Center for Teaching Excellence & Learning
The Center for Teaching Excellence and Learning (CTEL) encourages and supports excellence in teaching, learning, scholarship, professional activities and service at Bradley University. Our goals are:
- To support and encourage instructional innovations and faculty scholarship focused on enhancing teaching effectiveness and promoting faculty and student engagement in research, creative production, professional activities and service
- To enhance research, creativity, teaching effectiveness and student engagement in projects as professionals
- To coordinate the university review and approval of proposals for funding of internal grants with budgets in this office
- To advance appropriate instructional technology and its use in all phases of the educational process
- To undertake other programs to enhance the opportunity for faculty to attain their goals in teaching, scholarship and professional activities
- To support and encourage faculty efforts to involve students in the learning process and in scholarship, professional activities and service
Programs
Book Groups are an excellent mechanism by which Bradley faculty and staff join together to share insights inspired by books that enhance our collective understanding of best practices in pedagogy, important characteristics of our current students, or balancing the demands of our personal and professional lives.
If you would like to suggest a book or would like to moderate a group, please contact us at [email protected].
A list of past Book Group selections and availability of each one can be found on the Cullom Davis Library site by following this link.
The Spring and Fall Forums bring faculty and staff together at the start of each semester to discuss topics related to teaching strategies, university initiatives and campus services. Events include a keynote address, multiple breakout sessions and a concluding plenary address.
The Fall and Spring Forums are designed to address the following purposes:
- To promote campus wide excellence in teaching, learning, and research
- To promote university initiatives
- To provide professional development opportunities for Bradley faculty and staff
- To provide university-level service opportunities for Bradley faculty and staff
- To build a culture of campus wide collaboration.
The Spring 2026 Forum will be held on Wednesday, January 14, one week before classes begin
2025 Fall Forum Videos
2025 Spring Forum Videos
2024 Fall Forum Videos
New Faculty Mentorship Committee supports newer faculty who are passionate educators and outstanding scholars, and to foster interdisciplinary appreciation and colleagueship. The NFMC sponsors social activities, workshops and formalized mentor programs to foster professional development and community.
New Faculty Mentorship Committee 2025-2026
| Name | Title | Department |
| Cory Boulton | Assistant Professor | Music |
| Candace Esken | Assistant Professor | Management and Leadership |
| Joseph Harris | Assistant Professor | Psychology |
| Timothy Hutchings | Assistant Professor | Game Design |
| Claire McQuerry | Assistant Professor | English |
| Rachelle Pavelko | Assistant Professor | Advertising/Public Relations |
| Jennifer Stubbs | Librarian and Assistant Professor | Library |
| Quentin Wherfel | Assistant Professor | Teacher Education |
During this 23-24 school year, CTEL is partnering with the NSF ADVANCE project to explore considerations of the evaluation of teaching, faculty performance evaluations, and the tenure and promotion process. For more information about Bradley’s NSF ADVANCE, please go to: https://bradley.edu/ADVANCEBU/.
Internal Grants
The Center for Teaching Excellence and Learning, in Partnership with the Division of Strategy and Innovation, and in support of the Bradley University Strategic Plan, invites applications in support of 3 Interdisciplinary Initiatives.
Building Interdisciplinary Connections: Paired Courses
Paired courses provide an opportunity for faculty to build interdisciplinary connections and network with colleagues while also advancing students’ integrative learning. The development of paired courses will enhance curricular connections within interdisciplinary majors and minors and create opportunities for exploring new interdisciplinary programs and activities.
In collaboration with the Center for Teaching Excellence and Learning (CTEL), the Division of Strategy and Innovation is supporting this strategic initiative by funding the development of new paired courses for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Funds (up to $1,000 for each award) are available from the Division of Strategy and Innovation to support the development of new paired courses. The brief proposal process and the evaluative criteria for making award decisions are described below.
Deadline: April 1, 2022.
Strategic Plan Seed Grant Challenge to Advance Interdisciplinary Studies
Purpose
Support the enhancement or the development of interdisciplinary programs and initiatives at Bradley University. The awards will provide time and resources necessary for bringing to fruition ideas that will advance interdisciplinary studies at Bradley University.
Awards
Award amounts from the Division of Strategy and Innovation up to $7,500. As many as three awards will be made.
Scope
Proposed initiatives may include, but are not limited to, opportunities in the following five categories. A proposed initiative may fall into more than one category.
- High Impact Practices with an interdisciplinary focus. Refer to this link for a list of high impact practices: High Impact Practices AACU.
