Starting the Journey to Excellence with a College Faculty Onboarding Program

The journey to engaged, excellent teaching requires support and preparation for those doing the teaching! In this session, we describe a college Faculty Onboarding Program we developed in 2023 to introduce our new faculty to NSU and provide them with the resources and information needed to succeed in their new role—driven by the belief that effective onboarding will lead to higher job satisfaction, better job performance, greater organizational commitment, and reduction in stress. Informed by feedback from recently hired faculty, we identified support strategies to help new faculty thrive by proactively removing barriers and minimizing guesswork, rather than fixing issues in a reactive fashion.

Attendees will have access to program resources they can adapt for their own use, such as checklists to guide new faculty during their first day, week, term, and year. They will see the non-CRN Faculty Onboarding Canvas Site we created as a virtual learning community; it houses modules on everything from how to get a Shark Card, how to handle grade disputes, to the process for faculty contract review. The program also includes in-person and Zoom activities, such as a college New Faculty Orientation, Onboarding Open Houses, Canvas Support Sessions, a Teaching Workshop Series, and social gatherings with the Dean. We also expanded our Faculty Peer Mentor program and provided additional support to the Peer Mentors. We hope that attendees will gain inspiration and practical ideas for engaging faculty in their own colleges in a manner that supports excellence in teaching and learning across the university.