Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning

VISION

The American University of Sharjah Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning aspires to promote innovative teaching for an enhanced learning experience at AUS.

MISSION

The American University of Sharjah Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning provides a welcoming environment that promotes pedagogical innovation, provides opportunities for the effective integration of technology and supports all faculty in their efforts to enhance teaching and learning.

The primary goals of CITL are aligned with the AUS institutional values:

Instructional Innovation (Transformative Student Experience)

• Cultivating a culture of classroom innovation that equips faculty members with pedagogical tools, strategies and knowledge necessary to support the integration of educational technologies that foster an inclusive and engaging learning environment for students of different backgrounds, experiences, cultures and abilities

Faculty Diversity and Inclusion (Inclusive Community)

• Providing faculty members with a mutually respectful intellectual environment in which diversity and inclusion are valued

Lifelong Learning (Intellectual Inquiry)

• Promoting professional development opportunities in teaching and learning in order to expand scholarship, lifelong learning and career growth
• Providing and transforming the intellectual academic growth and skill acquisition of our students

• Support the development, delivery and evaluation of courses and programs 
• Provide support for enhancing teaching and learning
• Support efforts to improve the assessments of learning outcomes
• Provide training and assistance with instructional pedagogies and technologies to faculty
• Provide personalized support to instructors for new and/or revised courses delivered in face-to-face, online or blended formats
• Assist in the development, use and evaluation of innovative learning environments
• Work in coordination with faculty to set effective and efficient standards for the use of learning and teaching technology tools
• Provide leadership in the development of coherent digital learning tools and platforms

Our services range from individualized support to seminars and workshops, all of which can help improve your teaching effectiveness.

Faculty Fellows commit to the following:

• serve as liaisons between the faculty of the school/college and the Director of the CITL to promote the continuous improvement of teaching and learning
• identify school/college specific interests and needs for best teaching practices
• develop a collaborative network of faculty committed to excellence in teaching and learning
• submit a progress report of your initiatives and activities at the end of every semester
• organize and lead teaching development events such as seminars and workshops:
  • suggest qualified moderators and panel members for CITL events
  • attend all CITL events
• stimulate cross-disciplinary interaction event topics around the use of technology in promoting active learning, student-centered approaches and evidence-based teaching pedagogy relevant to your school/college/department

The benefits of being a Faculty Fellow are:

• a stipend for each academic year of service
• use of CITL as a support platform for teaching and learning projects in your school/college
• the opportunity to serve up to two academic years (upon approval of their renewal application)
• priority enrollment in all CITL programs
• recognition as a Faculty Fellow and leader supported by your school/college in ways that advance your university-level service record
• the opportunity to develop a network of engaged educators to support the AUS educational mission towards a transformative student experience

If you have an interest in promoting active learning, student-centered approaches, evidence-based teaching pedagogy and academic technologies, you should apply to be a Faculty Fellow.

Fellowships require at least a one-year commitment.

Dr. Mai Zaki
Associate Professor, Arabic and Translation Studies
College of Arts and Sciences

With a background in linguistics and language teaching, Dr. Zaki’s approach to teaching firmly builds on the foundation of active teaching and learning, where content, skills and the learning environment itself are key elements in every class. She also believes that teachers should be always developing their pedagogical approach as they seek to provide the best learning experience for their students. She has taught a wide variety of courses on both graduate and undergraduate levels in linguistics, translation, Arabic heritage and Arabic as a foreign language. She has a special interest in technology, whether in teaching or in research, as digital humanities is increasingly becoming the field of the future and integrating technology in the classroom encourages active learning.

“In 1961, the American educational psychologist Jerome Bruner wrote a paper on ‘The Act of Discovery’ where he highlighted the virtue of approaching learning as a task of ‘discovering something’ rather than ‘learning about it’. This means that teaching should be primarily about engaging the learners in active cognitive tasks and transforming their learning into viable thought structures and a long-term autonomous process which goes far beyond the mere handling of information. Within this view, student agency is allowed to thrive in a collaborative environment where students are seen as creators rather than receivers.”

Dr. Randa Asad
Associate Professor, Physics
College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Asa'd is strongly passionate about teaching, with 10 years of teaching experience at AUS. She has taught several physics and astronomy courses and mentored many students in research projects. She enjoys getting to know her students as unique individuals and strives to inspire and guide them to fulfill their ambitions. In addition to her main research area in the field of astrophysics, she is also interested in physics education research. Her work has been published as a frontline in the peer-reviewed Physics Education Journal and presented at the American Association of Physics Teachers conference and other physics/astronomy education workshops.

“In this digital era where facts and information are at the tips of our fingers and can be easily accessed through the web on our cell phones, it is obvious that the role of an instructor is not to impart factual knowledge to be memorized, but to teach students how to utilize this information and inspire them to apply it in creative ways.”

Dr. Mehdi Ghommen
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering

With more than a decade of experience in academia and industry, Dr. Ghommem has been working on adapting a teaching style that engages students in the learning process via interactions and relating the course material to real engineering applications. Keeping the motivation of the students at a high level is key to ensure such engagement. His approach is based on the establishment of a collaborative and interactive environment for learning when delivering a course. The switch to remote learning because of the pandemic was a great opportunity to explore and use different online tools. Mastering sophisticated digital learning technologies helped to achieve an effective delivery of courses in a blended and fully online learning environment. His previous experience with industry has been also helpful to guide students, give them insights on the workplace culture and prepare them for professional careers.

