Mission

Who We Are

We are a dedicated team of learning professionals who partner with all stakeholders to fuel meaningful enrollment growth by enriching the Charlotte model of high impact teaching and learning experiences through our expertise, influence, and passion for student success.

Mission

The Center for Teaching and Learning enhances the University’s mission of teaching and learning excellence, provides enterprise level instructional technologies, and champions the advancement of scholarly teaching. Major priorities include:

  • Providing professional development opportunities to ensure constructive and active learning environments.
  • Leveraging the experience and wisdom of faculty leaders to promote teaching excellence.
  • Encouraging innovative research and scholarly publication on teaching and learning.
  • Identifying, developing, and sustaining enterprise level instructional technology systems.
  • Collaborating with campus constituents to assess programs, tools, and services that support their teaching and learning needs.
  • Contributing to the development of policies, initiatives, and Campus-wide culture that supports excellence in teaching.

Vision

The Center for Teaching and Learning:

  • Is an integral part of the success of UNC Charlotte.
  • Is a leader in the innovative use of scholarly research in teaching and learning.
  • Defines best practices in professional development that ensure quality course design through the effective integration of technology and innovative teaching strategies.
  • Is an unwavering advocate of a diverse, open learning environment which fosters active collaboration among all members of the Academy.

Values

What we value as an organization:

  • Mutual Respect
  • Academic Integrity
  • Diversity
  • Inclusion and Accessibility
  • Open Communications
  • Collaboration and Teamwork
  • Continuous Learning
  • Innovation
  • Academic Excellence
  • Customer Service

Goals and Objectives

  1. Transform student learning experiences by providing professional development opportunities for faculty and graduate teaching assistants. Examples would include:

  • Regularly scheduled and customized interactive workshops
  • Online, self-paced instructional materials
  • Individual, group consultations
  • Summer Institute (May)
  • New Faculty / Summer Intensive Week (August)
  • Teaching Week (Fall)
  • Just-in-time, five-minute workshops
  • Fundamentals of College Teaching for TAs
  • Learning communities (clickers, online pedagogy, redesign of large courses)
  • Classroom/peer observations
  • Faculty roundtable series
  • SOTL grants
  • Teaching large classes
  • Online pedagogy
  1. Promote best practices of teaching excellence in both traditional and online pedagogy of teaching and learning.
  • Research, evaluate, and communicate best practices in teaching and learning
  • Provide and maintain scholarly resources in support of best practices
  • Share information from professional journals, online resources with faculty and instructional staff on innovation in teaching and learning
  • Maintain and update the collection of texts in our “Professional Development Library”
  • Collaborate with faculty, staff, and peers to identify emerging technologies and evaluate their instructional applications, costs, and benefits.

  1. Develop and expand the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) grants program.

  • Administer SOTL Grants process with faculty SOTL Committee
  • Create venues for sharing teaching research, such as Teaching Week
  • Provide Web and print resources in support of SOTL
  • Collaborate with faculty in SOTL activities, such as negotiating IRB process and budgets, writing grant proposals, and presenting at conferences
  • Offer travel grants and other awards, as funding allows
  • Explore sponsorship of an award to recognize excellence in teaching research

  1. Identify, develop, and sustain enterprise level instructional technology systems.

  • Implement transparent, faculty-driven, Moodle enhancement process
  • Ensure stable and reliable user experience for all platforms (Moodle, Wimba)
  • Secure adequate resources for technical sustainability
  • Build and maintain alliances with vendors and ITS to ensure optimum system reliability and performance
  • Provide regular technology training and support for faculty, TAs, and selected groups
  • Align systems with University policies for Moodle access
  • Explore options for transitioning current Opscan center to online course evaluation system

  1. Collaborate with campus constituents to support the university’s strategic teaching and learning initiatives.

  • Identify programs, tools, and services that support constituents’ teaching and learning needs.
  • Partner with colleges and departments to develop specialized programs and resources
  • Maintain a faculty advisory group to support the work of the Center and collaborate with distributed IT staff within colleges and other units
  • Create and maintain interest groups for teaching and learning initiatives such as professional learning communities
  • Collect and analyze data for planning future programs and evaluating existing programs
  • Streamline methods for clients to reach help/support resources