Transform faculty development from isolated events into a career-long journey. Explore a scaffolded model—from pre-faculty preparation to advanced leadership—through initiatives like Passport to Great Teaching and Teaching Excellence Academy. Grounded in adult learning theory, this approach fosters collaboration, community, and faculty-led scholarship that scales teaching excellence.

The Challenge: Personalizing Faculty Development at Scale
At large research universities, centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) face a persistent challenge: how to create personalized, meaningful professional development for thousands of educators while maintaining quality, relevance, and community. Traditional approaches—one-size-fits-all workshops or isolated training sessions—often fail to meet faculty where they are in their careers, honor their expertise, or foster sustained connection.
Our CTL has embraced a different approach—transforming professional development from a collection of events into a coherent, career-long journey. Grounded in adult learning theory and structured around scaffolded programs that evolve alongside faculty careers, our model makes professional growth both practical and inspiring. By designing development that grows with educators, we transform a “mega-campus” into a connected community of teaching scholars dedicated to continuous improvement and student success.

Why This Matters: Theoretical and Practical Foundations
Adult learning theory emphasizes that growth must be self-directed, problem-centered, and immediately relevant. Faculty thrive when they have autonomy, can apply learning to real challenges, and collaborate with peers. Communities of practice research adds that learning is fundamentally social—faculty learn best when they connect across disciplines and build shared meaning.
On large campuses, such connection requires intentional design. Sustainability also demands moving beyond the “expert model.” While CTL staff play a vital role in design and coordination, the richest professional development emerges when faculty become contributors—leading workshops, mentoring peers, and conducting research on teaching and learning. By leveraging distributed expertise, CTLs can scale impact, strengthen relevance, and build shared ownership of the teaching mission.

The Career-Stage Pathway Model: A Scaffolded System for Growth
Our CTL’s Career-Stage Pathway Model connects every phase of an educator’s journey—from aspiring instructor to institutional leader. Each stage builds on the last, offering reflection, collaboration, and leadership opportunities.
Stage 1: Pre-Faculty Foundations
The journey begins before individuals become faculty, through CIRTL and Preparing Future Faculty programs. These initiatives introduce graduate students and postdocs to evidence-based teaching, course design, and inclusive pedagogy. Participants build confidence and professional networks that carry into their academic careers. By starting early, we signal that teaching excellence is part of scholarly identity from the start.
Stage 2: Entry and Onboarding
The Teaching Excellence Academy engages new faculty in cohort-based learning that blends workshops, peer consultation, and reflective practice. Participants analyze teaching data, explore strategies, and build teaching portfolios that support tenure and promotion.
The Passport to Great Teaching extends this experience through a modular, gamified framework that allows self-paced exploration of course design, assessment, and inclusive teaching. Digital badges foster motivation and connection—helping a large university feel smaller and more supportive.
Stage 3: Developing Expertise
As faculty gain experience, Elevate and continued engagement in the Passport program offer opportunities for deepened expertise and innovation. Faculty in this stage refine pedagogy, mentorship, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Elevate supports faculty preparing for tenure by helping them document teaching effectiveness and align instructional excellence with leadership goals. This sustained, scaffolded support helps faculty transition from effective instructors to educational leaders.
Stage 4: Contributing Expertise and Leadership
The final stage transforms faculty from participants to leaders. Through Research in Teaching and Learning (RiTL), Faculty Fellows, and Faculty Learning Communities, experienced educators give back to the community—leading workshops, mentoring peers, and co-facilitating programs. These contributions align with promotion and tenure criteria while enriching the culture of teaching excellence.
Faculty leadership not only extends CTL capacity but ensures programming reflects authentic disciplinary perspectives—creating development “by faculty, for faculty.” Together, these initiatives form a cohesive, flexible system that makes professional growth accessible and sustainable.

Transforming a Mega-Campus into a Community
Our framework is designed not only to build skills but to foster belonging. Through intentional cohort design, networking events, and hybrid engagement strategies, we help faculty find their professional home within a sprawling institution. By blending centralized support with distributed leadership, we’ve created a “network of networks”—communities that overlap, evolve, and sustain one another. Whether through a Teaching Excellence Academy cohort or a RiTL project, participants experience the power of connection at scale.

