Gibson joins UITL as Instructional Support Fellow

The University Institute of Teaching and Learning has selected Craig Gibson, Professional Development Coordinator for University Libraries, to serve as its Instructional Support Faculty Fellow. Gibson will lead UITL’s Mentor Program, designed to support the success of new faculty.

Gibson’s role chairing University Libraries’ Teaching and Learning Committee and his responsibilities for liaison and teaching development support across University Libraries, as well as his ongoing service as a UITL FIT (Foundation Impact Transformation) mentor, prepared him well for this leadership role.

“Prof. Gibson brings to UITL the scholarly expertise in and personal commitment to teaching and learning that will no doubt enrich an already successful FIT mentoring program. UITL will also benefit from his leadership more generally—especially in the areas of SoTL (scholarship of teaching and learning) research and learning space design. We’re delighted to have him join us,” said Kay Halasek, UITL director and associate professor of English.

Over 50 tenured faculty served as mentors in 2018-19, assisting nearly 200 new faculty participating in FIT. The new faculty gained knowledge about the institutional context for their teaching; developed familiarity with OSU’s diverse student body; established active, cross-disciplinary connections; and infused regular reflection about teaching into their work through the program.

Priorities for Gibson during his fellowship include sustaining the growth of the program; further developing resources available to all who teach at the university, but in particular those related to mentoring and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL); and elevating the visibility of the role and contribution of teaching mentors.  

“I believe that the mentoring program is already making a difference for the faculty who engage in it, and I believe that it can deepen its impact by sharing of ‘teacher knowledge’ more widely among mentors,” he said. “Such sharing might beneficially focus on methods and approaches for effective mentoring itself, as well as strategies for improving teaching. 

“The mentoring program will continue to enrich the professional lives of faculty through forging stronger communities and richer conversations across the university.”

Gibson’s initial work with UITL began as a member of its Internal Advisory Board. He has also contributed website features been an informal consultant, regularly pointing UITL staff to valuable resources, initiatives, and practices.

“I have found that my recent research with Sharon Mader, a research collaborator, to be especially informative in helping me grasp both the opportunities and challenges for librarians as they seek to offer their expertise in large-scale teaching and learning endeavors, such as the UITL at Ohio State,” Gibson explained.

Gibson said his work as a mentor to new faculty has been especially rewarding.

“I see continuing issues in pedagogical development among the faculty I work with, as they bring provocative questions to me at each month’s meeting for which we find provisional solutions (and new questions), and I am able to follow up with them between meetings with suggestions of resources and strategies,” he said.

In his position with University Libraries, Gibson is also responsible for liaison professional development, focusing on enhancing subject librarians’ knowledge of, and participation in, research support and research impact opportunities; digital scholarship initiatives; scholarly communication outreach; and teaching and learning partnerships with faculty.

He has also served as interim head for the Fine Arts Library, interim head for FAES Library, and associate director for research and education at OSU. Prior to coming to Ohio State in 2011, Gibson was Associate University Librarian for research, instructional, and outreach services at George Mason University Libraries. His forthcoming co-edited book from the Association of College & Research Libraries (2019) is entitled Building Teaching and Learning Communities. He has edited two other books for ACRL, Interdisciplinary and Academic Libraries and Student Engagement and Information Literacy.  From 2012 until 2014, he co-chaired the ACRL Task Force that developed the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, an internationally recognized curriculum development and teaching document for information literacy.

He replaces Mary Jo Fresch, Ph.D., professor emeritus, College of Education and Human Ecology, Department of Teaching and Learning, who developed the Mentor Program and led it from its inception in 2016.