SFU Centre for Educational Excellence

CEE will support faculty members and academic units in three broad areas:

Curriculum and instruction

• Development of face-to-face, blended and online courses
• Optimization of curricula, including curricular commitments arising from the report of SFU’s Aboriginal Reconciliation Council
• Implementation of best practices for instructors in multilingual classrooms
• Provision of workshops and capacity-building professional development for instructors

Learning and teaching technology

• Innovation to support faculty members’ use of technology for face-to-face and online teaching
• Advice and support for technology-enhanced instructional practices
• Production services for online and blended instruction

Learning experiences assessment & planning (LEAP)

• Support for institutional initiatives around evaluation of learning and teaching, including quality assurance and analysis
• Future support for collection and analysis of data on educational goals and other projects

The neat lines between various modes of learning are disappearing. Many courses mix online and face-to-face components, and students and instructors regularly move between physical and virtual learning spaces. The integration of CELLTR, CODE and the TLC reflects this evolution by aligning support staff to facilitate collaboration and communication. Through CEE, instructors will have access to broad, integrated, team-based support rather than compartmentalized services. The reorganization is also a response to the recommendations of the Task Force on Teaching and Learning (2010) and the Task Force on Flexible Education (2015), which called for tighter integration of, and collaboration among, SFU’s teaching support units.

CEE was officially established on July 15, 2019. On that day, the “back-end” systems of CELLTR, CODE and the TLC, including payroll and accounting, were merged and a website was launched. CEE staff members will be physically relocated to their new office locations at the end of July. The integration of day-to-day operations will happen more gradually during Summer and Fall 2019 as directors and senior staff are hired. A public launch will take place in Fall 2019.

The Institute for the Study of Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines (ISTLD) plays a key role in supporting faculty-led inquiry into learning and teaching at SFU through its well-known Teaching and Learning Development Grants and other grant and fellowship programs. The ISTLD will be integrated into CEE when its current funding agreement concludes in 2020.

At present, you should continue to use the contact information available on the CELLTR, CODE and TLC websites. These websites—and the email addresses and phone numbers they contain—will remain active until CEE is fully operational.