, reviewing, and developing applications of online teaching-learning materials