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About the Coulter Faculty Commons

The Coulter Faculty Commons for Excellence in Teaching & Learning at Western Carolina University serves full and part-time faculty and Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) in all areas of teaching & learning. We work to create an environment where faculty can come together in the spirit of creativity, collaboration, and community, where becoming an ever better teacher or mentor is the most significant and recognized achievement that any faculty member can seek and where students have superior learning opportunities and experiences.

Mr. and Mrs. Myron Coulter

 

The Commons designs activities and consultations to spread excitement for the scholarship of teaching and learning. We want WCU faculty to know and experience themselves as part of a teaching and scholarly community where there are continuous open discussions and support for teaching and scholarly activities, where senior faculty remember why they first became teachers, where junior faculty seek excellence in teaching and research, and where new faculty and GTAs experience a wise and compassionate teaching internship or apprenticeship.

Right: Dr. Myron Coulter, Chancellor Emeritus, and Mrs. Barbara Coulter, whose generous $100,000 endowment gift funds faculty work in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

The Commons, which was the dream and vision of Chancellor Emeritus Myron Coulter, supports faculty in their professional development as teachers and scholars and learners. Faculty and GTAs have an open invitation to contact or visit the Commons and talk with the staff. Commons staff are also willing to meet with faculty in their offices or elsewhere.

Establishment

The Faculty Center for Teaching Excellence was established at Western Carolina University in 1988 based on recommendations from the Chancellor's Task Force, commissioned by Chancellor Myron L. Coulter in 1985, on Faculty Development and Evaluation. After three years of researching teaching literature and sponsoring teaching events, the Task Force submitted a 60-page summary report that recommended a structure for the new center. Chancellor Coulter accepted this report in June 1988, and the Center opened that August. The new center was located on the main floor of Hunter Library near the University Media Center. The Task Force's Instructional Services Coordinator, Ben Ward, became the Center's founding director. To staff the Center, the Chancellor provided funds for three Faculty Fellows:

  1. Faculty Fellow for Publications
  2. Faculty Fellow for Programs
  3. Faculty Fellow for Internationalizing the Curriculum

The Myron L. Coulter Faculty Center

In 1994, after Chancellor Coulter announced his retirement, the WCU Board of Trustees renamed the Center in his honor, designating it the Myron L. Coulter Faculty Center for Teaching Excellence. Later that year, the University Media Center was phased out and the Media Center's six full-time staff members merged with the Faculty Center to provide increased support for faculty development in instructional technology. At that time, the Center's staff affected a further name modification: The Myron L. Coulter Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

Until his retirement in December 2001, Dr. Ben Ward served as the Center's director and ably guided it during years of contributing to the enhancement of the teaching & learning experience at Western. Dr. Alan Altany, previously a professor of religious studies at Marshall University, became the new director in December of 2001.

The Center designated the academic year 2003-2004 as the "Year of the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL)." Under Dr. Altany's direction, Western became recognized nationally for its SoTL work, specifically the development of Mountain Rise, an international peer-reviewed journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Faculty Learning Communities were established and the annual SoTL Faire grew and expanded to a 2-day event.

The Reorganization of the Coulter Faculty Center

In 2005, Provost Kyle Carter called for a study to reorganize the Center to better serve faculty efforts to enhance student learning. In response to faculty requests, the Coulter Faculty Center combined its resources with Educational Technologies and the Division of Educational Outreach. Center staff began to integrate professional development activities, instructional design, and technology support into a single point of service in Hunter Library.

Dr. Anna McFadden moved from her position as Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Foundations to lead the effort as Director of the reorganized center. McFadden, a faculty member for 10 years at WCU, spent three months studying in-depth the needs of faculty. The faculty's desires were clear: they wanted a seamless solution to enhancing both their pedagogical techniques and technical abilities. In response to this need, the Center clarified its vision, mission, and strategic direction.

In the expanded Center, faculty find assistance in designing curricula, integrating supported technology to augment student learning, using distance learning formats, training to use technologies, and exploring the scholarship of teaching and learning. 


In 2010, Dr. McFadden moved to a new position as Director of Academic Engagement and Governance for the Division of IT.  From 2010-2016, the Center was led by Dr. Laura Cruz, an Associate Professor in the Department of History who also was instrumental in changing the name from "Center" to "Commons" in recognition of the aspirational goal to be a part of a connective matrix of faculty support and engagement rather than simply a "place" for them to come.

In 2016, Dr. Martha Diede was appointed as the interim director and confirmed as the Director after a national search in 2017. Her focus during her tenure was on improving faculty outcomes while helping them clarify and improve student learning outcomes and course alignment.  Dr. Diede left WCU for a position at Syracuse University. Dr. Jonathan Wade, the Senior Educational Technologist at WCU, served as the Acting Director of the Center from June of 2018 to March of 2019.

