The small office with a big impact

By: Ray Weikal

RAY WEIKAL/ Amber Dailey-Hebert poses at the entrance to the new offices of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning on Sept. 26 at Park University in Parkville. The center was started in 2005 as a way to help teachers improve their classroom methods.

Four Park University employees in a small Parkville campus office are having an effect on college students across the U.S.

The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning was started two years ago by university officials to help faculty members develop and improve their teaching practice. On Sept. 24 the success of that experiment was affirmed with the grand opening of a new office in the campus underground and adjacent to the library.

Dr. Amber Dailey-Hebert helped found the center and is now its director. A new space and additional staff are tangible signals that the school’s administration is pleased with the center, Dailey-Hebert said.

“We pretty much created the center from the ground up,” she said. “We do feel that we have the opportunity to have a huge impact.”

Park University has roughly 1,355 faculty members who serve 26,402 students spread across 43 campuses in 21 states. Every one of those teachers has access to a wide range of tools, programs and research compiled by Dailey-Hebert, assistant director Emily Donnelli-Sallee, program assistant Megan Holder and administrative assistant Rose Hochstatter.

Teachers at the university have definitely taken note of the center’s work, said associate professor Stephen Pew, the founding director of the Master of Healthcare Leadership Program.

“I think the center is one of the best things that’s happened to the university in a long time,” he said. “It creates an official vehicle for enhancing the quality of education.”

The center had been located in the university’s office of distance learning. The new offices, carved out of former meeting rooms in the library, place the center closer to the staff that it serves.

“It’s been a wonderful move for us,” Dailey-Hebert said. “We’re at the academic heart of the university. It’s great to be in a high-faculty traffic area.”

Having a full-time staff dedicated to researching and facilitating innovative teaching techniques helps leverage the university’s resources. It also allows teachers to spend more time focusing on their current classes and less time researching instruction techniques on their own. The university’s faculty members are devoted to teaching, and that makes the center’s job much more rewarding, Dailey-Hebert said.

“Our whole mission is to improve and enhance their already natural abilities and talents,” she said. “We have a population of incredibly dedicated faculty.”

The center’s resources can be accessed on campus through various programs and workshops and via materials available on its Web site. Most recently, the center has also started a peer-reviewed academic journal, called Insight. The journal is edited by Dr. B. Jean Mandernach, who, Pew said, is doing a great job.

“Jean Mandernach is one of the best editors that I have ever worked with,” he said. “The people who are running the center simply couldn’t be better.”

Staff writer Ray Weikal can be reached at 389-6637 or rayweikal@npgco.com.