Education at OHSU

Teaching and Learning Center

Our mission

The Teaching and Learning Center partners with all members of the education community to create meaningful, innovative, and evidence-based learning experiences.

Our values

  • Applying ethics of care to all our work​
  • Fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism​
  • Creating a curious mindset and space for innovation​
  • Promoting evidence-based teaching and learning practices​
  • Building relationships through collaboration​
  • Engaging in continuous iterative improvement

The Teaching and Learning Center is part of the Office of Educational Improvement and Innovation (EII) in the Provost’s Office. EII promotes and advances the reflective, scholarly, and innovative endeavor of teaching at OHSU and beyond. In addition to the TLC, EII comprises academic assessment, EdCOMM, educator development, and education scholarship.

Teaching toolbox 
Our toolbox contains resources on preparing your course, teaching hybrid and fully remote courses, and learner engagement and motivation. And don’t forget to take the FERPA and Accommodations tutorials.

Train Your Brain
Train Your Brain is a learning series hosted by the Teaching and Learning Center. We cover a variety of educational topics, including test design, teaching and learning strategies, assessment, outcome measurement, curriculum mapping, accessibility, Universal Design for Learning, inclusive teaching, Sakai tips and tricks, and Quality Matters training. Content experts will come to you to present on the topic(s) of your choosing. We're happy to conduct sessions at departmental meetings, retreats, or simply as requested. Sessions can be expanded or condensed to fit your preferred timing and scope, but most are 30-60 minutes by default. Current offerings and detailed descriptions are available in our menu.

Assessment Academy
Assessment Academy, hosted by the Teaching and Learning Center, is a workshop series intended to provide opportunities for participants to improve practice-based learning skills through participation in effective educational activities that promote lifelong learning.

Fundamentals of Teaching and Learning
Fundamentals of Teaching and Learning Online is a 5-module series that introduces faculty and future faculty to online course design and teaching practices. It is based on Quality Matters, the benchmark for nationally recognized quality assurance and continuous improvement in online education. The series is facilitated by four faculty from the Teaching and Learning Center.

Consultations
We provide consultations  on curriculum mapping, assessment, online course development, digital accessibility, innovative ideas for teaching, technology-enhanced learning, and Quality Matters. Contact the TLC  to request a consultation.

See the Training Future Faculty page for additional information.

Vision: To prepare future faculty for careers as outstanding educators.

Mission: The program supports teaching excellence by providing training to graduate students and post-docs through workshops, peer coaching, and professional development in education. 

Access: Graduate students (and post-docs) may access one or more of the program activities to increase their knowledge, or they may complete the entire Training Future Faculty program (the program is not for academic credit). The program is coordinated through Sakai.

Areas of engagement:

  • Fundamentals of Teaching and Learning Online
    Fundamentals of Teaching and Learning Online is an 8-module series that introduces faculty and future faculty to online course design and teaching practices.

     
  • Teaching observation and coaching
    Faculty from the TLC observe TFF participants in their teaching to offer feedback and coaching. Participants without a teaching role (TA or mentored teaching) are connected with resources for securing teaching opportunities. Participants are also invited to observe great teaching faculty.
  • Best practices in teaching workshops
    Workshops are in-person and virtual and cover best practices in teaching. Offered by Train Your Brain, Assessment Academy, School of Nursing, School of Medicine, Educators' Collaborative, and others, we provide a list of interesting workshops for TFF participants.
  • Professional development group
    This group meets once a month January through April for professional development in education, peer support for teaching practice, and creation of job hunt materials. Facilitated by two TLC faculty, cohorts run once a year.

Timelines: participants are encouraged to complete the program in one academic year but are allowed up to two calendar years to complete all components.

Sakai
OHSU's learning management system, Sakai, is a suite of web-based tools supporting communication and collaboration across learning environments. Sakai supports more than 400 courses each term in distributing course materials, providing a platform for the exchange of information through course-specific announcements, submitting assignments, and providing a digital space for collaboration. The Teaching and Learning Center is home the Sakai Help Desk that provides technical support and facilitates system maintenance for Sakai.

iPads
The TLC's educational technology specialists are available to consult, collaborate with, and train faculty to effectively use iPad applications to support instruction and enhance learning environments. We can arrange 1:1 meetings as well as group workshops.

Accessibility Resource Center
The Accessibility Resource Center  provides resources to help you create course content for all learners. Some accessibility guidelines, such as alt text for images, are specific requirements for online content in compliance with the law. Other guidelines, such as principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), help to improve the education experience for all learners.

Blue
Blue is the course and instructional effectiveness tool used by OHSU. While it is for summative course evaluations, it can be used for preceptor, clinical skills, or lecture evaluations. Courses and instructors in all schools and programs are evaluated using Blue. Evaluations of courses and instructors are built each term, for each school.

Implement Your Innovative Education Idea
We want to help you innovate your teaching. Have a new idea to improve your teaching? Want to try a new technology in your classroom but don’t know how to get started? Send a request to the TLC to get started.

Quality Matters (QM) is a national organization that certifies hybrid and fully remote courses that meet rigorous standards for teaching and learning. Certified courses ensure alignment between objectives, assignments, and instructional materials as well as quality design in navigation and accessibility. QM certification serves as a commitment to creating and maintaining an environment of excellence and quality.

The School of Nursing led QM efforts at OHSU by joining with a basic membership in 2013. In 2018, OHSU upgraded to a full membership, which allowed for the benefit of providing official workshops and subscriber-managed reviews. Quality Matters was noted as one tactic for the OHSU 2025 objective of academic technologies, which allowed for the creation of a QM committee. One goal for QM is expanding certification of courses to the entire university.

Learn more about QM, including the certification process, on our O2 site  or contact us.

 
To learn more about engaging with our services, visit our O2 intranet site (requires login with OHSU credentials).