Expectations for students

The Engineering Leadership Institute (ELI) offers elective curricula—including academic credentials—that help undergraduate and graduate students develop valuable, in-demand, professional skills that are not typically available in traditional university engineering programs. Our faculty are dedicated to teaching in ways that enhance learning and ensure a meaningful educational experience.

We welcome students who take full responsibility for their education and are committed to understanding and engaging with the course content and its real-world applications. To support these objectives, we outline the following expectations:

Course Format: Many courses are offered in a hybrid format with weekly synchronous in-class sessions and asynchronous student preparation through the Canvas course site materials. Students must complete the weekly asynchronous component, including all assigned readings, to fully understand the course content.

Leadership Development: Leadership development begins with how we lead ourselves. Students should be proactive in following the course syllabus and schedule, engaging in class discussions and activities, and approaching all coursework with the goal of growing as character-based engineering leaders.

Attendance and Preparation: Students should attend synchronous sessions regularly, arrive on time, actively participate, stay for the entire class, and be fully prepared by completing the prior week’s asynchronous materials.

Classroom Conduct: Students should avoid computer or phone use for non-course purposes during synchronous sessions. This behavior disrupts learning and engagement, shows disrespect to the instructor and guests, and can be distracting to others.

Classroom Communications: Students should aspire to improve in all areas of communications, including verbal, non-verbal and listening skills. Students should maintain open and respectful communication with instructors, peers, and team members. This includes promptly responding to emails and messages related to the course. The CANVAS course site should be used for email communications with the instructor and students should practice producing professional emails.

Collaboration and Teamwork: Students should actively participate in scheduling and completing team assignments helping to develop their ability to lead without formal authority and  respect the contributions of and feedback from their peers. Effective collaboration involves clear communication, shared responsibility, and mutual support.

Ethics and Conduct: As future engineers, graduates must adhere to legal requirements and ethical codes of conduct. While on campus, students should uphold the highest standards of ethics and conduct in line with the UF student honor and conduct codes, including expectations for academic honesty and integrity.

Professionalism in Coursework: Students are expected to exhibit professionalism in completing assignments by employing good writing practices and conducting quality checks of course documents before submission.

Time Management: Courses in the ELI curricula are just as important as the other courses students are taking. Students are expected to manage their time effectively to balance coursework, assignments, and other responsibilities to meet their ELI course requirements.

Course Evaluations: Students are expected to complete mid-semester (as applicable) and end-of-semester course evaluations, providing factual, objective and constructive feedback about courses and instructors.

Expectations for faculty

The Engineering Leadership Institute (ELI) is a premiere organization at the University of Florida (UF), the State’s flagship university. Highly credible faculty members are vitally important to achieving ELI’s unique educational vision, mission and goals. As such, it is expected that every ELI faculty member accepts their responsibility to advance knowledge, create and maintain a classroom climate of intellectual growth, foster curiosity, advise and mentor students, and provide an outstanding and meaningful student educational experience. To this end, we outline the following expectations.

Expertise and Knowledge: Faculty members are expected to have deep expertise and up-to-date knowledge in their specialized fields of course instruction. This includes staying current with the latest research, applications, trends, and advancements relative to their instructional areas.

Teaching Excellence: Faculty are expected to demonstrate strong teaching skills using best practices, including the ability to design and deliver high quality, engaging, and effective coursework regardless of course modality. This involves preparing comprehensive syllabi, creating meaningful assignments, and providing timely and relevant feedback. ELI places a premium on teaching that fosters quality engagement with students for both learning that enhances career readiness and relationships that promote life-long well-being. 

Curriculum Development: Faculty are expected to participate in the continuous review and improvement of their curriculum, ensuring it meets the needs of students, aligns with academic goals, and provides relevant content from a future career perspective.

Collegial Environment: Faculty are expected to establish a safe classroom culture that reflects mutual respect, open and respectful communications, collaboration, and support among students, and fosters relationships, a sense of community, shared purpose and growth where all students feel valued, included and supported. Faculty are expected to start and end class sessions on time and to attend class sessions fully prepared with an instructional plan for each session.

Professional Development: Faculty are expected to be curious about today’s students and how they learn best.  As such, faculty are encouraged to engage in ongoing professional development to enhance their teaching skills. This includes attending instructional workshops and other state-of-the-practice group and personalized training opportunities offered through UF’s Center for Teaching Excellence.

Student Advising and Mentorship: Faculty are expected to be available to advise and mentor students, providing guidance on course-related matters, and/or students’ personal, academic and/or career goals. Faculty should motivate and encourage students to take charge of their own progress and success and be the best versions of themselves.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Faculty should engage in interdisciplinary collaboration within the Institute and across the University, as applicable, fostering a collaborative learning environment and contributing to the broader academic community.

Course Evaluations: Faculty are expected to actively promote student completion of course evaluations. Faculty are encouraged to conduct mid-semester evaluations as a matter of best practice.

Professional Conduct: Faculty are expected to model and exhibit professional, high character conduct while on and off campus, adhering to high ethical standards in all aspects of their faculty work, including teaching and interactions with students, colleagues, administrators and staff. Faculty are expected to fully abide by UF regulations and policies, including those related to confidentiality of student and other specific college or university-related information, conflicts of interests and ethical compliance.