2023 – 2024 Year in Review
Rob Vanderlan
“In addition to our core work …
we worked hard to help the community think about the events of the year and their impact
on teaching.”
From the Executive Director
This was an exciting year, with exciting being the kind of diffuse language that can cover a lot of ground. It was the year when generative AI began to really disrupt the teaching and learning practices we take for granted. It was a year that began with the announcement of a campus-wide “Year of Free Expression;” saw the campus politically divided by the events of October 7th and all that followed; witnessed rising national criticism of higher education and of efforts to support diversity, equity, and inclusion; and ended with sustained student protests. All of this made for a challenging year, and we met those challenges by relying on our mission and our values to guide us.
In addition to our core work—the workshops and institutes, the mid-semester feedback sessions and drop-in consultations, Big Red Teaching Days and learning technologies support— we worked hard to help the community think about the events of the year and their impact on teaching. We offered workshops on the place of free expression in the classroom, resources on facilitating viewpoint diversity, conversations about “The Courage to Teach Now,” and many individual consultations with faculty.
We met the challenge of generative AI by offering workshops that introduced generative AI to faculty, invited them to discuss the likely impact, and helped them respond. Hundreds of Cornell instructors attended, and we reached many more through department-level meetings and workshops. We also created resources, shared good ideas, and centered our first Teaching Innovation Awards around model faculty responses.
It's a fool’s errand to predict what new challenges the next year will bring, but I am confident CTI will respond with curiosity, care, and a commitment to supporting vibrant, inclusive, robust learning.
Read our full assessment report.
About Us
The Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI) supports Cornell University teaching community members, from teaching assistants and postdoctoral fellows to lecturers and professors, with a full complement of individualized services, programs, institutes, and campus-wide initiatives. We do this through confidential developmental consultations across the academic career span, roles, and disciplines. In addition to instructors, we team with departments, schools and colleges, and related units to create and sustain inclusive, rigorous, and dynamic learning environments. To catalyze academic innovation, our team brings a deep knowledge of educational research on teaching, learning, and technologies, along with a spirit of curiosity and collaboration.
Mission
The Center for Teaching Innovation partners with the Cornell teaching community to explore and foster inclusive, evidence-based teaching practices. We facilitate the development of vibrant, challenging, and reflective student-centered learning experiences.
Departmental Goals
CTI’s departmental goals are the framework for our team’s collective action in support of our mission. These goals are perennial and are reaffirmed every five years.
As a department, the CTI...
- works with instructors to improve the student learning experience.
- fosters a culture of excellence in teaching and assessment.
- supports the innovative use of educational technology.
- designs professional development opportunities for graduate students and postdocs to prepare future faculty.
- contributes to the fields of faculty development and teaching and learning.
- employs systematic and transparent planning processes.
- fosters a positive and cross-functional team environment.
- practices good stewardship of university resources.
Programming and Services by Departmental Goals
The CTI is dedicated to maintaining a breadth and depth of engagement with faculty and future faculty, in the name of fostering innovative, diverse, and evidence-based learning environments at Cornell.
Goal 1: Improve the Student Learning Experience
672
Total individual consultations
480
Participants in teaching-related faculty programs
Goal 2: Promote a Culture of Excellence in Teaching and Assessment
1,675
Submissions to the Thank a Professor Program
Participants in the Big Red Teaching Days event
268
Goal 3: Support the Innovative Use of Educational Technology
3,477
Technical support requests resolved
5,752
Canvas courses supported
Goal 4: Prepare Future Faculty
Registrants for the International Teaching Assistant Program
598
Total participants in CTI graduate programming
114
Strategic Plan
CTI’s work is grounded in a collaboratively written annual strategic plan. This plan informs stakeholders of our strategic objectives for any given year and guides our ongoing departmental assessment efforts.
Strategic Priorities for 2023-2024
Our strategic priorities for the 2023-2024 academic year focused on innovation and technology. From generative AI to extended reality and a great deal else, we centered much of our work on the confluence of innovation and technology.
Strategic Priorities in Action
Teaching Innovation Awards: Creative Responses to Generative AI
In the fall we launched our first Teaching Innovation Awards, with the theme “Creative Responses to Generative AI.” This was an experiment in creating incentives and mechanisms for faculty to share their creative ideas about teaching across the university. It resulted in submissions from many different colleges and disciplines, and displayed a full range of creative faculty responses, from embracing approaches to using image and text generation tools, to artful ways to steer students away from GAI tools. We identified a great set of five winners, along with honorable mentions. Both were featured at the Provost Seminar event in the spring, and the winners’ approaches are documented in a series of adaptable case studies on our website.
