Center for Advancement of Faculty Excellence
The CAFE exists to offer dynamic programs and professional learning opportunities that will help retain and cultivate an engaged, collaborative, and diverse faculty at APSU.
The Center supports faculty at all career trajectories from new faculty to tenured, full professors and with all aspects of being a faculty member to include resources for teaching and research, facilitating collaborations and engaging faculty in fostering a culture of excellence at APSU.
| To be the Trusted Resource for Transformational Educators at APSU. | To Support the Faculty of Austin Peay State University by providing resources, advocacy, and professional development. |
The Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence (CAFE) strives to support faculty members in teaching, research, leadership, and resources aimed at optimizing student interactions. We achieve our Mission by providing professional development opportunities in the field of teaching and learning, sponsoring conferences, writing book club, instructional and technical information workshops.
Are you interested in supporting CAFE?
Announcing our 2025 FC Keynote Speakers!
CAFE is excited to announce our Keynote Speakers for our 2025 All Faculty Meeting
in August - The Learning Scientists! Cindy Nebel, PhD and Megan Sumeracki, PhD will deliver the keynote address and
lead us through a workshop after our Faculty Luncheon.
Learn more about The Learning Scientists here!
As cognitive psychological scientists, they will discuss the science of learning, focusing on retrieval, spaced practice, and interleaving. They will explain how cognitive psychology is applied to education as an overview, and then talk about individual strategies. For each strategy, they will explain what it is, demonstrate some evidence supporting its effectiveness, and then cover ways it can be applied in various settings. During the workshop, they give opportunities to think about the ways they may already be incorporating the strategies (either intentionally or unintentionally), and then how to incorporate the strategy more in an intentional way now that they've learned/learned more about it.
Understanding Academic Misconduct & Student Absences: Faculty Roles and Procedures
Session Description
This session provided faculty with a comprehensive overview of Academic Misconduct
procedures at APSU, including how cases are handled, faculty responsibilities, and
best practices for addressing academic misconduct in the classroom. The faculty notification
process for student absences was also covered, clarifying when and how faculty are
informed about students facing challenges that may impact their attendance.
Faculty members left with:
*A clear understanding of APSU’s Academic Misconduct procedures
*Guidance on reporting and addressing potential violations
*Insights into student absence notifications and their role in academic support
*Resources for navigating care and conduct-related concerns
Presenters
The presentation was led by Claudia Alonzo, Director for Community Care and Standards,
and Sharon West, Care and Conduct Coordinator, who joined to provide insight into
faculty notifications on student absences and related support services.
Here is a link to: PowerPoint Presentation slides
Here is a link to: Student Academic Conduct Process Flow Chart
February 2025 - "Creating OERs for Gen Ed Resources"
Pictured L to R:
Danielle Ladd-Suits, Allie Johnston, Lori Burdette, and Keely Mohon-Doyle
Because of their consistency and the faculty often assigned to teach them, General Education courses are the perfect candidates for open education resources (OER). To serve students in ENGL 1010: English Composition I, this team in the Languages and Literature Department received a TBR OER Grant for the 2024-2025 academic year to complete Peay-Pare to Write! An Introduction to Composition and Rhetoric for ENGL 1010. In their talk, they shared how they progressed from the grant writing process to publication in the OER Commons and answered questions about how their experience could be applied to your academic context.
Here is a link to their presentation PowerPoint file:
Creating OER for Gen Ed Courses
Here are additional links to the OER materials discussed in their presentation:
February 2025 - AI in the Classroom
"Asynchronous Online Classes in the Age of AI"
CAFE enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with the College of Arts and Letters on our “AI in the Classroom: Asynchronous Online Classes in the Age of AI” session on Thursday, February 6! As you can see from the pictures, it was a hit and well attended! Huge thanks to our Distance Ed team for their professionalism and detailed work in preparing for the presentation! A very special thank you to Mike Olson, Alexandra Rotzer, Crystal Faulkner, and Anna Carrie Webb!
Here is a link to the handout from the presentation:
Distance Ed will also be doing an adjusted version of this AI session for their March
TechBytes. Faculty can register for that here…
https://apsu.zoom.us/meeting/register/7OBoLtkkTy22KCNvv4W88g#/registration
Thank you for attending our January 2025
Pre-Semester Trainings and Sessions!
Monday, January 13 - Cintas First Responder Training: Life-Threatening Emergency Bundle with Paul D'Addario and Lawson Patten II, Cintas
Tuesday, January 14 - National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Tennessee Crisis Intervention Training with Kim Rush King, CIT Senior Manager
Wednesday, January 15 - Full Spectrum Learning Session: "Understanding and Supporting Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Higher Education" with APSU's Emmanuel Mejeun, Director of Full Spectrum Learning
Thursday, January 16 - Green Zone Training with APSU's Jasmin Linares, Assistant Vice-President for Military & Veterans Affairs
Friday, January 17 - Safe Zone Training with APSU's Zac Moore, Assistant Director of Student Life & Engagement
TechBytes SPRING 2025 Schedule
2024 FC Keynote Speaker - José Bowen
Slides of August 12th presentation to Faculty
Teaching with AI: Handout
We need more AOQF Peer Reviewers!
CAFE Loyalty Program Registration
