Organizational Structure
Committees
Steering Committee
The Steering Committee is the governing force that directs the detailed functions and affairs of the Teaching Academy. The duties of the steering committee are to oversee the activities of the academy; serve as Academy Liaisons for their respective colleges; determine priorities; approve budgets and identify resources; establish benchmarks and metrics to determine success; and promote the teaching mission of the Academy.
Fellows Committee
This committee is responsible for evaluating applications for membership and making recommendations to the academy for appropriate action. This committee reviews and updates the application process and the membership roster annually.
Biennial Meeting Planning Committee
This committee is responsible for planning and organizing the Biennial meeting of the academy.
Initiatives
External Peer Review of Teaching
The goal of this initiative is to address 2 major obstacles to recognizing and rewarding teaching in our colleges:
- The lack of defined and ready-to-use tools to assess teaching, teaching-related professional activities, and the scholarship of teaching.
- The lack of a respected and rigorous external review process.
Faculty Development
The goal of this initiative is to design and implement a faculty development program for new-to-teaching faculty.
- Principles of teaching and learning
- Outcomes and student assessment
- Approaches to student-teacher interactions
Quantifying Teaching Effort and Effectiveness
The goal of this initiative is to measure and recognize the diverse teaching activities in veterinary education by refining a “teaching effort calculator” adapted from CSU and WSU models. Piloted at the 2023 Biennial Meeting and now in use at RTA-member institutions, the calculator is undergoing further testing and feedback collection, with plans for a publication.
Working Groups
Sharing High-Quality Educational Materials
This RTA Working Group is committed to transforming veterinary education by fostering collaboration across institutions and sharing high-quality instructional materials. Our goal is to promote faculty and academic staff success through research-based teaching practices that enhance student learning and expertise development.
Community Engagement
Partnership in Education (PIE)
Local Peer Observation of Teaching
The primary goal of this initiative is to enhance teaching. To address this, we initially developed two outputs:
- A straightforward instrument designed to facilitate the peer observation process
- A set of guiding principles, or best practices, to facilitate implementation of local peer observation