Faculty Development Needs Assessment: Findings and Recommendations
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In Fall 2025, CETLL conducted a needs assessment—combining a college-wide faculty survey (303 responses) and thirty 1:1 interviews with deans, chairs, and faculty—to understand what QC faculty need to teach effectively and to guide CETLL’s short- and long-term planning. This summary highlights the findings and recommendations that emerged through this process.
Three broad findings emerged:
- Teaching has become more complex, as faculty balance foundational skill-building, rapidly changing technology, evolving assessment practices, and growing attention to student engagement and career preparation.
- Faculty consistently want more opportunities to learn with and from one another, through peer mentoring, interdisciplinary collaboration, and sustained communities of practice.
- Meaningful change requires institutional investment: faculty need protected time, recognition, and structural support—not just more programming—to sustain teaching innovation and scholarship.
Within these broad findings, generative AI, supporting student skills development, and experiential/active learning stood out as the most urgent priorities, alongside strong interest in assessment practices, intentional course design, instructional technology, and support for scholarship—especially mentorship for new, pre-tenure, and adjunct faculty.
Based on these findings, this report recommends that QC and CETLL:
- Incorporate these findings into QC’s next strategic plan
- Implement strategies that expand faculty time, recognition, and support to ease workload barriers to teaching innovation and scholarship, especially for new, pre-tenure/CCE, and adjunct faculty
- Develop focused programming on top priority areas– especially generative AI, student skills development, and experiential/active learning– with both institution-wide guidance and discipline specific support
- Continue and expand peer-based learning and interdisciplinary collaboration
- Improve outreach so more faculty are aware of and can access existing CETLL offerings