Our Computer Science and Engineering department has an abiding interest in improving its teaching. An effect of our effort is the happy situation that our overall teaching evaluations by students has risen despite the significant increase in the number of students that we serve.

Several factors have contributed to this success. It all starts with recruiting. In seeking prospective faculty candidates, we ask them to submit a statement about teaching (training, experiences, plans, philosophy, etc.). Their potential as teachers is a strong component of our evaluation.

Professors need to learn to teach, and we have been striving to improve ourselves in several ways. In the last ten or so years, about half of the department has participated in the University's well-regarded Bush New Faculty Development Program, or its Mid-Career Program , which are run by the Center for Teaching and Learning (http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/). The professors who have been participants include: John Riedl, Phil Barry, Shashi Shekhar, Joe Konstan, Ravi Janardan, Mats Heimdahl, Zhi-Li Zhang, Richard Voyles, Victoria Interrante, Jon Weissman, Bobbie Othmer, Ahmed Naumann, and Chris Dovolis. In addition, John Carlis has been a mentor in the new faculty program three times, and has taught a workshop in the mid-career program. In addition to informal discussions, we use annual peer reviews - one professor visiting another's class, followed by feedback. We also devote department meeting time to teaching. For example, last spring we spent most of one meeting addressing how to achieve interactive, cooperative learning in large classes. We also keep up to date portfolios for each course to help provide consistency, and to share with each other the fruits of our development efforts.

Our teaching endeavors have resulted in a number of awards. Maria Gini is a Morse-Alumni awardee. It is the University's highest prize for teaching. A number of other professors have been awarded one or more teaching awards (here or elsewhere). They include: Phil Barry, Dan Boley, John Carlis, Chris Dovolis, Ravi Janardan, Joe Konstan, Bobbie Othmer, John Riedl, and Carl Sturtivant.

Teaching assistants get helped along the road to being good teachers via University-wide TA training, and intra-department training programs. Some of our Ph.D. students also enroll in GRAD 8101 or 8102, which are "preparing future faculty" courses.

-John Carlis