“Nowadays, professors are being called upon to focus more on their teaching approach/style and delivery modes with the goal to improve the educational opportunities for their students and effectively transfer the knowledge required to address complex engineering problems. As such, professors are constantly urged to consider technology-based teaching strategies and active learning techniques which have shown effectiveness in increasing the students’ interest in the course topics, promoting their engagement in the learning process, and developing their soft skills, creative and critical thinking abilities. Employers give high importance to such skills for new engineers in all disciplines to cope with the dynamic changes of the market.”        

Dr. Ashraf Khallaf
Professor, Accounting
School of Business Administration

Dr. Khalaf has taught at many institutions such as Florida Atlantic University and the University of Southern Indiana, USA. Dr. Khallaf spent his sabbatical in 2018 as a visiting professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. His areas of teaching interest are accounting information systems; auditing; data analytics for accounting; financial, intermediate and advanced accounting; and accounting for Islamic financial Institutions. His areas of research interests are capital market research, return on research and development and IT investments, internal control, data analytics and visualization, corporate governance, voluntary disclosure and Islamic finance. Dr. Khallaf is the 2016 recipient of the Best Teacher Award at the School of Business Administration and Use of Technology in Classroom Award from the AUS Faculty Development Center.

“The demand for college graduates with a data analytics mindset is growing rapidly, providing exceptional career opportunities. The skills that employers value now are changing in a way that increases the gap between the skills that the market expects our college students to acquire and the skills that students are possessing. The skills gap poses a pressing challenge and educators are among those in the frontlines of this battle. My teaching vision is to develop an analytical mindset across the SBA curriculum and infuse new technologies in the classroom to develop skills that are essential for lifelong learners such as communication, critical thinking and problem solving. It is important to emphasize that integrating technologies in the classroom will not be at the expense of or dilute the core knowledge students have to acquire but it will support the acquisition of their knowledge and enhance their analytical skills.”

Paula Curran
Associate Professor, Art and Design
College of Architecture, Art and Design

Professor Curran earned an MFA in Art and Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BFA from Parsons School of Design in New York City. Prior to attending graduate school, she practiced graphic design for 10 years with the New York City Transit. Before coming to AUS in 2019, she taught graphic design at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa for 26 years.

In addition to teaching, she has maintained a robust record of creating award-winning designs. Most notably, she designed the narrative text for the public space plaza, De-Code/Re-Code in Atlanta, Georgia, commissioned by the city for the 1996 Olympics. She has written, designed and bound artists’ books, some of which have been purchased for special collections by university libraries. She has published articles on design pedagogy and presented at national and international conferences. Her chapter “Designing with Self-Authored Text” is featured in The Education of a Designer, editions 1 and 2, edited by Steven Heller of the New York Times.

“I see my role as that of a facilitator—engaging students to see and think. Software will come and go, but how students see, interpret and create images, use typography, develop ideas, view the fine details and understand the big picture are vital to their success as designers. Encouraging, guiding and advising students to think critically, make ethical decisions, and create imaginative, conceptually sound, and visually compelling work is the goal in my classroom.”

With CITL’s commitment to provide support and promote effective teaching and learning across the entire AUS community, we are very excited to be facilitating face-to-face and virtual workshops on various topics this Fall 2022. We look forward to your participation in our events and workshops.

Please click here to view the lists of workshops for Fall 2022.

CITL always strives and makes its utmost efforts in accomplishing its goal in sharing best practices, methodologies and knowledge on technology tools for enhancing teaching and learning to the AUS community. In Spring 2022, nine informative and interactive sessions were held, each of which was categorized as one of the following types of workshops: Teaching and Learning Hours, Technical Workshops and Virtual Lounge Sessions. The overall theme for the fall semester was "Best Practices for Assessment.. Through this theme, our panelists were able to share some of their insider tips, tricks, practices, habits and ideas that helped them successfully implement appropriate assessments into their classrooms. Remarkable feedback and appreciation from participants was received.

Click here to view the CITL Spring 2022 Workshops.

As CITL is committed to supporting and promoting effective teaching and learning across the entire AUS community, 12 informative, meaningful and interactive workshops were conducted in Fall 2021. To provide better organization of these workshops, the following categories were used: Teaching and Learning Hours, Technical Workshops and Virtual Lounge Sessions. The purpose of the Teaching and Learning Hours Workshops is to provide AUS faculty with professional teaching support programs and to encourage teaching effectiveness, creativity and innovation. While the Technical Workshops focused on the practical application of various selected topics by CITL and/or faculty fellows. Participants will participate in a guided discussion about how to apply the demonstrated strategies in their classrooms. The Virtual Lounge (VL) is an interactive online meeting room where faculty and teaching staff across AUS campus discuss and reflect on the challenges and experiences related to teaching and learning in a virtual environment. The main objectives of this lounge are to support the development of excellence in teaching, and to establish best practice.

Click here to view the CITL Fall 2021 Workshops.