Teaching and Learning Innovation Merges Offices
Starting this semester, Teaching and Learning Innovation, a unit within the Division of Academic Affairs, officially merges four offices—Experience Learning, the Teaching and Learning Center, the Office of Service-Learning, and the Office of Online Programs.
The merger brings all these efforts under one umbrella to provide more services, programs, and partnerships to better support UT faculty in enriching student learning experiences.
“It allows us to break down some of the silos; it’s more about what we do and less about organizational charts,” said Matthew Theriot, interim vice provost for faculty affairs and associate provost for teaching and learning innovation, who will oversee the unit. “The goal is to serve the campus more effectively and to position the university to build e-learning capacity.
Teaching and Learning Innovation’s priority areas will include Experience Learning; service-learning; online programs; the UT Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL); tools for assessment, and inclusive teaching practices.
Chris Lavan heads up Experience Learning, which encompasses service-learning as well as related teaching innovation efforts. Jennifer Gramling directs e-learning efforts.
See the TLI website for more information for more information about the unit’s services, priorities, and future opportunities for UT instructors.
Open Educational Resources
The Student Government Association, led by President Morgan Hartgrove, has embarked on a campaign to save students $1 million this year by encouraging instructors to use open educational resources that can be accessed free online.
UT Libraries has teamed up with SGA to measure savings and gather student feedback on using open educational resources.
Some of the results have been posted, including a running list of instructors who report using open education resources and a cost comparison of the various types of classroom textbook resources.
“So far we have saved students about $700,000 of our $1 million goal. We honored four professors for choosing open education resources and we are looking forward to a larger recognition ceremony in the spring,” Hartgrove said. “When professors choose open education resources over textbooks, it shows that they have gone out of the way to ensure their classes are affordable and accessible to more students. We can’t wait to reach our $1 million goal, and we can only do that if more professors are willing to make a switch.”
More information is available on the UT Libraries website.
Quiet Space for Writing
The UT Humanities Center writeNOW program is open to all UT faculty looking for a quiet space to work on writing projects.
Each Friday from 8:30 a.m. to noon, faculty members who wish to devote time to their writing in an atmosphere of scholarly silence will have the opportunity to compose or read in the second-floor seminar room of the UT Humanities Center. No advance reservation is required. Learn more at the Humanities Center website.