CTE

The mission of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) is to support, promote, and enhance teaching effectiveness and student learning; encourage scholarship of teaching and learning; communicate the importance of teaching and learning to both internal and external audiences; and serve as a catalyst for learning-centered education. CELT’s vision is to position Iowa State University at the forefront of learning and teaching among land-grant universities.

The University’s Faculty Senate first established a center for faculty development and the enhancement of learning and teaching in 1993. Then known as the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), this center had a small staff and focused its attention on development for full-time faculty. Following an external review in 2000, the Center increased in size, adding a second tenured faculty member as associate director in 2001 and a third as assistant director for the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) in 2004.

A needs assessment survey in 2001 helped the Center to focus its programming and communications; its audience has since expanded to include non-tenure track faculty and teaching assistants as well as tenure-line faculty. The Center's programming includes workshops on various topics, university-wide Faculty Forums, and reading groups, as well as one-on-one consultation and classroom visitation. Small grants for teaching partnerships and for department-level faculty development have been instituted over the past two years, and a larger program, the Miller Faculty Fellowships for faculty development, was established in 1996. Miller Grants of up to $25,000 per project support new approaches to teaching undergraduate classes or development of new courses that will enhance the undergraduate experience. The Center also maintains a library, publishes a quarterly newsletter, and sends a weekly email to more than 1000 subscribers, which provides tips, resources, and workshop information.

In July 2004, the Center was enlarged and reorganized as the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT). The name change reflects not only the Center's strong emphasis on student learning but also the larger sphere of the its work, which now includes the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program (formerly housed in the Graduate College) and the instructional design and course management component of the Instructional Technology Center. The Preparing Future Faculty Program supplements graduate preparation by offering new teaching, mentoring and learning possibilities, which give postdoctoral fellows, Ph.D. students and master's students further credentialing for a competitive academic job market. They also learn about research ethics and the difference between government and industry research funding, which helps them in their own research projects as well as in their collaborative projects with faculty members. With a center director and associate director, assistant directors for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), PFF, and instructional design (now called Learning Technologies), seven staff members and a graduate assistant, the CELT is now concentrating on integrating its offerings and increasing services to instructors at every professional level.

CELT also builds strong collaborations with other Iowa State initiatives related to enhanced learning, such as Learning Communities, Student Outcomes Assessment, Academic Success Center, ISUComm, the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee, and classroom design. A move to the newly renovated Morrill Hall in 2006, will place CELT at the physical center of the institution.

CELT will continue its efforts to enhance teaching and learning, especially in connection with computer-assisted learning and learning technologies. The Center is also making efforts to increase attendance at its development sessions and to provide services to all instructors at the university, including teaching assistants and adjunct faculty.