Establishment of the Creative Technologies Lab
We also launched our Creative Technology Lab in 2024. A vibrant and innovative space designed to invite the exploration of emerging technologies, the Creative Technology Lab can help faculty integrate these practices into their teaching. Faculty work with CTI’s team of professionals and student creative technologists to try out virtual and extended reality, digital storytelling, and GAI tools. A highlight of the year was a collaboration with the Milstein Center and artist Laurie Anderson. Hundreds of Cornell students and faculty participated in her VR experience “To the Moon,” helping to spark conversations about how extended reality can deepen student learning.
CTI At-a-Glance
Behind these numbers is the simple but essential story of the CTI's commitment to enhancing the student experience at Cornell. CTI's faculty development programming, resources and support contribute to building innovative, inclusive and evidenced-based learning environments.
1,853
Participants in Faculty Consultations, Workshops, Events,
& Programs
1,443,082
CTI Website Visits
786
Participants in Graduate & Postdoc Courses, Events,
& Programs
60,394
Views of the
Learning Technologies Resource Library
16
Active Learning Initiative Postdoctoral
Fellows
15
CTI Graduate Fellows
98%
of evaluation respondents report that engagement
is a good use of
their time.
In the News
Sharing stories of Cornell faculty’s innovations in the classroom not only celebrates past accomplishments in teaching – it can also be a means of community-building, and a source of inspiration. Learn how faculty are transforming their classrooms and courses, and how the CTI can support faculty in creating vibrant learning environments.
Cornell Chronicle, 03/27/24
Faculty members, including winners of the 2024 Teaching Innovation Awards, found creative ways to engage with generative AI in their courses.
Cornell Chronicle, 09/18/23
Physicist and education researcher Carl Wieman, whose work in active learning inspired the Active Learning Initiative, visited Cornell as an A.D. White House Professor at Large.
Cornell Chronicle, 06/06/24
Alum Jeff Fearn ’82 participated in CTI’s Thank a Professor program, sending a letter to chemistry professor emeritus Roald Hoffmann, who taught Fearn more than 40 years ago.
Teaching Spotlight
Creativity in the classroom takes many forms. CTI's Teaching Spotlight shines a light on innovative teaching practices at Cornell, from fostering inclusive learning environments, incorporating active learning strategies, sharing faculty voices on teaching, and more.
“Sound to Science: Advanced Methods in Bioacoustics” provided hands-on experience with the datasets and analyses used in conservation-oriented bioacoustics research.
Cornell instructors shared advice and approaches for making classrooms more open, inclusive, and accessible.
“The Art of Global and Public Health” integrated the arts and humanities into global and public health curriculum and education at Cornell.
Teaching Innovation Case Studies
Creative Responses to Generative AI
In Spring 2024, with a goal of inspiring other instructors through the sharing of new ideas, methods, and strategies at Cornell, five faculty were recognized for their creative classroom experiences and teaching implementations using – or creatively precluding use of – generative AI.
Jennifer Birkeland, Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Tracy Carrick, Senior Lecturer, John S. Knight Institute for Writing Disciplines, College of Arts and Sciences
Juan Hinestroza, Professor, Fiber Science and Apparel Design, College of Human Ecology
Peter Katzenstein, Professor, Government, College of Arts and Sciences
Amie Patchen, Lecturer, Public and Ecosystem Health, College of Veterinary Medicine
Contributions to the Field
Education is inherently collaborative, both within and across universities. Through conference presentations and publications, the CTI encouraged insightful and inclusive strategies for student learning with peer institutions, and participated in cross-discipline conversations about new approaches in technology, trauma-informed pedagogy, and more.
In her Inside Higher Ed article, “The Program-Level AI Conversations We Should Be Having,” associate director Kathleen Landy offered a rationale and approach for a program-level curricular response to generative A.I.
Conference Presentations
CTI attended the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Ed.
Technology Consultations
Faculty used VR headsets to experiment with teaching applications.
Specialized Workshops
The CTI Graduate Teaching Fellows design teaching programs, events, and resources.
"It is such a wonderful gift for instructors to be able to spend time in each other’s classrooms. It can be easy to keep doing the same things over and over, and seeing what others do can inspire change and freshness for our own teaching. Thank you for this excellent program."
Big Red Teaching Days participant, Fall 2023
