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Faculty Center

Guidelines

Faculty Learning Community Guidelines

A Faculty Learning Community is a peer-led group of faculty who engage in active, collaborative learning structured to provide encouragement, support, and reflection. Topics can be centered around the areas of teaching and learning, research and scholarship, leadership and service, or another area of common faculty interest.

The FLC should promote collegiality and collaboration both within and between departments; encourage innovation by creating a safe place to investigate, question, explore and apply new or different techniques; improve teaching and learning across campus, both in the group members’ individual classes and as the groups’ insights spread to colleagues inside and outside the departments.

Proposals for Faculty Learning Communities

Proposals for Faculty Learning Communities will include:

  • Title and short description of the topic 
  • Leader Bio  
  • Description of target faculty audience
  • Faculty applicant criteria
  • Anticipated meeting dates and times (and/or meeting frequency and structure) 

Faculty participants should be selected to represent a diversity in ranks, departments, and disciplines, as well as experience, perspectives, and needs.  

FLCs may be proposed by any tenure-track or tenured faculty, or lecturers with a 3-year appointment. Participation in an FLC is open to all faculty with current appointments.

Faculty should be selected to represent a diversity in ranks, departments, and disciplines, as well as experience, perspectives, and needs.

Each leader should plan on being an active participant and learner within the FLC.

FLCs will run for the time selected with a minimum of 6 people, with a suggested maximum number of 12 participants.

Select the length of time for your FLC based on the content you’d like to include, and the time commitment needed from the participants.

There are two format lengths for FLCs: one semester commitments or full academic year commitments. FLCs at CSUSM require a minimum commitment of two one-hour meetings a month during the regular academic year. Best practices suggest meeting every three weeks for 2 hours per meeting.2   

Faculty selected to particpate in an FLC will receive a stipend as compensation for participation in and completion of FLC goals. FLC leaders may receive their compensation as salary following the campus guidelies for additional employment. In some cases, FLC leaders may need to receive all their compensation as professional development funds only.

Compensation amount is determined based on hours spent in the FLC. Plan on meeting no less frequently than twice per month, for an hour at a time. Best practices suggest meeting every three weeks for 2 hours per meeting.1

  • 18-20 hours meeting time (plus some outside work), $2000 leader, $500 participant
  • 9-10 hours meeting time (plus some outside work), $1000 leader, $250 participant

Each FLC leader will have a budget of $250/semester to be used as selected, including meals/refreshments, supplies, or books for the participants as allowed per campus spending guidelines and approval processes. All expenses should be discussed in advance with Sonia Perez.

Sharing the work of the FLC with the larger CSUSM community

All FLC leaders and FLC participants members will share the work of the FLC with the larger CSUSM community at a Faculty Center event such as the end of year Faculty Center Teaching and Research Expo. Additional options for sharing the work with the CSUSM community is through the creation of materials for the Faculty Center resource library.