Plan for Interactivity: How the Session Engages Participants
In true OLC Innovate style, this session is hands-on and participatory. Rather than presenting a static model, facilitators guide attendees through collaborative activities that mirror the design process behind our CTL’s pathway system.

1. Quick Landscape Mapping (5 min)

Participants begin by sketching a simplified map of their institution’s faculty development ecosystem individually. The goal is to identify one gap and one strength—a rapid exercise that sets the stage for deeper discussion.

2. Interactive Design Sprint (10 min)

Participants engage in a focused design sprint. Each group selects one design challenge—such as scaffolding and choice architecture, leveraging faculty expertise, or building community at scale—and brainstorms two actionable strategies to address it. Guiding questions help frame the discussion: How can you offer choice without chaos? How can you expand faculty development opportunities to meet instructors at every career stage? How can you “shrink the campus” to create meaningful connection?

3. Rapid Action Planning & Share-Out (5 min)

Individuals identify one concrete next step for their institution and share through the Padlet gallery walk. Presenters facilitate a gallery walk wrap up discussion.

4. Post-Session Networking and Resources

Participants receive a QR code linking to program templates, communication samples, and assessment tools, along with access to an online collaboration hub for continued networking.

Attendee Takeaways
By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
-Visualize a career-long pathway for faculty development connecting pre-faculty preparation, onboarding, mid-career renewal, and leadership.
-Apply adult learning principles to design programming that is flexible, relevant, and empowering.
-Leverage faculty expertise through structured leadership opportunities like fellows programs and SoTL initiatives.
-Develop an implementation roadmap to refine or create career-stage pathways at their home institutions.
-Access digital resources and join a peer network for ongoing collaboration beyond the conference.

Why It Matters: Beyond the Workshop Model
Faculty development is often treated as a checklist—something to complete rather than a journey to live. By reimagining professional growth as a career-long pathway, CTLs can shift institutional culture from compliance to curiosity, from training to transformation.
When faculty are supported at every stage—and can see how early learning connects to mid-career reflection and leadership—they are more likely to stay engaged, share expertise, and inspire others. This continuity strengthens teaching, builds community, and improves retention.

Our mission captures this spirit:
“To cultivate a dynamic and supportive community that inspires educators at all career stages to pursue teaching excellence, transform student learning, and meet the evolving needs of the workforce.”

Conclusion: Building Systems That Grow Stronger
Career-stage faculty development creates ecosystems that evolve and regenerate. As faculty move through pathways, they become mentors, innovators, and leaders—multiplying impact exponentially.
For CTLs, this means shifting from doing everything to orchestrating networks of expertise. The result is a professional development ecosystem that is adaptable, scalable, and sustainable—built not on isolated programs but on a living community of educators dedicated to teaching excellence.
This session equips participants with the framework, strategies, and tools to map their own faculty development journeys—transforming professional learning from fragmented events into connected, lifelong pathways that advance teaching, learning, and community.

Zaina DeLaney, Ed.D.

Operations Manager at University of Florida

Alexandra Bitton-Bailey

Director at University of Florida

Alexandra is a seasoned educator, researcher, and faculty development specialist at the University of Florida, where she has championed excellence in teaching and learning for over 25 years. With a rich background in French, humanities, and pedagogy, Alexandra’s leadership at the Center for Teaching Excellence spans impactful programs such as the Passport to Great Teaching, Pathways to Online Teaching Excellence, the Teaching Excellence Academy, Teaching Beyond the Podium Podcast, and university-wide Faculty Learning Communities.
A passionate scholar, Alexandra has authored book chapters, articles, and monographs on teaching and learning, and played a key role in developing faculty resources to support the integration of artificial intelligence across the curriculum, including the Teaching Artificial Intelligence Handbook. She believes in the power and gift of collaboration, and partners with units, departments, faculty, and staff across the UF campus, the State of Florida, and beyond.
Alexandra holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration as well as master’s degrees in Romance Language Linguistics and one in Information & Library Science. Born and raised in Montreal, she remains ever-curious and collaborative, committed to building creative communities that spark innovation in education. In her spare time, Alexandra enjoys gardening, cooking, kayaking, outdoor adventures, and narrating audiobooks as a beloved hobby.