Training provides faculty development and enhances efforts to make more courses available to students across the system.

Harrisburg, PA – As part of a commitment to continuous innovation and meeting students’ changing education needs, Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) announced today that almost 500 faculty members have voluntarily completed specialized, nearly year-long training in cutting-edge teaching strategies.

The PASSHE Board of Governors received an update on the initiative this morning during its quarterly meeting in Harrisburg.

PASSHE universities offer the training through a partnership with the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), which provides research-backed higher education teaching certifications endorsed by the American Council on Education.

“PASSHE believes that every college student deserves an extraordinary education and that faculty members are the central driver of that success,” said PASSHE Board Chair Dr. Cynthia Shapira. “I’m extremely proud that in such a short time, hundreds of our faculty have already completed this intensive professional development program. Our faculty members are experts in their fields, yet they know learning never stops. Helping them be the best teachers possible is good for our students and our universities.”

Since launching in 2021, nearly 500 PASSHE faculty members have completed the Effective Teaching Practices courses. The certification program equips faculty with evidence-based practices to help them better engage with students and promote deeper learning, which has been shown to improve student grades and retention.

Based on that success, PASSHE expanded the program this month to provide faculty training in teaching online courses. Over the next two years, up to 264 faculty will earn an ACUE certification by completing the Effective Online Teaching Practices courses.

More than 70% of PASSHE students take at least one online class.

“Students increasingly want the flexibility to take a course in a classroom, online or a mix of both, and how you engage and best teach those students is a huge challenge for educators,” said PASSHE Interim Chancellor Christopher Fiorentino. “We want to meet students where they are and empower our faculty to have the skills and confidence to be tremendous teachers in the classroom and online, especially as our universities prepare to share courses across the State System.”

The Board of Governors has prioritized giving faculty members the opportunity to enhance their online teaching skills. PASSHE is deploying technology for automated course sharing, which allows students to take online classes from all 10 universities without leaving their own campus.

“Course sharing will give PASSHE students access to more programs and courses than ever before, particularly specialized courses that may not be available on every campus,” said Dr. Diana Rogers-Adkinson, PASSHE vice chancellor and chief academic officer. “That opens a world of opportunities for our students across all PASSHE campuses. This is an exciting moment to be an educator, and we want to support our faculty as we prepare for the future.”

PASSHE received a grant from the National Association of Higher Education Systems (NASH) last year to support the course-sharing initiative.

“Even as an experienced educator, I found that going through the certification helped me to refresh my teaching skills and use all new approaches. The courses draw upon research on the science of teaching and learning, which helps faculty improve our teaching in face-to-face classrooms or online,” said Dr. Lisa Stallbaumer-Beishline, professor of history and former director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg. “The most transformative lessons made my courses more transparent to my students. I redesigned all my assignments to explain the purpose, the task, and the criteria for evaluation. In doing so, all my students, especially the first-generation students, have access to what will help them thrive.”

Each ACUE program consists of four online classes, which take about 10 months to complete and earn the professional credential. PASSHE faculty volunteer for the program and continue teaching their regular classes.

“While I was already comfortable teaching online, this training helped me refresh my courses to better meet student needs,” said Dr. Lacey Fulton, associate professor of communications at Pennsylvania Western University. “Each module presented research-based strategies, then challenged us to implement them in our own teaching and reflect, just as we ask students to do. This has strengthened my teaching and reinforced the idea that small, intentional changes can significantly enhance student engagement and success.

“I was also reminded of what it’s like to be a student and the challenge of balancing coursework with professional and personal responsibilities. It really drove home the importance of clarity, flexibility, and engagement in online learning and underscored the impact of how students navigate and succeed in our courses.”

In other action from today’s quarterly meeting, the Board of Governors welcomed two new members: Senator Lynda Schlegel Culver, Chair of the Senate Education Committee, and Senator Art Haywood, Minority Chair of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee.

About PASSHE

Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) is the public university system of the commonwealth with a mission to provide a high-quality education at the lowest possible cost to students. The State System annually confers more than 20,000 degrees and has more than 800,000 living alumni, most of whom live in Pennsylvania. The State System universities are Cheyney, Commonwealth (Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield), East Stroudsburg, Indiana, Kutztown, Millersville, PennWest (California, Clarion and Edinboro), Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities of Pennsylvania.