Professional Development Series

The Teaching & Learning Center (TLC) offers a professional development series for faculty, staff, and graduate students each academic year. The TLC is invested in maximizing the excellence of the teaching and learning mission at Kansas State University. The professional development series will provide experiences, information, resources, and networking to help faculty, staff, and graduate students improve their craft in teaching, mentoring, and advising in many ways.

Types of Events:

Need-to-Know Events (NTK):

Need-to-Know events (NTKs) are professional development opportunities designed to address topics and issues that are relevant for all teachers, mentors, and advisors.

General Professional Development Events (GPD):

General professional development events (GPDs) are designed to cover special topics and supplement our Need-to-Know events.

Teaching CHATs:

Teaching CHATs are open forums wherein faculty, staff, and graduate students are invited to voice concerns about what they are currently experiencing in their classes. These sessions are intended to be broad, discussion-based sessions during which the K-State community can crowdsource potential solutions. CHATs do not count toward the requirements/expectations for the TLC Professional Development certificate.

Earning TLC Certificates

We offer two certificates for faculty, staff, and graduate students who attend our professional development series: the TLC Professional Development Certificate and the TLC Fellows. While these certificates reflect our appreciation for your engagement in our series, they also reflect your motivation and efforts toward teaching excellence. Click here to see TLC Fellows and Professional Development Certificate Holders.

TLC Professional Development Certificate

Earning a TLC Professional Development Certificate demonstrates your commitment to improving your own excellence in teaching and learning. To earn a TLC Professional Development Certificate, you should email Ashley Schiffer (schiffer@ksu.edu) by the May 2025 deadline (specific date is TBD) with the following information:

1. Confirm that you have participated in 12 events within our Professional Development Series, 4 of which should be designated as "Need To Know" (or "NTK") events, over the course of that academic year.
   • We track your participation via post-event survey completion for each event.
2. Attach a completed Final Reactions reflection.
   
   
3. A campus address to which we can mail a physical copy of your certificate upon completion.

Becoming a TLC Fellow

Being selected as a TLC Fellow demonstrates your commitment not only to improving your own excellence in teaching and learning, but to improving the teaching and learning excellence of others. Similar to earning a certificate, to become a TLC Fellow, you should email Ashley Schiffer (schiffer@ksu.edu) by the May 2025 deadline (specific date is TBD) with the following information:

1. Confirm that you have participated in 12 events within our Professional Development Series, 4 of which should be designated as "Need To Know" (or "NTK") events, over the course of that academic year.
   • We track your participation via post-event survey completion for each event.
2. Attach a completed Becoming a TLC Fellow reflection.
   • Here, you will summarize your efforts to improve the teaching and learning climate at Kansas State University and beyond. These efforts may include having given presentations or workshops on teaching and learning topics, engaging in the scholarship on teaching and learning (SoTL), etc. You will also provide an abstract for a workshop/presentation on a teaching and learning topic that, if selected as a TLC Fellow, you would like to offer as a professional development event next year.
3. A campus address to which we can mail a physical copy of your Fellows certificate upon completion.