Director, Centre For Teaching Excellence

Position Job Title:Director, Centre for Teaching Excellence

Location:Niagara Falls, ON

Reports to:Vice President, Academic

Primary Purpose

University Niagara Falls Canada is seeking a key leadership role within a brand-new Centre for Teaching Excellence. This is an opportunity for a committed individual to provide educational leadership, strategic direction and proactive management.It will be an exciting opportunity for an experienced professional to lead, shape, build, and deliver a Teaching Excellence program aligned with the vision and directionof University Niagara Falls Canada. The university will deliver programs in both on-campus and on-line formats and the Director will be an expert in instructional design for multi-modal delivery.

The Director will establish and maintain CTE policies and procedures in alignment with University goals. The CTE Director provides leadership and vision in the administration and management of the CTE department, initiatives, programs, and services including new faculty orientation, continuous faculty professional development, external professional development courses, faculty consultancy, curriculum design and delivery, instructional design, assessment, and blended education quality enhancement. The Director liaises with Associate Deans, Faculty, Student Affairs, the Academic Department, senior leadership, and others to develop and support a variety of faculty education programs and initiatives to enhance faculty success at the institution. The Director will develop a CTE strategy and data system, and compile strategic information, business reports, and presentations suitable for Senior Leadership within the University to ensure a data-driven approach to continuous improvement for all CTE programs. When appropriate, the Director will represent the University to external internal and external constituencies.

Specific Responsibilities

Planning and Coordination

• Develops and implements an annual operating budget in consultation with the Vice President Academic.
• Provides accurate information and data for strategic decision making by conducting research, collecting and analyzing data, and establishing processes and methodologies that effectively evaluate data that will support student success and retention strategies.
• Ensures participation in areas of supervisory responsibility in the University’s long range planning process.
• Prepares statistical and analytical reports, supporting documentation, related correspondence, and other advice with respect to maintaining a data-informed environment for developing and sustaining programs that positively impact student retention and success.
• Monitors and evaluates programmatic and operational effectiveness, and effects changes required for improvement.
• Provides leadership and supervision for planning, organizing, and coordinating CTE programs while achieving institutional goals and objectives.
• Establishes and implements processes for the development, maintenance and evaluation of learner-centered teaching practices.
• Supports and leads the development of short and long-range CTE organizational goals, objectives, strategic plans, results-based planning, policies, and operating procedures.
• Provides creative leadership and management, directed to the improvement of relevant, efficient, flexible and economy of services
• Collaborates with IT Services, Academic Department, and faculty to implement systems in support of student success.

Representation and Communication

• Attends and presents at regional and/or national conferences.
• Undertakes to represent the University with regard to extraordinary activities, special initiatives, or task forces at the community, provincial, national or international levels.
• Develops external contacts, including membership in relevant professional associations, to remain current with pedagogical issues, trends, and practices.
• Attends, participates in, and provides advice as requested for all relevant internal and external meetings.
• Maintains communication and consultation with the Vice President Academic about all sensitive matters.
• Establishes and maintains positive relationships with internal and external stakeholders in the provision of educational services.

Centre for Teaching Excellence

• Delivers programs and services with consistent infusion of equity and inclusion teaching practices.
• Builds and maintains collaborative relationships with partners to implement, expand, and sustain programs that address the need for highly effective faculty.
• Liaises with stakeholders across the campus to ascertain faculty and staff needs for professional development.
• Enhances teaching quality by identifying needs, opportunities, and resources for strategic professional development with the goal of improving student learning by improving the preparation, effectiveness, and retention of high-quality instructors.
• Assists with evaluation and communication activities that address the impact of CTE and faculty success in alignment with institutional goals.
• Develops and ensures delivery of training for faculty to maintain understanding and implementation of effective learner-centred pedagogies and increase student engagement, active learning, experiential and applied learning, and other high impact learning pedagogies.
• Manages CTE staff and its annual budget.
• Performs all other duties and responsibilities as assigned.
• Collaborates with other CTE team members to research and integrate evidence-based practices to inform teaching and learning efforts within and across learning modalities and formats.
• When requested, assists in developing a professional development plan for faculty who require support in delivering effective classroom pedagogies according to expectations.
• Oversees development of training materials and teaching support materials for faculty as needed.
• Contributes to various aspects of instructional design, including analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of instructional materials to support faculty and programs.

Faculty Engagement and Involvement

• Supports faculty research on the scholarship of teaching and learning.
• Creates orientation programming and offers new faculty orientation each year.
• Produces reports and presentations to raise institutional awareness and knowledge of relevant CTE programming and ensures they are communicated to the broader community.
• Supports faculty and programs in ongoing reflection and assessment for curricular development.
• Provides support for continuous faculty development.
• Provides opportunities for faculty development in terms of pedagogical best practices and instructional design (workshops, training, etc.)
• Develops comprehensive mentoring programs for all faculty.
• Provides pedagogical guidance and support for e-learning best practices and the use of instructional technologyand technological developments.
• Partners with faculty in the development of new programs and courses to bring best-practices in instructional design to all program at the University.
• Works with educational developers and faculty to deliver programming and strategies for assisting faculty in linking student success outcomes to their classroom practices.
• Surveys faculty for areas of interest and need in professional development.
• Envisions, develops, and implements new programs, initiatives, strategies, policies, and procedures.

Personnel

• Plans, supervises, and directs the activities of staff in the CTE.
• Facilitates a positive working environment that nurtures and encourages high performance, teamwork, innovation and creativity.
• Ensures personal professional development through self-directed professional reading, developing professional contacts with colleagues, identifying professional development opportunities, and attending training and/or courses required by the Vice President Academic.

Position Requirements

Competencies:

• Ability to provide excellent service based on a broad knowledge of trends and issues relevant to the provision of teaching excellence services in support of student success.
• Proven ability to function with a high degree of sensitivity, tact and diplomacy.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Proven ability to work within and in support of a data-informed environment.
• Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with all constituencies including faculty, staff, administration, external stakeholders, and community members.
• Extensive knowledge of the needs and concerns of faculty within the ON/Canadian academic environment.
• Extensive knowledge of the faculty experience in post-secondary educational institutions.
• Ability to work as a committed team member who shares responsibility.
• Extensive knowledge of the role of CTE services systems and practices in the post-secondary context.
• Skill in interviewing, selecting, and orienting faculty as workshop and event speakers.
• Proven ability to effectively resolve disputes and conflicts.
• Proficiency in LMS administration and instructional design (preferably D2L Brightspace).
• Extensive knowledge of post-secondary education, policies and procedures.
• Demonstrated experience in project planning and management, and process improvement with the ability to manage multiple projects with efficiency.
• Strong communication skills both verbal and written and ability to express organized thoughts concisely.
• Ability to work with tight deadlines, high pressure and at short notice with information and data.
• Proven ability to achieve goals using collaborative and consultative processes.
• Demonstrated proficiency in providing workshops to faculty, staff, and students.
• Demonstrated understanding of the use of technology in the classroom as tools for achieving learning goals.

Education and Experience

• 3 – 5 years recent, relevant, and effective administrative experience at a post-secondary institution(s)
• Master’s degree or higher in an appropriate area of specialization, from a recognized, accredited institution