New "Fast Facts" about CTE's 2019-2020 Fiscal Year!

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

It's a fact
Here are some "fast facts" about CTE's activities and programming in the 2019-2020 fiscal year, organized according to our core activities. 

Core Activity 1: Provide cross-disciplinary, institution-wide events and programs.

  • 222 cross-disciplinary, institution-wide events attended by 1,065 unique individuals (2978 participants in total)
  • 120 faculty-oriented workshops attended by 628 unique instructors (1451 participants in total)
  • 98 graduate student workshops attended by 489 unique students (1500 participants total)

Core Activity 2: Support instructional and curriculum development for individuals, departments, academic support units, and faculties.

  • 3804 requested events and consultations
  • 3,669 consultations with 1,203 instructors
  • 23 department-requested workshops attended by 487 instructors
  • 112 curriculum events and consultations in 35 departments

Core Activity 3: Foster leadership in teaching development across the institution

  • 25 instructors completed the Facilitator Development Workshop, certifying them to facilitate the Instructional Skills Workshop
  • 12 Teaching Assistant Workshop Facilitators facilitated introductory graduate workshops on university teaching
  • 8 Graduate Educational Developers facilitated advanced graduate workshops on university teaching, conducted teaching observations, and organized microteaching sessions.

Core Activity 4: Promote and conduct research on teaching, learning, and educational development.

  • 41 instructors and staff members received 12 Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) grants
  • 13 conference sessions and posters presented by CTE staff members

Core Activity 5: Communicate best practices and promote the importance of teaching and learning at Waterloo

  • 1,222,190 unique visitors to CTE's resource-rich website (1,746,343 pageviews)
  • 15 new Teaching Tip Sheets
  • 805 Twitter followers and 946 Facebook followers

Core Activity 6: Connect with and contribute expertise to colleagues on and off campus

  • 24 internal committees
  • 17 external committees
  • 8 staff members contributed to 41 committees (25 at Waterloo, 16 external)
  • 10 invited presentations and workshops given by CTE staff members at other institutions
  • 3 CTE staff members served in leadership roles for provincial, national, and international professional associations

Core Activity 7: Engage in individual and centre-wide professional development and operational activities

  • 10 staff members reviewed journal articles and conference proposals
  • 3 professional development days geared towards team-building and quality improvement

Some recent feedback on our work:

I credit CTE with helping me transform from being a barely adequate teacher into one who enjoyed success in the classroom. When I first started attending CTE workshops, I was receiving student evaluations along the lines of (these are actual quotes) – “he has the amazing ability to take an interesting topic and make it boring,” or my favorite, “When Lowell teaches, I feel like I am in an old folks home.” The first workshop I attended, where CTE taught me how to develop concept maps and do alignment, changed my teaching profoundly. – Lowell Ewert, recipient of the 2019-2020 Distinguished Teacher Award, and Associate Professor, Peace and Conflict Studies, Conrad Grebel University College

Thanks so much for ReCoDE – it was amazing – the content, the organization, the parsing of information. I think you struck just the right depth and amount of content. I have taken it further and have mapped out my existing content, assignments, activities and case studies and will be ready to “upgrade” after next week when I have completed the tools part. From the bottom of my heart thank you! – Jean Richardson Director, Science and Business Program

The Centre for Teaching Excellence has been a very important partner in the development of our Masters in Public Health (MPH) degree, right from the beginning. The introduction of PebblePad would not have been possible without the dedication and support from Katherine, Veronica, and others at CTE. – John Garcia Associate Director, Graduate Professional Programs, MPH

My CTE Liaison provided expert, timely, innovative and patient advice to me and my two TAs through the entire term including the unexpected conversion to on-line completion at the end of the term. His help was invaluable. I was able to focus on the content and the approach to teaching, and not the platform. – Ann Joyner 2019-20 Planner in Residence, Faculty of Environment School of Planning 

What an incredible trove of CTE assessment resources. Together with your conversation I’m all atwitter with excitement about what might be – eventually – possible. I’ll certainly be in touch as we work away on this, if only to let you know the impact of your work on ours.  Erin Aspenlieder, Associate Director, Program and Educational Development, McMaster University