About CTE

Engaging with the teaching community at KU and beyond.

We know that teaching can be both rewarding and frustrating, and we are here to help you to navigate the ups and downs of the academic year. We are happy to schedule a consultation, help you learn more about our services and programs, and provide assistance for you as an instructor. Contact us to start a consultation or collaboration.

People of CTE

CTE Faculty Ambassadors

CTE Advisory Board

We encourage visits from instructors who are interested in improving teaching practices, student learning, and assessment in their classes, whether in-person, online or hybrid; and in participating in the robust teaching community at KU. This includes full-time and part-time instructors and GTAs.

We also provide support in such areas as making courses more inclusive, using technology in classes, rethinking curricula, creating a flexible course structure, engaging students in online learning, using collaborative learning, and representing your teaching. We also have a small library with books that KU instructors can browse or borrow.

Additional Information

Teaching and learning form the heart of higher education.

We recognize that teaching and learning are fundamental to the university's mission and deserve our commitment and attention.

We believe that students want to learn.

We approach our work with the conviction that all students are motivated to grow and succeed when provided with supportive, engaging learning environments.

We are each unique and worthy of respect.

We honor the varied backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences of each member of our community and create welcoming and respectful spaces where everyone can thrive.

Evidence and experience inform practice.

We ground our educational approaches in research, data, and reflective practice, continuously learning from both scholarly evidence and lived experience.

Community empowers our work.

We believe that collaboration, shared purpose, and collective wisdom strengthen our individual efforts and amplify our impact on teaching and learning.

Good teaching is reflective and iterative.

We view teaching as an ongoing process of growth, experimentation, and refinement, always seeking to improve our practice, and in turn student learning, through reflection and feedback.

Excellence and empathy are complements.

We believe that excellence in teaching and learning is strengthened by care for and understanding of each learner as a whole person.

The primary purpose of the Center for Teaching Excellence is to build community among faculty members and to help instructors make student learning visible. We facilitate meetings with small groups of faculty to find time-efficient and effective ways to improve student learning, assist faculty with representing the intellectual work they perform as teachers, and meet individually with faculty and instructional staff who want to discuss any facet of teaching and student learning.

CTE also helps faculty develop teaching portfolios and course transformation posters, which are published on the CTE website. We also host workshops, conferences, and discussion forums on teaching and learning in higher education. In addition to portfolios and posters, we publish newsletters, research reports, and other works on the scholarship of teaching.

Our organization was established at the University of Kansas in 1997 and currently comprises faculty members, graduate students, and post-doctoral educators who work in a variety of disciplines while maintaining an emphasis on teaching and student learning. CTE is advised by a board of faculty members (Teaching Excellence Advisory Members, or TEAM), a group of campus-wide department liaisons called Ambassadors, and several Faculty Fellows who assist with a variety of projects related to teaching.

One of our main goals at CTE is to foster intellectual exchange and create community around teaching and learning at KU. Regardless of discipline or modality, we want to help instructors find new ways to innovate and experiment in their classes, and to make their work visible to colleagues. Our portfolio gallery contains excellent examples of the innovative pedagogical work undertaken by KU faculty members.

We are dedicated to building a community where instructors can share their pedagogical concerns, successes, and research. CTE prides itself on providing guidance and mentorship to instructors at all stages of their careers. We host numerous workshops and events for faculty members and GTAs. If you need assistance with matters related to teaching and learning, or just want to brainstorm ideas for improving your courses or curricula, CTE can help.

How We Can Help

This website contains numerous resources for instructors in all disciplines. This includes resources on such topics as: