Amy Chatham, Ph.D., has been named executive director of the expanded Center for Teaching and Learning as of Dec. 1, 2024. “Now, faculty and teaching staff can find everything in one location, whether they are teaching online or face to face,” she said.UAB’s Center for Teaching and Learning, or CTL, is open to all faculty and teaching staff and is on the leading edge of teaching effectiveness and innovation on campus. The Office of Learning Technologies (formerly known as the Division of eLearning and Professional Studies) supports faculty and staff with instructional design services, academic technology tools and training, and continuing education offerings.
As of Dec. 1, 2024, all those services are now offered through the CTL. Amy Chatham, Ph.D., who has been the CTL director since August 2023, has been named executive director of the expanded center. “Now, faculty and teaching staff can find everything in one location, whether they are teaching online or face to face,” Chatham said.
Scott Phillips, Ph.D., vice provost for Innovative Teaching and Academic Engagement, looks forward to the comprehensive opportunities the new CTL will provide for faculty. “These offices are here to help faculty and are laser-focused on providing the tools, training and service that enable UAB’s teachers to be the most effective,” Phillips said.
In addition to the Office of Learning Technologies joining the CTL, a new Office of Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning, housed within the CTL, will fulfill and significantly expand the professional studies functions that had been performed by the former division. “With her considerable teaching and leadership experience, and her extensive connections with the community, Dr. Chatham will provide great vision and leadership for the expanded CTL,” Phillips said.
“These offices are here to help faculty and are laser-focused on providing the tools, training and service that enable UAB’s teachers to be the most effective,” said Scott Phillips, Ph.D., vice provost for Innovative Teaching and Academic Engagement.Under the Professional Studies name, eLearning historically provided support for grant-funded projects, including continuing education for doctors, nurses, social workers and other professionals, Chatham says. One of Chatham’s own grants, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, involved creating a course for doctors around issues of sanitation in the Black Belt. The vision for the new Office of Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning is to expand on this foundation.
“As schools develop and expand their continuing and community education programs, the CTL can provide structural, technical and teaching support for these expanded programs to reach a whole new set of adult learners,” Phillips said.
“We are asking, how can we offer the amazing educational opportunities that we have here at UAB, where we have experts in so many areas, to people who do not have time to enroll in UAB degree or certificate programs?” Chatham said. That might look like a few hours of in-person classes on a very specific topic, or a short online course developed by UAB faculty or staff. “We are looking forward to working with all the UAB schools to find out where they see potential to offer educational opportunities to the community,” Chatham said. “We want to bring in a director who can be creative in how we leverage the strengths of what we offer and even unearth new possibilities. We are still very much in this envisioning and development stage, but we are really excited and plan to move quickly to conceptualization and put this into practice.”
Chatham encourages any faculty who have existing community education projects, or ideas for new ones, to reach out to her at uabctl@uab.edu. “In the new year, we are going to go out and meet with deans and associate/assistant deans to talk about this and offer support,” Chatham said. “We are a service through the provost’s office whose mission is to meet the needs of schools. That will be our focus.”
Searches are underway for directors of the Office of Learning Technologies and the Office of Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning.
