Community-Engaged Teaching Track

Instructors at all levels who want to learn more and infuse community-engaged learning principles in their teaching are invited to this track. This track on the Master Teacher Certificate focuses on integrating meaningful community engagement with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.

Why participate in the Community-Engaged Teaching Track?

The Community-Engaged Teaching track can offer a number of benefits for instructors, including:

  • Increase the quality of community-engaged learning, research, and teaching through high-impact professional development experiences.
  • Deepen connection and networking among community-engaged instructors to enhance community and resources.
  • Grow the number of faculty and thus students doing high-quality community-engaged teaching and learning .

Ready to get started?

1
Review the requirements of the Master Teacher Certificate
The prerequisite for the Master Teacher Certificate is the Teaching Scholar Certificate. The Master Teacher Certificate is structured to enhance instructor development by requiring participants to contribute to ETE's mission that "elevates and promotes our culture of teaching excellence." This secondary certificate is awarded by earning 10 more badges (4 engage, 3 implements, 3 contribute).

All badges earned on the Master Teacher Certificate Pathway are in addition to those earned for the Teaching Scholar Certificate, totaling 20 badges overall. To review all the requirements for earning the Master Teacher Certificate and Community-Engaged Teaching track, visit the "ETE Professional Development Pathway" page on the Empower Teaching Canvas course.

2
Participate in the required badges
There are five required badges for the Community-Engaged Teaching Track:
  1. Either the ETE Conference - 1st (Contribute) OR the Journal on ETE (Contribute) badge
    Description: Contributing back to our USU teaching community is important, therefore you have the choice to contribute either to the ETE Conference (through presenting) or to the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence (JETE). For both of these contributes, you will share teaching practices/philosophies that you've implemented and how they impacted your teaching.
    Time to complete: Variable
    When to register: JETE accepts proposals year round and publishes two issues a year, fall and spring. The call for proposals for the ETE Conference opens in March of each year and the Conference is on the third Wednesday of August annually. Check out the ETE Conference website for the most up-to-date information.
  2. Either the SCOTs (Implement) OR the Peer Evaluation - Courses (Implement).
    Description: SCOTs are Student Collaborators on Teaching involving undergraduate students that can provide instructors with feedback on their teaching practices and resources to enhance learning excellence at USU. Peer evaluation is an excellent way to find areas of your instruction where you can further develop.
    Time to complete: Variable dependent on the implementation
    When to register: The SCOTs program operates throughout the year. Instructors can request a meeting with a SCOT after reviewing the SCOTs Review webpage. Peer evaluations can be found either in your department/college or can be requested on the ETE Peer Evaluations webpage.
  3. ETE Learning Circle - Community-Engaged Teaching - 1st (Implement)
    Description: Every semester, ETE runs a number of learning circles, where instructors and/or graduate students get together to discuss a book related to pedagogy or college teaching. This ETE Learning Circle is specific to a topic relating to Community-Engaged Teaching. You can expect to meet with your learning circle 4-6 times a semester.
    Time to complete: Variable
    When to register: Registration usually opens 2-3 weeks before the start of each semester (including the summer semester). Check out the Learning Circles website to find out what circles are coming up and to sign up.
  4. CEL Individualized Consultation (Engage)
    Description: This one-on-one consultation with a member of our Community-Engaged Learning staff is designed for you to learn more about adapting your course with community-engaged teaching techniques, making community partnerships, and designating your course as CEL.
    Time to complete: 1-2 hours
    When to register: You can sign up with a Community-Engaged Learning representative any time of the year.
  5. CEL Individualized Consultation (Implement)
    Description: This starts with a one-on-one consultation with a member of our Community-Engaged Learning staff. From this meeting, instructors are expected to intentionally implement a change or idea into your class(es) that you learned about during your Consultation .
    Time to complete: Variable
    When to register: You can sign up with a Community-Engaged Learning representative any time of the year.
Additional recommended events for the Sustainable Teaching Track include:
1. ETE Seminar: Community-Engaged Learning
2. ETE Conference Presentation: Best Practices in Community-Engaged Teaching
3. Keynote Speaker: Teaching Excellence: The Essential Core of the Land-Grant Mission
3
Submit badge assignment to Empower Teaching
After you have engaged in the content of a badge (for example, once you have completed the Learning Circle) you should submit the badge assignment in Empower Teaching. To submit a badge, navigate to the "Submit a Badge" page in the Empower Teaching Canvas Course. To earn the badge, you will have to fulfill all the "Criteria" outlined for that badge. Make sure that you respond to the prompts for the Community-Engaged Teaching track.
4
Track your progress in Pathways
After you submit a badge to Empower Teaching, an ETE staff member will read through your reflection and either award you the badge or ask for additional information to award you the badge. If additional information is needed, the ETE staff member will indicate what information to add in a submission comment and ask you to re-submit the assignment. Once you have been awarded the badge, you can track which badges you've earned and which badges you still need using the "Check Your Progress" button on the Empower Teaching Canvas Course Homepage

Still have questions?

Email us at empowerteaching@usu.edu