Introduction

The Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence at Benedictine University is guided by the work of Ernest Boyer, and fosters the scholarship of teaching. Thus, the goals of the Center include providing dialogue and professional development opportunities in areas of curricular design, development, teaching methods, and assessment for fostering reflective critiques, informed practice, scholarly investigations into teaching practices, accountability to students and public, and scholarly works.

To achieve these goals, activities of the Center include:

• Seminar and workshops on topics including:
  • Active teaching pedagogies
  • Working with students with different learning styles and challenges
  • Development of learning assessment tools
  • Researching educational outcomes
  • Grant writing (teaching/learning related)
  • Effective use of technology in the classroom
  • Exploration of new instructional tools for improving student learning
  • Diversity
  • Interdisciplinary teaching
  • Classroom management issues
• Organize colloquia
• Organize learning communities
• Coordinate with library staff for faculty resources
• Formative peer teaching reviews.

This website serves as a resource for teaching and learning, providing information about academic assessment and outcomes, Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) activities and accomplishments, use of Desire2Learn, faculty development, and the IDEA student evaluation system.

Team Leaders

Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence

• Beth J. Ransdell Vinkler, Ph.D., Director of Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, bvinkler@ben.edu
• Eileen G. Clark, M.S., Coordinator, Professional Development, eclark@ben.edu
• Thomas Wangler, Ph.D., Assistant to the Provost for University Academic Assessment Coordination, twangler@ben.edu
• Andrew Wig, Ph.D., IDEA Campus Director, awig@ben.edu
• Allison Wilson, Ph.D., Director of New Faculty Mentoring Program, awilson@ben.edu
• Alice Sima, M.S.N, M.B.A., RN, Faculty Liaison for Advising, asima@ben.edu