Elevating Teaching through Departmental Leadership: Tools and Resources for Chairs (PDF, 582KB)
As administrative leaders, departmental heads fulfill various roles. They serve as the primary representatives for their departmental faculty, staff, and students, both internally and externally. Acting as a bridge between university administration and departmental members, they collaborate to develop and revise curricular goals to meet program requirements and degree-level expectations. Additionally, they function as teachers, mentors, facilitators, advocates, planners, organizers, delegators, recruiters, evaluators, communicators, coordinators, counselors, negotiators, problem solvers, peacemakers, and motivators (Hallan, Jones 2010). The Centre for Teaching and Learning at Queen鈥檚 University is a central academic service unit that promotes and supports quality teaching while building capacity in teaching and educational leadership in direct support of Queen鈥檚 students鈥 learning experiences. We work to support you in your mission, all the while fostering teaching excellence at the University. By improving teaching practices and enhancing student learning, we can:
- Partner, inform, and consult with you on institutional priorities for teaching and learning;
- Provide and support you and your colleagues with evidence-based, strategic, innovative course and program enhancement;
- Guide you and your team through different processes, including QUQAP and self-studies, curriculum mapping etc.
- Support your success as a Departmental Head in the coming years.
These supports we outline below are not exhaustive, rather they provide a focused and intentional starting point for discussion about how the Centre for Teaching and Learning can support you in advancing your program. To arrange a one-on-one consultation with one of our Educational Developers, please consult our Connect with鈥 page to identify who you should reach out to (depending on your needs) or email us at ctl@queensu.ca
Supporting Your Department
The purpose of Queen鈥檚 University Quality Assurance Processes (QUQAP) is to ensure continued high quality for existing and new undergraduate, graduate and professional programs at Queen鈥檚, as well as to support efforts to ensure consistency and cohesion of all academic programs offered by Ontario鈥檚 publicly assisted universities. For all QUQAP questions, contact QUQAP@queensu.ca.
Existing programs undergo a Cyclical Program Review (CPR) every seven years, which involves the writing of a Self-Study, a document which provides the department鈥檚 perspective on the quality and sustainability of each of its programs and which requires substantial curricular alignment and mapping. Each CPR involves an external review visit and review team report.
Major changes to programs, including changes to program-level learning outcomes, require a Major Modification process. This process involves an analysis of how the proposed changes will affect current and future students and how those students will continue to be supported in their learning. When considering embarking on a major modification, it is important to remember that the process takes 7-16 months.
New Program Proposals require a detailed proposal including curriculum mapping, a rationale for the new program, and information about how potential students will be supported. Like CPRs, new program proposals involve an external review visit. They also involve Senate approval, approval by the , and Ministry approval. The timeline for a New Program Proposal, from the initial proposal to admitting students, is 2-4 years.
The CTL provides support to units working through the QUQAP process through consultations and around curricular alignment, curriculum mapping, and program-level learning outcomes. We also offer Curriculum Commons annually: a series of workshops on curriculum advancement that includes specific guidance on the self-study process.
Supporting Your Faculty
Teaching at Queen鈥檚 University is supported by the work of dedicated educators across disciplines, who affect in significant and meaningful ways the learning experiences and success of students at our institution. Teaching awards offer recognition to individuals or groups who have gone above and beyond their normal duties to help our institution cultivate teaching excellence and educational leadership that pushes the boundaries of knowledge through teaching鈥攊n service to an inclusive, diverse, and sustainable society.
At Queen鈥檚 University, we promote a number of faculty specific awards, institution wide awards, as well as external awards to recognize the unique contributions of teachers and educators across campus.
For more information about best practices and developing an award strategy, visit:
- Collecting feedback on your teaching
- End of course student experiences of teaching (QSSET)
- Preparing a Teaching Dossier
Faculty members going through renewal, tenure, and promotion (RTP) can consult with an Educational Developer to help with their teaching dossier, and/or teaching related aspects of the tenure and promotion dossier!
Course (re)Design Institutes
Every year, the CTL organizes in-person and/or online institutes that guide participants through designing or redesigning an academic course. During this time, participants develop and/or refine your course learning outcomes; brainstorm ideas for assessment and learning activities; review to advance Indigenization and decolonization, accessibility, inclusivity, anti-racism, and global engagement; and apply principles of course design to improve student engagement and learning.
