CTE has temporarily relocated to East Campus 3 (EC3). We will continue to offer our regular programs and services from our temporary offices and workshop locations. 

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Centre for Teaching Excellence »

About CTE

Gold CertifiedOur mission is to collaborate with individuals, academic departments, and academic support units to foster capacity and community around teaching and to promote an institutional culture that values effective teaching and meaningful learning.

Our vision is to inspire teaching excellence, innovation, and inquiry.

Learn about what drives our work and about our latest activities and initiatives in our Strategic Plan, Annual Report, and biannual Newsletter:  

Fostering teaching excellence

Instructors across all ranks, from teaching assistants and postdoctoral fellows to new professors and senior leaders, attend our workshops and intensive programming. Faculty also seek consultations on course design and delivery for both face-to-face and blended learning courses. We work extensively with departments and faculties on curriculum renewal and program design. Finally, with more than 2,500 course offerings annually in Waterloo LEARN, we support the use of this learning management system.

Find out more about how you can work with us. Read more about our:

Supporting innovation

CTE also supports innovation in teaching and learning at Waterloo. We investigate emerging technologies and share our recommendations with our university community and beyond through workshops and online resources. We encourage alternative ways of assessing student learning, such as the use of e-portfolios. Finally, the Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) Grant program, which is administered by CTE and funded by the office of the Associate Vice-President, Academic, supports projects investigating innovative approaches to enhancing teaching and fostering deep student learning at Waterloo. 

Cultivating inquiry

We offer a range of services to help instructors systematically explore the theory and practice of teaching and learning: 

We can support you as you develop, implement, and disseminate your educational research: learn more by visiting Research and Grants.

Our staff are also active educational researchers. Read about our latest staff research and service activities.

CTE at a glance: 2017-2018

3148consultations with 1,169 instructors, staff, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellowsin 2017/18
246workshops to 1,267 unique instructors, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and staff membersin 2017/18
103curriculum events and consultations for 28 departments involving 488 instructors in 2017/18
94% of respondents rated CTE’s faculty-oriented workshops as excellent or goodin 2017/18
96% of graduate students rated CTE’s graduate student workshops as excellent or goodin 2017/18

More about CTE

CTE's Self Study. This 175-page document was written for an external review that was conducted in 2017. 

Annual Reports and Newsletters. Reports on CTE's annual activities (Accessible PDF), and an archive of CTE newsletters

Organizational structure. A chart showing our areas of support, and who works within them. 

Staff research and service. Year-by-year reports that highlight our impact and professional accomplishments.

Guest presentations. Experts in higher education whom we have hosted. 

Institutional Documents

These university documents inform and shape CTE's work:

Fast Facts

For the 2016-17 fiscal year:

CTE staff engaged in 3,755 consultations with 1,290 instructors, staff, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows.

CTE staff delivered 252 workshops to 1,116 unique instructors, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and staff members. 

CTE staff facilitated 99 curriculum events and consultations for 39 departments involving 393 instructors. 

76 new faculty members were provided with workshops specially designed for their career stage. 

CTE staff delivered Teaching Development Seminars to 45 postdoctoral fellows, bringing the running total since the inception of that program to 210.

34 graduate students completed our Certificate in University Teaching program, bringing the running total since the inception of that program to 415. 

167 graduate students completed our Fundamentals of University Teaching program, bringing the running total since the inception of that program to 814. 

263 Waterloo staff and faculty attended our annual teaching and learning conference. 

90% of instructors rated CTE’s faculty-oriented workshops as excellent or good.

96% of graduate students rated CTE’s graduate student workshops as excellent or good.

CTE staff gave 37 presentations at conferences or at other institutions, published 3 articles and 4 book chapters, and received 5 research grants. 

CTE staff administered 2 university-level teaching award programs: the Distinguished Teacher Award for faculty members and the AETS award for graduate students.

CTE staff administered 2 types of grants: the Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement seed grants and full grants.

CTE's online resources received more than 1.2 million views. 

The CTE blog received more than 12,000 views.


Recent Accomplishments

For the 2016-17 fiscal year:

Engaged in a comprehensive self-study of our programs, our services, and our processes to prepare for CTE’s external review

Offered additional programming related to teaching and assessing writing as well as assessing learning outcomes

Hired a contract Communications Associate, who supports external teaching awards and enhances communications about teaching and the work of CTE

Selected future initiatives

Launching our new strategic priorities in 2018

Launching an Assessment Institute, during which individuals, course teams, and program teams will redevelop key assignments and tests over two days of design work and peer feedback