Events & Programs
Although faculty members are experts in a given academic discipline, most receive little training and development as educators. Before teaching at 乐播传媒, faculty may have years of teaching experience or little experience in teaching, and that experience may carry well over to their classes at 乐播传媒 or it may not. Wherever faculty are in their teaching journey, we are here to help!
Faculty development is when faculty develop teaching skills and come to understand the learning process. The Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence (CAFE) hosts cross-disciplinary onboarding events, workshops, learning communities, conference-style academies, intensives, and peer-led programming help faculty continually improve on their teaching practices. Through CAFE programming, 乐播传媒 faculty develop, practice, critically evaluate, and expand evidence-based pedagogies and practices that serve the needs of our dynamic community of learners.
Faculty Recognition
Recognizing the impactful, supportive, and phenomenal work of 乐播传媒 faculty is core to our mission to center faculty excellence. To recognize these faculty, the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence (CAFE) created the CAFE Oh Wow (COW) awards. Learn more about these awards!
Upcoming Events
Visit our Upcoming Events page to learn more and register for an event:
Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence Programs
The Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence (CAFE) facilitates programs for 乐播传媒 and the community, including:
- Headwaters is a series for new and junior faculty that focuses on the development and support of full-time faculty (term and tenure-track) and pre-professoriate postdocs who are within their first year as instructors at 乐播传媒
- Confluence is series aimed at mid-career faculty that focuses on the unique opportunities and challenges pertinent to mid-career faculty. It's a space to connect with peers, share insights, and navigate this complex and exciting stage of your academic career
- Faculty Learning Communities are a series of conversations about changing topics
- Making Learning Visible is 乐播传媒鈥檚 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) program which addresses how teachers can not only improve their expertise in the field, but also develop and document pedagogical expertise
- New faculty orientations for both full-and part-time faculty
Our professional development programs bring faculty together for deeper dives into select areas of interest:
- The 乐播传媒 Teaching Academy is held twice a year, in August (Fall Teaching Academy) and January (Winter Teaching Academy). In addition to training and sessions updating faculty on issues of interest, the Teaching Academy frequently includes sessions launching or presenting on the work of faculty cohorts, from the Textbook Affordability Fellows to year-long faculty learning communities
- Community Engaged Research Fellows is a year-long program that was created to support community-engaged (CE) research efforts through an exchange of ideas and knowledge about partnership development, CE research methodologies, and publishing your research
- Quality Matters offers a process to improve and certify the design of online and blended courses. It is an international organization that provides peer-reviewed, quality assurance certification. 乐播传媒 has been a member of Quality Matters for many years. Visit the to learn more about the organization
Event Recordings
- Recordings and materials from past Teaching Academy sessions are available on the Teaching Academies page
- (self-enrolling Blackboard course, UA only) has links to several workshops to help
faculty with teaching remotely. Topics include 乐播传媒鈥檚 student population, interaction
in online classes, responsive online teaching, and designing assessments
- 2025 Information Sessions on Navigate: Faculty Success and the Office of Student Success
hosted three informative sessions on how you can use Navigate to help with student
persistence, retention, and graduation.
- The 鈥淲hat is a Progress Report鈥� sessions, hosted in September 2025, go over what reports
attempt to achieve, explain the structure of the Campaign calendar, and show how they
are useful for students
Teaching Conferences
If you want to attend a teaching conference, there are a lot out there to choose from. The Conferences page is a list of teaching conferences curated by CAFE. This is by no means an extensive list, but it is a good place to start if you are just starting to think about professional development in the practice of teaching in higher education. There are conferences in the list for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, active learning, community engagement, teaching online, and more. If you need some assistance looking for the right faculty development opportunity, or if there is a conference that should be added, email uaa_cafe@alaska.edu.
Funding to attend conferences can be available, depending on the conference. Visit the Conferences page to see if there are any conferences that CAFE is providing scholarships for, and visit Faculty Services to look at when Faculty Development Grant cycles are happening. There is usually a grant cycle in Fall and Spring semesters. Also reach out to leadership in your college to see what opportunities are available.
For upcoming events for faculty not hosted by CAFE, visit 乐播传媒's Faculty Calendar.
Faculty Success
Library 213 鈥� 907-786-4496 鈥� uaa_facultysuccess@alaska.edu 鈥� Monday 鈥� Friday, 8 a.m. 鈥�&苍产蝉辫;5 p.m.