Professional Development for Graduate Students

Ohio University offers many different professional development opportunities and resources for graduate students.

Explore all the following options listed. For questions, contact the Graduate College by emailing  graduate@ohio.edu .

Teaching Assistant (TA) / Future Faculty Workshops

The Graduate College offers workshops for those graduate students who are Teaching Assistants (TAs) or aspire to be faculty members. Workshops include online modules, in-person workshops, studio sessions, coffee hour discussions, and faculty development & diversity workshops. In addition, useful TA resources are listed near the bottom of this section.

Online Modules

• Your Teaching Philosophy Statement
  Objective: You will learn what a teaching philosophy statement (TPS) is, and be prepared to develop your own. 
• Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching
  Objective: You will be able to analyze and adapt a variety of learning scenarios to encourage and promote student learning.
• Learning Taxonomies
  Objective: You will be able to use three taxonomies of learning that will help you think about your goals, plan your teaching and learning activities, and scaffold your students' learning towards these goals.
• Understanding by Design
  Objective: You will be able to identify the six facets of understanding.
• Designing Goals, Objectives, & Learning Outcomes
  Objective: You will be able to write goals and student learning outcomes for your course.
  • Introduction to Backward Design
  • Goals and Student Learning Outcomes
• Assessment of Student Learning
  Objective: You will be able to select aligned assessments for your course.  
  • Assessment: Stages and Strategies
  • Designing Commonly Used Assessments
  • Introducing Authentic Assessment
  • Minimizing Cheating
  • The Course Map

• Promoting Student Engagement
  Objective: You will be able to implement and maintain a welcoming environment for your students, and select active learning activities, both of which will support your student learning outcomes.
  • Establishing a Community of Learners
  • Utilizing Active Learning Strategies
  • Using the Flipped Approach
  • Selecting Course Materials
  • Consulting & Collaborating with a Librarian
  • Course map: Aligning Learning Activities to Learning Outcomes
• Course Review
  Objective: You will be able to review your course for quality.
• Developing Your Syllabus
  Objective: You will demonstrate competency in developing a syllabus.
• Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes for Course and Program Improvement
  Objective: You will be able to use assessment data to inform course and/or programmatic development and improvement

Faculty Development & Diversity Workshops

As part of Ohio University’s continued effort to provide professional development opportunities to faculty, Ohio University has joined the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) as an institutional member.

The NCFDD is a nationally recognized, independent professional development, training, and mentoring community that provides online career development and mentoring resources for faculty, post-docs, and graduate students. 

The NCFDD provides a variety of virtual programs and resources, including:

• Monthly NCFDD Core Curriculum webinars
• Monthly guest expert webinars
• Access to multi-week programs
• Access to the NCFDD Dissertation Success Curriculum for graduate students
• Access to the NCFDD 14-Day Writing Challenge
• Access to the NCFDD member library that includes past webinar materials, referrals, and readings

All faculty, students, and staff with OHIO email addresses are eligible to register for an individual membership account through Ohio University’s institutional membership account.