Whether you're facing a challenge in the classroom or are eager to explore a new pedagogical approach, the Center for Teaching Excellence has services to support you. We offer confidential consultations, innovative teaching spaces, and pedagogical resources to further your teaching practice.
CTE staff are available to meet one-on-one with instructors to talk through a range of teaching questions. Whether you are trying to figure out how to improve student participation, design a new Canvas course, or explore a new pedagogical approach, our experienced staff are here to serve as resources and sounding boards.
Consultations with the CTE are always initiated at the request of the instructor and remain confidential within Boston College. To arrange for a consultation, email us at centerforteaching@bc.edu. We ask that you direct all queries to this central account, rather than contacting staff individually, so we can better manage the flow of requests.
Inclusion And Accessibility Consultations
As part of the CTE’s commitment to inclusion and accessibility, we take a particular interest in working with faculty to design courses that are accessible to students with disabilities and inclusive of students from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in U.S. higher education. We welcome the opportunity to work with faculty on a range of questions related to inclusion and accessibility.
Classroom Observation
Some instructors choose to pair a classroom observation with their consultation, inviting a CTE staff member to observe a class session as a chance to provide additional context for our conversation. Please contact us to learn more about how we approach observations.
Mid-Semester Feedback
The CTE can also assist instructors interested in gathering anonymous feedback from their students in the middle of the semester. Gathering feedback while a course is in progress can allow instructors to make small adjustments that can benefit student learning and improve classroom climate.
The CTE is available to consult with instructors interested in gathering anonymous feedback from their students mid-way through the semester. This confidential service allows instructors to identify areas where small course adjustments can lead to improved student learning in the remaining weeks of the course. Request a consultation by emailing centerforteaching@bc.edu.
For those not interested in a consultation, we also have a robust resource that walks you through the choices involved in developing your own approach to gathering mid-semester feedback and interpreting the results.
What Is The Process?
CTE staff are available to help instructors develop feedback questions, facilitate gathering feedback from students, and make sense of the feedback.
Developing feedback questions: A CTE staff member can work with you to develop feedback questions tailored to your particular course’s learning goals.
Facilitating a feedback session: A CTE staff member can attend one of your class sessions and, once you have left the room, will gather individual or group feedback from your students. That anonymous feedback is then shared with you.
Interpreting feedback: Once you’ve collected your feedback, a CTE staff member can then serve as a sounding board, helping identify trends in your students’ feedback and strategizing how best to respond to them.
You’re welcome to request a single consultation to discuss developing feedback questions or interpreting feedback, or you can sign up for help with the full process. If you would like a CTE staff member to gather the feedback, that will involve a pre-meeting to develop the questions and a post-meeting to discuss the feedback.
How Is This Confidential?
In line with the CTE’s confidentiality policy, no information related to a mid-semester feedback consultation will be shared with anyone aside from the instructor. You choose what, if any, feedback data to share with CTE staff, and we delete any feedback records we have once the consultation has concluded.
In addition to the campus-wide programs we offer, the CTE also works with individual departments and schools to tailor programs specifically for their faculty and graduate student instructors. We work closely with you to make sure we’re prepared to address the particular context and needs of your faculty, and we are flexible in accommodating your time constraints.
Common Topics
- Beyond Bullet Points: Designing Better Presentations
- Cultivating Academic Integrity
- Designing and Managing Group Projects
- Designing Transparent Assignments
- Developing Rubrics to Support Learning
- Engaging Large Classes
- Facilitating Difficult Dialogues in the Classroom
- Grading for Learning
- Inclusive Classroom Practices
- Intercultural Competence in the Classroom
- Partnering Effectively with TAs
- Planning for More Dynamic Discussions
- Responding to Student Writing
- Strategies for Active Learning
- Syllabus Design
- Teaching Students with Disabilities
- Teaching Through Disruption
- Universal Design for Learning
To learn more about how the CTE might work with your faculty or graduate student instructors, please contact us at centerforteaching@bc.edu.
The Center for Teaching Excellence manages several innovative classroom spaces, including a teaching innovation lab, an active learning classroom, and two technology classrooms. We give preference to full-semester reservations, but instructors can also email centerforteaching@bc.edu to inquire about date-specific reservations.
Check out a wealth of information on Teaching Technologies, Teaching Strategies, and Course Design on the CTE Resources site.