The Faculty Innovator (FI) Fellowship Program seeks to improve teaching and learning in EKU classrooms, by providing opportunities for faculty members to serve as teacher-scholars and mentors at the institution. Faculty who have a passion for creating and implementing effective teaching and learning practices will be asked to experiment, learn from, reflect on, and share these practices.
Vision Statement
The Faculty Innovators Program envisions a thriving community of teacher-scholars who transform teaching and learning through relational trust, intellectual curiosity, and evidence-based innovation. We aspire to cultivate an institutional culture where pedagogical excellence is deeply valued, faculty are empowered as agents of meaningful change, and cross-disciplinary collaboration generates insights that enhance student success and faculty flourishing.
Mission Statement
The Faculty Innovators Program develops faculty as teacher-scholars and pedagogical leaders through sustained mentorship, scholarly engagement with the scholarship of teaching and learning, and meaningful project-based work. We support faculty in addressing authentic pedagogical challenges—whether discipline-specific, exploratory, or scalable—while building a collaborative community that values relational development, intellectual exchange, and evidence-based practice. Through this work, we advance teaching excellence, deepen faculty expertise, and contribute to an institutional culture of continuous improvement and innovation.
Program Overview
The redesigned Faculty Innovators (FI) program adopts a project-based model that emphasizes relational development, scholarly engagement, and meaningful pedagogical innovation. Faculty Innovators will engage in intellectually rich projects that foster cross-disciplinary collaboration, deepen teacher-scholar identity, and contribute to teaching excellence—both within their own practice and across the institution where appropriate.
Core Principles
Innovation with Purpose
Faculty Innovators tackle authentic pedagogical challenges identified through institutional needs assessments, departmental priorities, emerging trends in higher education, and observations of authentic pedagogical challenges in their own classrooms. Projects may be discipline-specific, exploratory, or designed for broader adaptation—all approaches are valued for their contribution to teaching excellence.
Teaching Excellence at the Center
While embracing innovation, the program maintains its foundational commitment to teaching excellence. All projects must demonstrate clear connections to improved student learning, faculty development, or pedagogical practice.
Evidence-Based Impact
Projects are grounded in scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) principles and result in disseminable outcomes such as publications, conference presentations (Pedagogicon, Lilly Conference), and reusable resources where appropriate.
Relational and Developmental Focus
The FI program cultivates faculty identity as teacher-scholars through sustained mentorship, cross-disciplinary intellectual exchange, and trust-building within a community of practice. These relational outcomes are central to the program’s transformative impact.
Two-Phase Structure
Phase 1: Exploration & Proposal (Semester 1, typically Fall semester)
Faculty Innovators spend their first semester:
- Engaging with SoTL scholarship through a structured journal club or reading group, exploring published models and evidence-based practices relevant to their pedagogical interests
- Identifying institutional and disciplinary needs through structured conversations with Deans, Department Chairs, Foundation Professors, and FCTL leadership
- Reviewing needs assessment data to understand faculty and student challenges
- Building cross-disciplinary relationships with FI cohort members to refine project ideas, share diverse perspectives, and establish trust
- Developing a project proposal that defines scope, deliverables, timeline, and expected impact—whether discipline-specific, exploratory, or scalable
- Deliverable: Approved project proposal with clear scope and outcomes
Note: The exploration phase allows applicants to enter the program without a fully-formed project, reducing barriers to participation while ensuring projects are well-designed and grounded in scholarship.
Phase 2: Creation & Dissemination (Semesters 2-4)
Faculty Innovators execute their projects with support from:
- FI Council and Foundation Professor mentorship providing guidance, accountability, and pedagogical expertise
- FCTL resources including funding, technology, instructional design, assessment expertise, and administrative support
- Cohort collaboration through regular meetings for peer feedback, intellectual exchange, and mutual support
Deliverables can include:
- Scholarly output (conference presentation, publication, SoTL research, or professional development at EKU, e.g. TLIs, PLCs)
- Pedagogical resources appropriate to project scope (may include web content, Canvas modules, workshop materials, toolkits, or discipline-specific innovations)
- Reflection on impact and potential applications (implementation plans encouraged where institutional scalability is feasible and desired)
Project Sourcing
Projects emerge from multiple sources to ensure relevance and faculty ownership:
- Faculty-Proposed Projects: Open call for faculty to submit project ideas aligned with teaching excellence and innovation—including discipline-specific, exploratory, or cross-cutting initiatives
- Institutionally-Identified Priorities: FCTL and academic leadership identify high-impact needs (e.g., AI integration, dual credit support, new faculty development)
- Needs Assessment Data: Projects address gaps revealed through faculty surveys and student feedback4. Departmental Requests: Chairs and Deans propose discipline-specific or cross-cutting pedagogical challenges
Project Scope Guidelines
To ensure projects are manageable and impactful, FI projects should:
- Be completable within 2-3 semesters with reasonable time investment
- Align with institutional priorities and Graduate Profile competencies where appropriate
- Include assessment or evaluation components to measure effectiveness
- Lead to scholarly dissemination through presentation or publication
- Value diverse forms of impact: Projects may be discipline-specific, exploratory, or designed for broader adaptation—all contribute meaningfully to teaching excellence
Examples of Appropriate Scope:
- Small: Develop a toolkit for implementing mid-semester student feedback with assessment rubric
- Medium: Design and pilot AI literacy modules for first-year courses with implementation guide
- Ambitious: Create comprehensive onboarding program for adjunct faculty with Canvas integration and workshop series
- Discipline-Specific: Investigate active learning strategies in upper-level philosophy seminars with SoTL publication• Exploratory: Pilot contemplative pedagogy practices in STEM courses with reflective case study
Support & Mentorship
FI Council & Foundation Professors
Experienced Faculty Innovators and Foundation Professors serve as mentors, providing:
- Project design feedback and pedagogical expertise
- Implementation troubleshooting
- Connections to resources and collaborators
- Guidance on scholarly dissemination
- Sustained mentorship relationships that extend beyond project completion
FCTL Leadership
Provides structural support including:
- Regular check-ins and project management assistance
- Access to instructional design, technology, and assessment expertise
- Funding for project materials, conference travel, or course releases
- Promotion and implementation support for completed projects where appropriate
Cohort Community
FIs meet regularly to:
- Build cross-disciplinary relationships and trust
- Share progress, challenges, and pedagogical insights
- Provide peer feedback and intellectual exchange
- Collaborate on overlapping initiatives
- Develop teacher-scholar identity through sustained engagement with a community of practice
- Engage with SoTL literature and emerging pedagogical scholarship
Expected Outcomes
For Faculty Innovators
- Enhanced teacher-scholar identity and pedagogical expertise
- Deep relational connections with colleagues across disciplines
- Scholarly contributions to teaching and learning
- Expanded professional network and sustained mentorship opportunities
- Recognition as pedagogical leaders and change agents
- Intellectual growth through engagement with SoTL scholarship and cross-disciplinary exchange
For the Institution
- Innovative and evidence-based solutions to authentic pedagogical challenges
- Resources that improve teaching across disciplines where scalability is appropriate
- Culture of relational trust, intellectual exchange, and continuous improvement
- Enhanced reputation for teaching excellence
- Strengthened community of teacher-scholars committed to pedagogical innovation
Application Process
Faculty interested in becoming Faculty Innovators should complete the application found here.