Quinnipiac University

Centers and Institutes

The Center for Teaching and Learning

Student reads in front of a microphone

Centers and Institutes

The Center for Teaching and Learning

The Center for Teaching and Learning is a hub for dedicated faculty and staff to promote active learning environments and improve the quality of student experiences. We place a premium on innovation, research and the sharing of fresh ideas — and through our work, we identify opportunities for improvement across modalities.

Exploring the Principles of Effective Teaching

Two students sit in a hammock outside of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Our mission and vision

Quinnipiac's Center for Teaching and Learning is a dedicated and passionate network of faculty and staff who work to build stronger educational communities and deliver more meaningful learning outcomes for our students. Together, we explore the principles of effective teaching, support scholarship and encourage collaboration across our three campuses, eight professional schools and the College of Arts and Sciences.

By infusing educational research with creative, critical and inclusive applications, the Center for Teaching and Learning encourages innovation and cross-pollination across our three campuses and professional support systems. Through the center, faculty and staff gain access to teaching guides built upon the latest scholarly literature in the space, arming them with the resources they need to better serve their students.

Our foundational materials empower educators to make student-centric adjustments to the ways in which they design courses for online and in-person formats, build a sense of community in unique learning environments, create assignments that promote active and engaged learning, assess student learning outcomes and leverage technology in the classroom.

We recognize that effective teaching is an ongoing pursuit of excellence — and one that is improved by constant discussion, discourse and the sharing of innovative ideas. Faculty and staff across all disciplines are encouraged to join us during assemblies, conferences, consortiums, development events, roundtables, seminars and more as we discover how to apply effective strategies across our diverse areas of professional expertise. 

Support for Dynamic Learning Environments

The Center for Teaching and Learning is committed to creating opportunities to amplify faculty voices as pedagogical pillars in a rich culture of inclusive teaching and learning.

By fostering collaboration between departments and programs, the Center for Teaching and Learning is able to organize faculty development experiences that are tailored to each discipline’s specific needs. University-wide discussions bring faculty from across the disciplines into critical conversation, resource sharing and peer reflection.

Communities of practice address the ways diversity, equity and inclusion impact teaching and learning. Community members will produce and share resources, reflections and experiences engaging all students in various learning experiences. At the end of the semester, each community of practice will provide recommendations to address their particular problems of practice.

Learn more about joining a Community of Practice

Schedule a one-on-one consultation to gather insight and collect feedback for both online and in-person student engagement at either the graduate or undergraduate level. Special topics may include instructional strategies, curriculum and course design, effective assessment and observations. Consultations can be requested by anyone interested in teaching and learning at any time of the academic year. 

Schedule your consultation

The Center for Teaching and Learning assists in the development of micro-credentials, certifications and digital badges to formally recognize innovative student learning. Primarily, we help to envision educational and professional experiences that can be meaningfully sequenced so that particular skills and outcomes are easily recognized by multiple audiences. 

Educators who are interested in developing micro-credentials are encouraged to review the documents and resources developed by the Office of Lifelong Learning Once all of the required information has been gathered, educators must submit the micro-credential prospectus form to the Department of Lifelong Learning.

Download the Micro-Credential Framework

Submit a Micro-Credential Prospectus

Learn more about Micro-Credentials

The Center for Teaching and Learning supports Quinnipiac faculty planning to engage in pedagogical research. In addition to assisting with faculty-led research projects, we curate a library of current scholarship and grant opportunities available for faculty and staff to pursue. These scholarships and grants are housed internally and accessible on Blackboard. 

For Quinnipiac faculty:

Apply for the Saulnier Family Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award

Browse our scholarship library

For other educators:

Request access to scholarship and grant opportunities

Formed in 2001, Quinnipiac University Writing and Critical Thinking (QUWACT) is a multidisciplinary, faculty-run organization that supports evidence-based practices to improve student writing and critical thinking. QUWACT operates with four basic assumptions and offers guidance to empower your students to write better.