In March of 2019, after a national search, Dr. Eli Collins-Brown took the reign as the new Director of the Commons.  Dr. Collins-Brown has been working in higher education for 20+ years as a curriculum developer, instructional designer, technologist, instructor and leader. Her focus has been on web-based, blended and online education but over the years has branched into the improvement of teaching and learning environments in all modalities and educational/faculty development. Her work centers on creating effective and meaningful learning environments, with or without technology. Through her research and practice, she has found that technology-supported instruction can create significant learning experiences in different modalities that enhance engagement, discussion, access to content and connectedness to students.

The CFC was reorganized in March 2022 to move the embedded IT educational and LMS analysts out of the center and back to IT. Currently the CFC focuses on course design and instruction in all modalities, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 

Mission

The Coulter Faculty Commons (CFC) advances excellence in teaching, learning, and scholarship by partnering with the WCU community through collaboration, creation, and celebration. 

The CFC offers services, events, and programming through 4 different metaphoric roles:

  • Incubator – work with instructors, programs, departments, and the institution on innovative new ideas.
  • Hub – We connect and bring together people from across the institution to share expertise and new ideas.
  • Sieve - We love to dig into the recent research and share best practices.
  • Temple – We are a sanctuary on campus where people can come to talk and think about teaching and learning.

Defining What Matters: Guidelines for Comprehensive Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) Evaluation,

POD Network Occasional Paper

We have connected these roles to each strategic goal.

Strategic Goal 1:  Incubator - Excellence in Teaching & Learning

Advance faculty use of high-impact learning and evidence-based teaching practices (Incubator).

WCU SD 1.1.5, 1.2.1, 1.6.3, 2.3.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.2

Outcomes:

  1. Faculty will report increased use of high-impact and evidence-based teaching practices.
    • Survey of faculty that attend consultations, other events and workshops.
    • Needs assessment every 2 years through focus/discussion groups with faculty.
    • Track what we do not have capacity to offer.
  2. Create and maintain a process for documenting faculty engagement with professional development offerings.
    • Assess progress

Strategic Goal 2: Hub – Excellence in Collaboration

Foster interdisciplinary collaboration across campus to enhance student success (Hub).

WCU SD 1.4.3, 1.6.4, 5.5.1, 5.3.2, 5.4.2, 7.1.1

Outcomes:

  1. Offer programming and initiatives that bring together faculty and staff from across the institution.
    • Report programming and initiatives in annual report.
    • Incorporate mindfulness as part of all programming.
  2. CFC is a valued and critical partner in mobilizing faculty capacity for teaching & learning in all modalities, research, scholarship, and creative endeavors that increase student engagement and success.
    • Survey and focus groups.
    • Track numbers of publications, presentation, partnerships, and people in learning community, number of consults.
    • Track the number of initiatives we support.
    • Engage department heads and deans in regular discussions.
  3. CFC team is seen as critical change agents by deans, department heads, and upper administration.
    • Survey and discussion with department heads and deans.
    • New Faculty Orientation, Faculty Forward, Mentoring.

Strategic Goal 3: Sieve - Create Resources for Evidence-Based Teaching & Learning

Develop organized evidence-based resources for teaching, learning, and scholarship (Sieve).

WCU SD 5.2.3, 5.4.1

Outcome:

  1. Provide a repository both internal and external on evidence-based teaching and learning for course design, instructional technology, and scholarship.
    • Track the usage of the repository.

Strategic Goal 4: Temple - Celebrate Excellence in Teaching & Learning, and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Celebrate faculty who increase student success through the use of high-impact and evidence-based teaching and 5practices (Temple).

WCU SD 1.2.3, 1.4.2

Outcomes:

  1. Increase awareness of faculty who use high impact, evidenced-based, and inclusive teaching practices.
  • Track the number of faculty/instructors showcased at SiTL, T&L days, etc.
  • Number of posts/articles in newsletter that includes faculty celebration.
  • Track readership.
  1. CFC is seen as a champion of those who advance the use of high-impact, evidence-based teaching and learning practices.
  2. Provide administrative support for the UNC Board of Governor’s Excellence in Teaching Award, the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Innovative Scholarship Award

Strategic Goal 5: Organizational

Develop internal processes to support our work.

Outcomes:

  1. Write up SOPs for signature events and processes, marketing plan, and activities
    • Write sops for all signature events and workshops- year 1
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Coulter Faculty Commons for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
172 Hunter Library
Cullowhee, NC 28723
Phone: 828.227.7196
Fax: 828.227.7340

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