Highlighting Opportunities and News from our Campus Partners
All events held in Apodaca Science Building, Room 123 @ 2:00 pm.
February 18, 2026 (Wednesday) | 3:30 – 4:30 pm Hunter Library 156 (CFC Conference Room)
For All Interested Faculty: Come discuss service-learning and community experience courses with WCU faculty Dr. Brian Byrd (School of Health Sciences) and Dr. Patricia Bricker (School of Teaching and Learning). This roundtable conversation will feature opportunities to hear about their experiences, to learn about the designation process (coming March 2nd!), and provide an open forum to exchange ideas. Questions? Contact CCESL Director Joy Mischley (jmischley@wcu.edu). A Zoom option is available for those not able to attend in-person (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81328274742)
The Service-Learning Course (SLC) and Community Experience Course (CEC) designation process for Fall/Summer 2026 courses is currently underway. The initial designation process involves the faculty member completing a brief (~9 min) form. Please refer to the CCESL website for more information or contact Joy Mischley, Director (jmischley@wcu.edu). If you submitted your course during one of the deadlines last year, you do not need to repeat the process this year. Instead, CCESL will contact you individually about completing a brief renewal.
Deadline: Monday, March 2, 2026, for Summer & Fall 2026 courses
We’re excited to share our November workshop schedule, designed to help you make the most of your teaching tools before the end of the semester. This month, we’re rotating three focused sessions:
Online Template Session – The CFC continues to offer training to help you integrate WCU’s online template into your courses.
New this month: All sessions will be offered in a hybrid format — join us in person at Hunter Library 156 or participate virtually via Zoom, whichever fits your schedule best.
If none of the workshop times work for you, we highly recommend our new 4-week asynchronous UDL course, which guides you through applying Universal Design for Learning principles to your own course.
Simplify your grading workflow while maximizing feedback quality. Learn how to use SpeedGrader, apply rubrics, record video comments, and manage your gradebook with ease.
Tuesday, Nov 18 | 10:00 – 10:45 am
Wednesday, Nov 19 | 2:00 – 2:45 pm
Stay connected with your students with built-in Canvas features. We’ll show you how to use announcements, feedback tools, the syllabus feature, and discussions to build an engaging and communicative course environment.
Tuesday, Nov 18 | 9:00 – 9:45 am
Wednesday, Nov 19 | 3:00 – 3:45 pm
The Online Course Template is designed to enhance consistency, support, and engagement for both students and instructors. We will support faculty to adapt the template to fit their course needs while maintaining a cohesive structure across WCU.
Wednesday, Nov 19 | 9:00 – 10:30 am
Thursday, Nov 20 | 1:00 – 2:30 pm
The Coulter Faculty Commons is heading to Asheville! We’re excited to host a Biltmore Park Day featuring four hands-on, practical workshops designed to support your teaching, wherever you’re based.
These workshops are open to any instructor who teaches at Biltmore Park, as well as main campus or online instructors who live nearby and would like to participate.
Join us for any or all of the following sessions on Tuesday, September 2, 2025:
It’s common for instructors to find it difficult to clearly express their teaching philosophy, even after years in the classroom. In this hands-on session, you’ll explore your core teaching beliefs, narrow them down to 3–5 guiding priorities, and learn how to express them in a clear, authentic narrative. Whether you’re preparing a statement for promotion and tenure or simply want to reconnect with your teaching purpose, you’ll leave with a strong draft and next steps.
Looking to energize your classroom? Explore simple, research-backed strategies to get students thinking, talking, and engaging. You’ll leave with ready-to-use ideas and a renewed sense of what’s possible face-to-face.
Simplify your grading workflow while maximizing feedback quality. Learn how to use SpeedGrader, apply rubrics, record video comments, and manage your gradebook with ease.
Stay connected with your students with built-in Canvas features. We’ll show you how to use announcements, feedback tools, the syllabus feature, and discussions to build an engaging and communicative course environment.
ETLE 2025: A Celebration of Excellence in Teaching and Learning
The Coulter Faculty Commons invites the WCU campus community to join us for our annual Excellence in Teaching & Learning Event (ETLE) – a two-day celebration of innovative and impactful teaching practices.
ETLE 2025 will feature a dynamic lineup of workshops, presentations, and opportunities to connect with colleagues who care deeply about student success. This year, we are especially thrilled to welcome Dr. Liz Norell – widely known as The Present Professor – as our invited speaker. Dr. Norell serves as the Associate Director of Instructional Support at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at the University of Mississippi.
In addition to delivering the ETLE keynote and a featured workshop, based on her recent book, The Present Professor – Authenticity and Transformational Teaching, Dr. Norell will lead a special pre-ETLE workshop entitled “When and Why do Students Read for Class?”
Her work centers on the power of showing up fully – with honesty, heart, and presence – in the classroom and beyond.
Whether you’re looking for fresh inspiration or eager to share your own experiences,
ETLE 2025 is for you!
Explore session descriptions and register now on the ETLE 2025 website.