The Office of Teaching and Learning Celebrates 25 Years

The Office of Teaching and Learning (OTL) follows the mission of advancing transformative, inclusive, and impactful teaching and learning across all disciplines to actualize DU’s educational promise to our students. Originally called the Center for Teaching and Learning, OTL began at DU in 1999 and celebrates its 25th anniversary in April 2024. We are embracing this anniversary, set for April 16, 2024, as an exciting opportunity to celebrate the great work of DU faculty, staff and other DU community members over the past 25 years to promote excellence in teaching and learning at DU.  

Today the OTL is housed within the Office of the Provost and serves as the central hub of teaching and learning expertise, support and development for faculty of all series and rank across campus. Our suite of services and programs supports growth in the domains of course design, facilitation, inclusive teaching, teaching with technology, implementing high-impact practices, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, assessment, Universal Design for learning and accessibility in the classroom. See our annual report for more details.  

Because asking people to learn is asking them to change, the office serves as the fundamental engine of pedagogical and curricular transformation across campus. We engage with individual faculty, support innovations at the program and unit levels, and provide expertise for institutional-level initiatives that involve valuing and rewarding teaching excellence. In partnership with faculty, the OTL exemplifies kindling organizational transformation. In sharing the accomplishments of the OTL, we simultaneously celebrate the invaluable contributions faculty make to the very fabric of teaching, learning and assessment at DU. None of our work is possible without the dedication, commitment, and passion of our faculty.  

We look forward to celebrating with you and not only remembering the history of the OTL but illuminating the ways in which the university classroom has changed in the last quarter century. We’d also like to celebrate our founding director, Dr. Julanna Gilbert, who will join us for the celebration.  

Keep an eye out for more details about the celebration, and save the date for April 16, 2024! 

Thanks to planning committee members:  

• Leslie Cramblet Alvarez, AVP, Teaching and Learning 
• Roberto Corrada, Law 
• Julie Morris, Biological Sciences 
• Alex Martinez, IT 
• Virginia Pitts, OTL 
• Elise Rosado, VPFA/OTL 
• Lexi Schlosser, OTL 
• Jeff Schwartz, OTL