Oberlin College Center for Teaching Innovation and Excellence   (CTIE) "The ability to teach is the quality most fundamentally prized in members of the faculty" -- The Faculty Guide (Oberlin College) "A teacher, whether by accident or by design, is more to students than a content expert. The teacher is a model of all that it means to be a scholar, a thinking person. We teach not only what we know but also what we are." -- Wilbert J. McKeachie and Marilla Svinicki, McKeachie's Teaching Tips

CTIE is located in Mudd 052 (ground level of Mudd on the northeast side).  Phone: 5-5177; Email: Steven.Volk@oberlin.edu  Office hours for Fall 2008: Wednesdays 3-4:30 pm; Thursdays 2:00-3:30 pm, and by  appointment

Welcome to the Center for Teaching Innovation and Excellence (CTIE - pronounced "city"). CTIE was created in the fall of 2007 as a continuation and redesign of the Center for Teaching Excellence. The center exists for one central purpose: to help Oberlin's faculty be innovative, self-reflective, and effective teachers. What this means is a bit more complex, but it includes CTIE's four main approaches:

Innovative teaching to enhance learning: CTIE will provide resources, consultation, and other help to the faculty in order to explore those innovative teaching approaches that a sizeable body of research, as well as our own collective experience, suggests can best enhance student learning.

The teacher as role model: Through workshops, electronic technology (blogs, wikis, etc.), and informal conversations, CTIE will encourage discussion of the teacher as role model for our students, not just in our primary function (as scholars, intellectuals, and reasoned and reasoning actors), but also in the ways that we handle moral and ethical commitments, community participation, dialogue and inter-personal communication, engage with diversity in the breadth of its meanings, and deal with responsibilities and decision-making in the face of multiple tasks and complex realities.

Intentional and purposeful pedagogy: We do not - and should not - all teach in the same manner. Just as there are a variety of learning styles and "intelligences," so faculty teach through a variety of personal styles and pedagogical approaches. What is critical, however, is that as faculty we are self-reflective about how and why we teach as we do, and that we work to enhance student learning and mentoring through thoughtfully designed and clearly informed teaching approaches. CTIE will work with individual faculty to insure that each receives the resources needed to find the style that works and produces the best outcomes for students and faculty alike.

Technology, learning and teaching: Technology and new forms of media have changed (and continue to change) not only how students learn, but how we can teach. In many ways, the heart of the teaching project in a liberal arts, residential college remains what it has been for hundreds of years: face-to-face instruction, mentoring, and inspiration. At the same time, technology has changed how we can instruct and mentor, while also allowing instruction outside of class to complement and improve our in-class, face-to-face time. CTIE, in this instance in conjunction with OCTET (Oberlin Center for Technologically Enhanced Teaching), will help faculty think about and develop ways to use technology to enhance our teaching.

CTIE's mission is to combine the collective experience of Oberlin's superb teachers and an extensive body of scholarly literature on teaching to help all faculty grapple with the range of issues we face on a daily basis, from specific classroom issues (conducting informative discussion sections, writing comments on papers, encouraging collaborative student work, etc.) to the broadest questions that we face as educators in the early 21st century. CTIE, therefore, is directed towards all classroom faculty, new teachers and seasoned veterans alike, as it works to support the Oberlin faculty to continually revitalize our teaching as a means to enhance student learning and our own mentoring responsibilities. CTIE will be more than an organization; it will be a physical space where faculty across the institution can come together as teachers to exchange ideas and socialize.

CTIE will work closely with a number of organizations and faculty committees to carry out its mission, including OCTET, the Committee on Teaching, the First Year Seminar Program, the Educational Technology Committee, and the Graduate Teacher Education Program.

What will CTIE provide?

• Workshops for new and continuing faculty (in conjunction with the Committee on Teaching) on a broad variety of teaching related issues;

• A dynamic web site that will provide access to a wide variety of teaching resources on line and allow blog-formatted discussions on teaching related issues;

• Personal and confidential consultation for faculty on specific classroom issues or concerns;

•Technical facilities to allow for the taping of classes or simulated teaching situations (with the consent of the instructor);

• Training for faculty members as "peer teaching consultants" - faculty who will help other faculty through confidential classroom observations, as well as teaching mentors;

• A space to showcase what we do well, both to ourselves and to the outside world. This will include periodic web site highlights on teaching innovation and success at Oberlin in the form of a teaching newsletter;

•Teaching portfolios - workshops and templates for the construction and maintenance of portfolios that can help faculty chart their development as teachers;

• A space for teachers and teaching at Oberlin. Located on the A-level of Mudd (052), CTIE and OCTET will maintain a lounge for faculty workshops and socializing, private offices for consultations, a resource center, and some active technology work sites.

• Work with the appropriate bodies at Oberlin to develop better methods and models for the formal evaluating of teaching.

• Provide, when, and only when requested by individual faculty members, official evaluation of teaching for various college personnel actions.

What CTIE won't do:

What happens at CTIE stays at CTIE. Except as stated above, by the personal request of a faculty member, the Center will not be involved in formal (i.e., summative) evaluations of individual faculty members for purposes of merit evaluation, reappointment, tenure, or promotion. All consultations at CTIE are confidential and will not be reported to department chairs, deans or other bodies. CTIE's work, therefore, is fundamentally in the area of formative evaluation, i.e., in providing feedback apart from the merit system and designed to encourage self-reflection and innovation in teaching.

Contact: Steve Volk (History), Director