The American Council on Education’s College Credit Recommendation Service (ACE CREDIT®) has evaluated and recommended the Association of College and University Educators’ (ACUE) Course in Effective Teaching Practices for three graduate-level college credits. More than 2,000 colleges and universities consider ACE CREDIT recommendations in determining the applicability of coursework and examination results to their courses and degree programs.
According to CREDIT, the rigorous credit review process is performed by a “team of teaching faculty from relevant academic disciplines, representing a diversity of colleges and universities.” ACE’s recommendation of three credits confirms that the 25-module program with research and application meets CREDIT’s requirements for graduate-level content, scope, and rigor. It also affirms that ACUE’s foundational course is appropriate to the professional needs of current and aspiring faculty and further provides colleges and universities with a way to recognize faculty who grow and hone their instructional practice. ACE CREDIT’s recommendation is independent of ACUE’s collaboration with ACE.
Colleges and universities nationwide are already using ACUE’s credential to recognize and reward faculty for their use of evidence-based teaching practices. For example, Miami Dade College counts the ACUE course toward promotion decisions. At the University of Missouri, faculty who complete ACUE’s program are eligible for salary increases.Other institutions are providing conference travel stipends, access to grants, and recognition at campus celebrations of teaching, among other incentives.
These colleges and universities are among those heeding the call to demonstrate the value of effective instruction that has been articulated in recent reports, such as The Future of Undergraduate Education, The Future of America. In this important publication, the Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education noted, “Faculty are rarely trained, selected, and assessed as teachers, and their effectiveness as instructors is rarely recognized or rewarded. . . . It is time for colleges and universities to elevate the importance of good teaching and to treat the practice of teaching as a central skill to be developed and supported.” By rewarding the use of evidence-based teaching practices through credit toward promotion and increased pay and recognizing exemplary instructors through campus-based and national initiatives, institutions are providing our distinguished teaching workforce with the acknowledgement they deserve.
