Celebrating the Success of the First Rise Cohort

Celebrating the Success of the First RISE Cohort 

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is proud to announce the successful completion of the first RISE (Resources and Insights for Starting Educators) Program, a summer cohort experience designed to empower early-career faculty in their teaching. This program provided a nurturing environment where faculty in their first five years of teaching at UT could gain essential teaching skills, build a supportive peer community, and immerse themselves in the vibrant culture of UT. 

The RISE Program, a carefully crafted experience rooted in educational research, was designed with participants’ growth in mind. Throughout the program, participants were introduced to a variety of interactive, learner-centered teaching strategies and technological pedagogy approaches. Facilitators from CTL and other units of campus like the Teaching and Learning Technologies (TLT) team, Longhorn Wellness Center, and UT Libraries created dynamic experiences to spark curiosity and excitement about teaching and learning and shared resources and strategies that faculty could immediately apply in their classrooms. 

One of the standout features of the RISE Program was its emphasis on networking and relationship-building. Each session began with a relaxed lunch and open conversation, allowing participants to connect on a personal level. This was followed by one-hour workshops on the following topics derived from the Eight Principles of Effective Teaching: 

- UT Teaching and Learning Ecosystem
- Course Design 
- Student Engagement 
- Assessment 
- Course Culture 

Each session concluded with an optional community-building activity. This structure aimed to create a joyful, affirming, and motivating atmosphere to make the learning experience both enjoyable and impactful. 

Participants described the program as: 

“a great networking experience, creative, thoughtful, friendly” and identified valuable aspects of the program to be “practical strategies to use in the classroom,” with “new ideas for student engagement,” “a big roadmap of teaching resources,” and “connections with other early career faculty across campus”.  

Twenty-one dedicated faculty members from 18 unique departments completed the inaugural program:  

Ishraq Al-Awamleh