Think bigger
CITL Mission
The Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning empowers educators and learners to create innovative, inclusive, and research-informed educational experiences that support transformative learning at Illinois and across the world.
Overview
The Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning (CITL) serves as a dynamic hub for innovation, collaboration, and practical support in advancing higher education at Illinois and beyond. We actively engage educators, staff, and students in exploring emerging trends, pioneering instructional models, and impactful design practices that shape the future of teaching and learning.
CITL leverages research-driven methodologies, state-of-the-art instructional technologies, and robust assessment and analytics to enhance teaching effectiveness and improve student learning outcomes. We foster spaces where faculty, staff, and academic units exchange ideas, share expertise, and learn from one another, strengthening a campus-wide culture of pedagogical inquiry and continuous improvement.
Aligned with the priorities of Boldly Illinois, CITL champions innovation leadership, equity and accessibility, and global impact. Our programs empower educators to refine their teaching practices, adopt evidence-informed and inclusive strategies, and prepare students to become creative thinkers, engaged citizens, and problem-solvers capable of addressing complex global challenges.
By centering diverse and underserved learners, cultivating partnerships across campus and beyond, and driving forward new ways of teaching and learning, CITL ensures that high-quality education is accessible, transformative, and built for the future.
Core Values
- Innovation with purpose: We thoughtfully explore emerging pedagogies and technologies, always using them to enrich, rather than replace, the human connections at the heart of teaching and learning.
- Belonging and equitable access: We cultivate inclusive learning environments that promote belonging, broaden access, and enable all learners to realize their potential and lead with impact.
- Collaboration and community impact: We partner with faculty, students, campus units, and external collaborators to co-create meaningful educational experiences that extend our impact beyond the university.
- Evidence-informed practice: We ground our work in research, assessment, and reflective inquiry, using data and scholarship to enhance quality, drive improvement, and support student success.
- Creativity, curiosity, and discovery: We cultivate a culture of exploration, encouraging educators and learners to question, imagine, experiment, and discover new possibilities in the learning experience.
- Service and stewardship: We steward the university’s resources responsibly and lead with a commitment to educational excellence, responsiveness, and the long-term success of learners and the broader community.
CITL empowers instructors and students by offering guidance, resources, and technology that revolutionize the way we learn.
In fact, we’re a one-stop community for all things teaching and learning, from evaluations and assessments to the innovative spaces and technologies that empower students to succeed. Through our programs and activities, we can share ideas and expertise with one another, learn about new developments in teaching and learning scholarship, and strengthen teaching skills and strategies.
CITL offers the following main resources to the Illinois campus:
- Support the development, delivery, and evaluation of online courses and programs.
- Provide essential services for teaching evaluations, learning outcome assessments, new student testing/placement, and exam processing.
- Provide training and assistance with instructional pedagogies and technologies to departments, faculty, staff, and teaching assistants.
- Provide personalized support to instructors who want to create, revise, or blend a course.
- Help the development, use, and evaluation of rich and creative learning environments.