Programming, Outreach and Professional Development
Celebrating CTSI’s 10th anniversary with a countdown of teaching and learning initiatives and partnerships at U of T.
CTSI offers much more than in-house workshops and roundtables (although that is an important and popular part of CTSI’s work) and our programming has grown considerably over the past decade. As a hub for teaching and learning at U of T, CTSI connects and responds to the concerns and needs of our community, finding new and innovative ways to bring our community together, including cohort-based programs, external partnerships, and U of T events. All of our programming and events are aimed at supporting teaching excellence and the enabling the diverse teaching needs of our U of T faculty, librarians and staff.
External Partnerships
The Certificate in Effective University Teaching Practice, a pilot program to be launched by CTSI and the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) in June 2019, grew out of a review of the Fundamentals of University Teaching, an 8-week course offered by CTSI for the past decade (and the Office of Teaching Advancement before that). Fundamentals was led by members of the President’s Teaching Academy and focused on furthering the participants’ understanding of teaching and learning at U of T, including course design and learning objectives. Responding to community feedback and aiming to expand the scope and delivery model, while also accommodating more instructors across the University, we worked with the Provost’s Office to develop this new full-year course. Partnering with ACUE, CTSI’s goal is to deliver a high-quality, in-depth program that will further meet U of T instructors’ needs.
The pilot runs from June 2019-June 2020, includes 25 online modules completed over three blocks (Course Design, Active Learning and Engaging Learners), plus face-to-face workshops, and a Community of Practice. Upon completion participants receive a certificate from the Association of College and University Educators and endorsed by the American Council on Education (ACE). Unit heads can apply for spaces in this course on behalf of faculty members until April 30th.
U of T Events
Since 2006, CTSI (first as the Office of Teaching Advancement) has partnered with the Office of the President to offer the University of Toronto’s Teaching and Learning Symposium. Since 2016, this university-wide event has been co-hosted by the Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking, Rotman School of Management. The Symposium brings together faculty, librarians and staff to share experiences and research through workshops, roundtables and poster sessions, to discuss larger topics during invited keynotes and plenaries, and to benefit from a cross-disciplinary event that tackles topics important to our higher education community. Previous symposium themes include Experience: Integrative Learning; Re:Think: Navigation and Transformation in Today’s Learning Landscape; Learning Across and Beyond Borders; and Cultivating Teaching, Cultivating Learning.
Registration for the 2019 Teaching and Learning Symposium – Learning Spaces + Places – opens on April 22nd.
Culture of Teaching
CTSI’s mission statement is to build teaching excellence through leadership, collaboration and innovation. We connect individuals and groups committed to teaching excellence and interested in enhancing their knowledge and experiences by learning from their peers. In recent years, CTSI has modelled two cohort-based programs that enable faculty to share their expertise with colleagues in a structured and formalised environment.
- Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Faculty Mentoring for Teaching Program: The P2P involves a cohort of colleagues collaborating through structured, facilitated workshops and 1-1 partnerships to improve the quality of their course, the student learning experience, and to offer a supportive space for instructors to try new strategies, approaches and build confidence in their teaching. This program grew out of CTSI’s Faculty Mentoring for Teaching Research Report.
- SoTL Cohort: CTSI supports the University of Toronto Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) community in a number of ways, including a vibrant list-serv, regulary workshops, and the newly launched SoTL Cohort. This year-long cohort program brings together fourteen faculty members conducting research on their own teaching and classroom experiences. Learn more about 2018-2019 Cohort members and their individual research projects.