- Curriculum. Revamp existing interdisciplinary degree-granting programs. Examples include developing an integrated and sequenced core or incorporating high impact practices into the curriculum.
- Scholarship. Develop or enhance interdisciplinary research and artistry connections to catalyze programmatic initiatives and partnerships.
- New Program. Develop a competitive proposal for the New Opportunities Process.
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Advance programs and initiatives that foster attributes associated with a welcoming campus community (e.g., civic, global, and cultural competency, inclusivity, equity, and diversity).
Deadline: April 8, 2022.
Making Connections: Bradley University Interdisciplinary Living Learning Community Program
Introduction. A Living Learning Community (LLC) – is a cohort of students who share a residential area based on their common interest in a distinctive theme. Participation in Living Learning Communities facilitates students’ academic and social transition to college. LLCs are aligned with best practices when
- Students in the community enroll in one or more academic courses together.
- Co-curricular activities are coordinated with coursework and the residential experience.
Bradley University Interdisciplinary LLCs are designed for first-year students. Each LLC features an academic theme of sufficient breadth and depth to (a) warrant an interdisciplinary approach for studying it and (b) stimulate interest among students from any major. The theme will often relate to an interdisciplinary major and/or minor at Bradley.
Funds are available from the Division of Strategy and Innovation for: Course Addition/Modification; Faculty Coordinator; Programming; and Resident Advisors.
Deadline: April 20, 2022
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) occurs when faculty engage in systematic inquiry (potentially in collaboration with other faculty or with students), that is informed by prior published scholarship, advances an understanding of pedagogy, and is shared with a broader audience.
The Center for Teaching Excellence and Learning is pleased to support OER initiatives that can decrease the cost of instructional materials for students and advance best practices in instructional design and teaching.
Deadline: Feb. 28, 2025
Innovative Teaching
The Center for Teaching Excellence and Learning is pleased to sponsor Teaching Excellence: Teaching Innovation Grants. Eligible faculty and staff are invited to apply for awards of up to $3,500 for preparing a new course or substantially revising an existing course. Awards of up to $5,000 can be requested in support of courses that become approved for Multidisciplinary Integration (MI) in the Bradley Core Curriculum. The deadline for Spring Semester is March 24, 2023.
Links
Resources
The resources provided on this page archive CTEL presentation materials from workshops and seminars, teaching excellence series, forums, and other CTEL efforts from spring 2015 to present.
If you wish to join CTEL’s Teaching Tip listserv, please contact CTEL at [email protected].
- Forum – Developing Academics Through Focus on Experiential Reflection Breakout (2020)
- Forum – Integrating Academic and Career Development Powerpoint (2020)
- Forum – Integrating Academic and Career Development Brochure (2020)
- Fall Forum – HLC Accreditation and You (2020)
- Teaching Messages Collection 2019-2020 (2020)
- Faculty Role in Student Success Bradley (2019)
- Building Learning Communities Through Engaged Learning (Spring, 2018)
- New Faculty Session 2: How to Have a Successful First Semester (Fall, 2016)
- Opportunities to Support and Celebrate Faculty and Student Collaborations at Bradley University (Spring, 2017)
- Understanding Threats to the Peak Performing Brain and Teaching Peak Performance (Fall, 2016)
- Getting Involved in Bradley’s 2016 Student Scholarship Expo (Spring, 2016)
- Using Social Media to Connect with Students (Spring, 2016)
- Communicating with Generation Z (Fall, 2015)
- Plagiarism Awareness: Strategies for Education and Prevention (Fall, 2015)
- Models and Methods of Collaborative Teaching: Integrating Across Disciplines (Fall, 2015)
- Mid-term Evaluations and Other Options to Assess Classroom Instruction and Effectiveness (Spring, 2015)
- An Introduction to Course-Embedded Assessment of Student Learning (Spring, 2015)
- Spring Forum Video
- Enhancing the Advising Experience (Spring, 2018)
- Intellectual Property Primer (Spring, 2017)
- Scholar Profiles and Citation Analysis (Spring, 2016)
- Copyright and Fair Use: Protecting and Sharing Your Work and Classroom (Spring, 2015)
- Fulbright Scholar Opportunities for Bradley Faculty (Spring, 2015)
- Using InfoEd SpinPLUS to Find Grant Opportunities (Spring, 2015)
- The Faculty We Want; The Faculty We Need (Spring, 2017)
- Creative Leadership through Asking the Right Questions (Fall, 2016)
- Applying Creative Brainstorming to Your Challenge (Fall, 2016)
- A Strategy for Solving Open-ended Problems (Spring, 2016)
- More than Tenure (Spring, 2015)