  • That writing is an active, recursive process that reflects and promotes critical thinking.

  • That the most effective approach to improving students' writing is through improving students' critical thinking skills.

  • That good writing and critical thinking may take different forms across different disciplines and tasks.

  • That some combination of informal writing and formal writing provides the best means to model critical thinking and writing with students.

For Quinnipiac faculty:

Access QUWACT resources, guides and templates

For other educators:

Request access to QUWACT resources

Are you looking for insight regarding a particular situation in your classroom? Searching for inspiration for a new passion project? Visit the faculty forum and discussion board to take part in ongoing conversations with other seasoned educators in our community. Any and all questions are welcomed and can be grouped into related forums.

For Quinnipiac faculty:

Visit the faculty forum and discussion board

For other educators:

Request access to the faculty forum and discussion board

Brain Bites: Highlighting Our Faculty’s Expertise

Brain Bites is an engaging and insightful series of short videos crafted to spotlight the diverse expertise of our faculty members. In this thoughtfully curated series, each bite-sized video serves as a window into the wealth of knowledge our faculty brings to the academic table.

"First Thanksgiving" in text over an old painting of the sky, plays video

Do you know the REAL story of Thanksgiving?

Christina Dickerson, assistant professor of History, has the answer!

Book Club for Busy Lives Podcast

JT Torres and Karen Majeski in the podcast studio talking into microphones

Stay up to date on inclusive teaching practices in higher education

Did you know that each year, the U.S. publishes almost 1 million new books? It would be impossible for any one person to stay on top of this volume of information. In this multi-part podcast, we listen in as educators and guests analyze specific facets of our spotlighted book, and discuss how it relates to real-world applications within their own lives and teaching practices. The Book Club For Busy Lives Podcast is hosted by Karen Majeski, assistant professor of occupational therapy, and is brought to you by Quinnipiac University’s School of Health Sciences Inclusive Excellence Committee in conjunction with the Center for Teaching and Learning.

Listen on Spotify

 

Inclusive Excellence Teaching Lab

The Inclusive Excellence Teaching Lab consists of multidisciplinary faculty and staff committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. The lab is a space where members of our community co-learn ways to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the different areas that are related to pedagogy at Quinnipiac. Among other projects and forms of praxis, the lab coordinates various communities of practice and hosts the Inclusive Excellence Summer Assembly.

Explore the Inclusive Excellence Teaching Lab

New Faculty Academy

Mentors within the New Faculty Academy will share their experiences and expertise in relation to professional development and institutional culture at Quinnipiac University. In guided conversations, mentorship provides opportunities to include and support new voices in various areas such as global and local community building, self-care, navigating the review process, generating scholarship and cultivating high-impact learning environments.

Sign up to serve as New Faculty Academy mentor

Meet our newest faculty

Semester Spark

Each Semester Spark offers an opportunity for faculty members to share and celebrate breakthrough teaching practices, engaging classroom activities, transformative mentorship experiences and equitable assessment strategies. These gatherings are designed to inspire new practices and imagine 21st-century teaching and learning that embraces change, diversity and flexibility.

Present in the next Semester Spark

Provoking Meaningful Discourse

Meet Our Newest Faculty and Staff

Learn More

Centers and Institutes at Quinnipiac

We believe education doesn’t begin and end inside the classroom. We live in an increasingly diverse and complex world that demands the knowledge, collaboration and empathy required to deliver meaningful impact. 

Whether it’s turning ideas into viable business applications or digging through human history by analyzing ancient artifacts, each of our centers and institutes pairs our students and faculty to transform academic theory into real-world solutions.

Academics

Our broad liberal arts core complements deep expertise across more than 100 degree programs to provide an education that equips you for an extraordinary career. Whether you are in high school and ready to pursue your undergraduate degree, currently in the workforce and looking to advance your career through one of our graduate programs or have ambitions of becoming a lawyer or doctor, we have the schools, programs and faculty that will help unlock your potential.