Introduction

Before we embark on a brief overview of how the book is structured and what it contains, we wish to draw readers’ attention to the sculpture on the cover of this book, and to the word “vital” in the subtitle of this book.

First, we highlight the image on the front cover of this book. It features a sculpture titled Synergy, created by Utah artist Gary Lee Price. This sculpture, which denotes teamwork and mutual support, is displayed on the Logan campus of Utah State University, where the Center for Empowering Teaching Excellence is housed. The Center publishes the Open-Access series of which the current volume forms a part. We chose Synergy for the cover of this book because we view the pursuit of teaching excellence as an inherently collaborative endeavor. No one teaches in a vacuum – we all have students, colleagues, and supervisors. Likewise, the documentation of teaching excellence depends not only on our self-assessment, but also on evaluations from our students and our peers. Whether we struggle with our teaching or succeed (and most of us do both on a routine basis, let’s be honest), we are part of a system in which we work with others. Documenting the effectiveness of our teaching and arguing that it is excellent depends on the input and support of others. As Price, the artist, has said about this sculpture, “Life requires a community of effort and compassion … unified and working together in a way that all are empowered” (Price, n.d.). The book you are reading is the result of efforts and care on the part of every author who contributed to this volume.

By engaging librarians, instructional designers, faculty developers, students, and instructors, we cultivate a teaching excellence community that supports and enriches everyone’s practice. This synergy not only enhances teaching effectiveness but also embodies a collective commitment to student success and institutional excellence. Reflecting water beneath the sculpture serves as a reminder that reflective practice is essential to scholarly teaching through documenting our professional experiences, recognizing our growth over time and acknowledging that we become better educators only in community with others.

Second, we offer elaboration on the word “vital” in the subtitle of this book. In its lower-case form, the word denotes something that is critically necessary for sustained life. Indeed, the teaching mission of a university is its most important reason for being. If no classes were taught, it wouldn’t be an institution of higher learning. Additionally, as an acronym, VITAL stands for Visitors, Instructors, TAs, Adjuncts, and Lecturers (Levy, 2019) – basically, all university teachers who are not tenured or on the tenure track. This group, sometimes called “contingent faculty”, constitutes fully two-thirds of all faculty positions in the USA (American Association of University Professors, 2023) and Canada (University Affairs, 2023). We intend this book to be useful for anyone with teaching responsibilities in higher education, which motivated our choice of the word vital. Whether on the tenure track, tenured, or neither, those who teach stand to benefit from documenting their teaching excellence.

Aiming for the most inclusive framing, we prefer the generic term instructors, rather than professors or faculty members, to underscore the important contributions of all who teach in colleges and universities, regardless of rank or position (Staudinger & Sponsler, 2025). The pursuit of excellence by all those who teach supports the university’s mission. Which brings us to the topic of this book. This book argues that documenting teaching excellence is not merely a box-checking exercise but a creative, reflective, and collaborative act. By curating meaningful evidence of their impact, instructors foster personal growth, contribute to institutional missions, and advocate for the critical role of teaching in higher education. Designed for instructors across ranks, disciplines, and institution types, this volume offers both practical strategies and conceptual frameworks to support these efforts.

Excellent teaching is not merely effective in helping students achieve the stated learning objectives but is also experienced by students as engaging and empowering. Many observers can identify excellent teaching when they see it in action, whether online or in the classroom. But challenges arise when instructors are faced with describing and documenting their own teaching excellence for reviewers who have not observed the instructor’s teaching.

Claiming one is an excellent teacher is different from documenting one’s teaching excellence. The distinction is between telling versus showing. Our reason for publishing this book is to support instructors who are gathering and curating evidence of their own teaching excellence, as well as to inform evaluators of the perspectives to be considered when reviewing someone’s teaching dossier. Recognizing the diversity of higher education contexts, this book is organized into four interconnected sections. Together, they move from foundational concepts surrounding teaching excellence to institutional case studies, individual reflective practices, and finally, broader concluding insights. Throughout, the chapters model a range of approaches for documenting teaching excellence across varying professional and institutional landscapes.

This book brings together an array of voices from unique backgrounds, including various disciplines, institution types, and countries. Each chapter offers insights that contribute to a fuller understanding of what it means to document teaching excellence.

The book is divided into four sections: fundamentals, collaborative initiatives at specific institutions, instructor voice and agency, and conclusion. The opening section, Fundamentals, contains four chapters that lay the theoretical and practical groundwork for documenting teaching excellence, while also beginning to consider how emerging technologies may shape future practices. The second portion of the book features examples from five universities that have recently overhauled the way teaching is evaluated at their institution. Whether building on traditional methods or exploring the affordances of new technologies, this section invites instructors, evaluators, and administrators alike to imagine teaching documentation as an iterative practice. The third segment of the book contains chapters focused on instructor autonomy in directing their professional learning and in framing and shaping their teaching narrative. Lastly, the book’s conclusion offers recommendations for not only addressing the tensions inherent in instructor accountability built on a one-size-fits-all frame, but also shifting the approach to a strategic focus on shared excellence and collective responsibility.

The chapters gathered in this volume emphasize a critical shift in how teaching excellence is perceived and documented. Throughout the book, a consistent theme emerges: teaching excellence flourishes most effectively within a culture of collaboration, transparency, and continuous reflection. Each chapter underscores the importance of clearly articulated standards, relevant mentorship, and purposeful professional development, highlighting approaches ranging from grassroots faculty-driven initiatives to institution-wide frameworks aimed at cultivating and recognizing inclusive and effective teaching practices. The chapters also reflect the reality that documenting teaching excellence is not simply an administrative exercise but a reflection of instructors’ deep commitments to pedagogical growth, student success, and institutional values. By engaging in reflective practice and ongoing dialogues about teaching, institutions foster environments where teaching documentation authentically represents both instructor impact and instructional quality. Ultimately, this integrated approach to documenting teaching excellence exemplifies how a reflective, collaborative ethos strengthens the teaching community, enriches student learning, and advances the broader educational mission of the institution.

References

American Association of University Professors (2023). Data Snapshot: Tenure and Contingency in US Higher Education. https://www.aaup.org/article/data-snapshot-tenure-and-contingency-us-higher-education

Levy, R. (2019). VITAL faculty: A growing workforce in colleges and universities. Mathematical Association of America. https://www.mathvalues.org/masterblog/vital-faculty

Price, G.L. (n.d.) https://garyleeprice.com/product/synergy/

Staudinger, A. K., & Sponsler, L. E. (2025). Insights into full-time nontenure-track faculty at mid-career and beyond. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 57(1), 37-45.

University Affairs (2023). StatCan report reveals impending shifts at highest levels of professoriate. https://universityaffairs.ca/news/statcan-report-reveals-impending-shifts-at-highest-levels-of-professoriate/