New Faculty Academy

The New Faculty Academy (NFA) at Sacred Heart University (SHU) is a required program for all new full-time faculty, and highly recommended for all new part-time faculty. The NFA orients new faculty to our community of teachers and scholars, our mission, and Sacred Heart’s roots in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and the liberal arts.

This program has been developed with direct feedback from faculty. We encourage and solicit feedback from participants to continually adapt to the needs of our new faculty.

Program Goals

Our goals for this program are for participants to:

  • Become familiar with the essential knowledge, practices, and resources needed to meet SHU’s standards of teaching excellence and of commitment to ongoing professional development.
  • Build community with other new faculty across SHU departments, programs, and disciplines.
  • Meet the individuals, teams, and offices who are here to support faculty and their students.

Program Overview

To complete the New Faculty Academy, faculty are required to participate in at least 10 NFA sessions over the academic year. Faculty are welcome to attend more than 10 sessions as aligned with their interests and needs.

NFA session types include:

Faculty Conversations on Mission & Catholic Identity

Led by the Office of Mission & Culture, these sessions explore the mission of Sacred Heart University and its Catholic identity, as they relate to the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and the experiences of new SHU faculty. Attendees will complete a selection of related readings in advance of each session. Faculty Conversation sessions are required for new full-time faculty.

Teaching, Learning & Beyond

Led by the Center for Teaching & Learning in collaboration with many other university offices, these just-in-time sessions provide space for discussion to promote the success of SHU students and the professional growth of SHU faculty members. Timely topics include preparing for the first day of class, engaging students, gathering midsemester feedback, reflecting on student course evaluation feedback, exploring grant opportunities and more.

Academic Technology Sessions

Led by the Academic Technology team, these sessions introduce participants to key educational technology for SHU instructors. Opportunities include:

  • Classroom Technology sessions, which train in-person instructors to use the technology available in SHU classrooms such as computers and projectors.
  • Teaching Technology sessions, which introduce all instructors to SHU specific educational technology platforms, such as our Learning Management System (LMS) – Blackboard Ultra, web conferencing tools – Teams and Zoom, student engagement tools such as Feedback Fruits and more.

Accessing NFA Program Resources

All new faculty members are automatically enrolled in the New Faculty Academy Blackboard course. The Blackboard course serves as a centralized location for accessing program information, the full session schedule with event locations and virtual links, as well as any related resources or readings. By hosting our NFA program on Blackboard, we hope to provide all new faculty, but especially faculty new to Blackboard, with additional experience using and navigating our LMS.

Completion of the Program

A list of all new faculty who successfully completed New Faculty Academy (i.e. have attended at least 10 NFA events during the academic year) will be provided to the deans of each college at the end of the spring term. Attendance at NFA events will be taken through Blackboard, allowing faculty to track their progress toward completion over time via the Gradebook feature. New faculty members who complete the program will also receive a completion certificate and are invited to list New Faculty Academy as evidence of professional development on their resume/CVs and for their professional reviews (e.g. annual, tenure, promotion, application to the Presidential Seminar, etc.)