PFF Certificate Requirements
PREPARING FUTURE FACULTY (PFF) CERTIFICATE REQUIREMENTS (updated Fall 2013)
To earn the PFF Certificate a student must fulfill the following two requirements:
(1) Complete one semester-long, mentored teaching-related experience during which the student works with a faculty member to focus on teaching issues and processes.
This requirement may be met in several ways.
- Serving as a Teaching Assistant or Course Instructor (teaching a course or serving as a TA for a lecture, discussion group, or lab class).
- Working under a teaching mentor for one semester (giving guest lectures, visiting classrooms at ODU and other institutions, and reading teaching-related literature).
- Completing a course on teaching in your discipline. The course should be related specifically to the process of teaching and not to specific content in the discipline. Pre-approval to count a course towards the PFF certificate should be obtained from the PFF Steering Committee Chair.
Completion of the teaching-related experience must be documented by providing either a written description of the teaching activities completed and signed by the mentor, or a copy of your transcript indicating successful completion of the teaching-related course.
(2) Attend five academic career-related events, three of which must be PFF-sponsored events.
Students must attend at least three PFF-sponsored events. Two PFF-sponsored events are offered each semester.
The remaining events may be any of the following non-PFF workshops or activities. Completion of these events must be documented by obtaining the signature of the speaker or director of the event.
- Attend the ODU Graduate Teaching Assistant Instructor Institute (open primarily to funded GTAs)
- Complete the Certificate on College Teaching offered by the Virginia Tidewater Consortium for Higher Education.
- Attend the "Provost's Conversations on Teaching and Learning" or "Connect with Colleagues" events. Attendance at two of these events will count as one non-PFF related event.
- Attend workshops offered by the Office of Research (Grant Proposal Development, Developing Strategies for Successful Health and Biomedical Sciences Grant Submission, Community of Science Workshop, etc.)
- Attend Faculty Development workshops offered by the Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT). Acceptable CLT workshops are: Turning Point Clickers in the Classroom: IPad series; Using Prezi For Your Courses; Leveraging Social Media to Enhance Your Courses; Designing and Implementing Assessment in Your Course; Engaging Students in Live Distance Learning Courses; Project-Based Learning.
- Attend a professional workshop related to teaching in your discipline offered at professional conference or at ODU. Pre-approval to count an event towards the PFF certificate should be obtained from the PFF Steering Committee Chair.
- Serve as a student representative on a departmental, college, or University committee. Pre-approval to count an event towards the PFF certificate should be obtained from the PFF Steering Committee Chair.
- Complete a faculty development course offered by ODU's PFF program (or an equivalent course offered by an accredited doctoral institution). Pre-approval to count a non-ODU faculty development course should be obtained from the PFF Steering Committee Chair. Completion of this course will count as two non-PFF events for the PFF certificate.