Generative AI in Teaching and Learning
This resource provides some considerations and guidance around curriculum design in response to the ever-growing popularity of AI tools and Large Language Model (LLM) software, including what Generative AI is, considerations for course design, harms, biases, and privacy concerns, as well as strategies for assessments and academic integrity. Resource on Gen AI in Teaching & Learning
An overview of policies and guidance on Generative AI within the context of classroom environments is provided by the Vice-Provost (Teaching and Learning): Summary of Generative AI Guidance in Preparation for 2023-34 Academic Year.
Active Learning Strategies
Formats for structuring class discussion to make them more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging.
Managing Difficult Conversations
With the goal of building community in the classroom and engaging learning experiences, we have curated these resources for instructors to adopt, adapt, and consider.
Managing Difficult Conversations
Creating Community Guidelines
Community guidelines are agreed-upon protocols that act as a contract for the duration of the semester with the potential of cultivating a sense of belonging amongst students and help to facilitate a space in which they can engage productively and respectfully.
Educational Technologies and CTL Supports
Create a course on OnQ
A step-by-step guide that walks you through the different steps you need to take to create your course is available through the onQ Support website.
Educational Technologies Guide
Technology can connect us like never before. But with infinite possibilities comes many challenges in making suitable and judicial decisions about best fit 鈥 what technologies will be the best solution for instructors, course contexts, and students? This guide maintains that:
- Less is more 鈥 stick to a limited number of tools and technologies and simplify wherever possible.
- The Learning Management System (onQ or other LMS offered by your faculty) is the single best technical solution for course management.
Teaching Toolkit: Tech Solutions
EdTech Toolkit
Use the search filters to help narrow which pedagogical tool to use for note taking, collaborative brainstorming, peer feedback, or project-based learning etc. The Ed Teach Toolkit has been created for instructors and educational support staff who are interested in exploring educational technology tools available at Queen鈥檚 University. Information provided includes:
- Pedagogical uses
- Availability at Queen鈥檚
- Integration with onQ
- Accessibility
- Privacy and Security
- Where to get support
Supporting Your Undergraduate and Graduate Students
Supporting professional development for graduate students, teaching assistants, and postdoctoral fellows
This TA Toolkit was developed by the Educational Development Associates (EDA) at the Centre for Teaching and Learning, and it seeks to introduce you to some of the basic principles needed for in-class, or online instruction. This toolkit does not include everything, rather, it is a starting point for discussion, and an invitation for further learning.
Questions to review with your TA in the beginning of the semester: The Teaching Assistant Checklist. Questions to Ask was compiled by the University of Waterloo and is a great resource that includes an extensive list of questions TAs might ask their course instructor to ensure that they are aware of TA responsibilities and that they have sufficient resources and support to complete their TA role successfully.
Student Success
Academics 101: Success Starts Here
Module that can be incorporated into your onQ on how students can organize their time, take notes, pick out key information in complex lectures and textbooks, write great university essays or lab reports, and prepare for exams.
Resource on Academic Integrity
For a more in-depth and interactive discussion of academic integrity, check out our online tutorials for undergraduate and graduate students from Student Academic Success Services.
Supporting you!
The following books and articles have been recommended by the Council of Colleges of Arts & Science
The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) provides on-demand, online access to mentoring, tools and support to help individuals grow and be successful in academia.
Through Queen's institutional membership with NCFDD, we are committed to supporting faculty members, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students progress through their academic career by developing and honing skills including research, writing, strategic planning, networking building and finding work-life balance.
include
- Managing multiple roles: How to be a faculty member and an administrator
Academics are notoriously conflict-avoidant and the inability to manage conflict can result in negative physical, emotional, and relational consequences for tenure-track faculty. In this webinar, you will learn how conflict-management is an essential part of thriving in the Academy, how to decide when to push-back and when to pull back in the face of conflict, the difference between healthy and unhealthy conflict, how to get clear about the role that power plays in resolving departmental conflicts, and ten tips for engaging in healthy conflict. - Department head intensive:
Is it your "turn" to become department head? Are you newly appointed to the role? Just like entering your first tenure-track job, becoming an administrator is a major career transition. In this bootcamp, we will focus on various ways you can maintain a sense of balance and wellness during the transition to department head.
- Webinar: NCFDD Panel Discussion:
(FSP) - Dr. Joy Gaston Gayles鈥檚 Presidential Address titled 鈥溾
Past Resources
R2023/24 Role of Departmental Chairs in Teaching Excellence (PDF, 906KB)
lets others remix, tweak, and build upon our work non-commercially, as long as they credit us and indicate if changes were made. Use this citation format: Evaluation of Teaching. Centre for Teaching and Learning, Queen鈥檚 University