CTL is currently undergoing changes, and some tools on this page are under maintenance. We appreciate your patience during this transition. You are welcome to reach out to the CTL team for support, or contact Brad Lobland for immediate assistance.
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Programs and Services
The Center for Teaching and Learning is a collaborative space that unites students, faculty, and staff, harnessing our collective expertise to foster a vibrant exchange of knowledge, culture, and lived experiences. With a shared commitment to inquiry, discovery, and engagement, we foster innovative, interdisciplinary learning communities that inspire intellectual growth and transformative experiences.
For Faculty
We serve as a hub for evidence-based teaching practices where faculty and instructors can learn from one another and the higher education community. We value and promote teaching practices that create belonging for all students at UAF, especially those who have historically been excluded from or discriminated against in institutions of higher education. Through collaboration, research, innovation, and leadership, the CTL is responsive to the teaching goals and priorities of faculty and academic units. We support all teaching roles from full-time, adjunct, or new faculty to postdocs and teaching assistants.
Our strategic initiatives promote pedagogical innovation and offer professional development opportunities for faculty to enhance faculty teaching skills, expand knowledge of effective instructional practices, and stay informed of emerging trends in education. We provide comprehensive support and resources for faculty to investigate the impact of teaching strategies, assess student learning outcomes, and contribute to the broader knowledge base of effective transformative pedagogies that contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Migrate to Canvas
UAF has migrated from Blackboard Learn to the Canvas LMS platform. Get information about Canvas, find answers to your Canvas questions, and request assistance with your Canvas-related needs.
Events + Training
We offer weekly learning opportunities, online and in-person. Click an event below, and then the “Reserve a Seat” button to sign up and add it to your calendar.
CONSULT A DESIGNER
Book a consultation with a CTL Instructional Designer for help developing a curriculum, troubleshooting a technical problem, and much more!
TEACHING NEWSLETTER
Interested in receiving Teaching Tips and more directly in your inbox? Subscribe to our Teaching Newsletter.
OUR SERVICES
Explore all our services, including program support, course development, continued education, and more.
For Students
We support faculty to build educational programming that values the incredible strengths and needs of all learners. Within the CTL, you’ll find eCampus, the longest-running distance learning program in Alaska. Building on a rich history of innovation and commitment to excellence in online learning, we take pride in connecting students to transformative experiences in supportive virtual learning environments designed to fit any schedule.
Our online courses and fully online degrees (eCampus), dual enrollment program, and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offer learning experiences that promote access, curiosity, success, and well-being.
-
Rethinking Deadlines to Support Student Success
What if the key to reducing student stress and improving performance wasn’t about being more lenient, but about being more strategic? Post-COVID research indicates that small, evidence-based changes to deadline policies can significantly reduce anxiety without compromising academic outcomes. Even better, these changes particularly benefit first-generation students and those balancing work, family, and mental health…
-
Caring for the Whole Student: Well-being as a Foundation for Learning
“Human learning is socially constructed: we come to understand the world through our interactions with others. Feeling part of a community of learners is a powerful motivator,” writes national expert on academic mindsets Camille Farrington. This Teaching Tip explores how fostering student well-being enhances learning and engagement. When students feel connected, supported, and valued, they…
-
Beyond the Checklist – Making RSI a Meaningful Practice for Instructors and Students
Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) is more than a compliance checkbox, it’s a way to design courses where interaction drives learning. This teaching tip reframes RSI as a shared practice across four channels: Instructor → Student, Student → Instructor, Student ↔ Student, and Student ↔ Community. You’ll find a quick self-check for the first two…
-
Create Classroom Activities that are Truly Effective
This Teaching Tip brings together active learning and Gangé’s Nine Events Instruction as a model for planning effective class sessions. These learning frameworks are evidence-based strategies for student success that can also help faculty structure their lesson plans, reducing planning overwhelm and sparking new ideas for engaging class meetings.
-
Best Practices for Accessible In-Person Lectures
This teaching tip offers advice for crafting lectures that are clearly connected to course objectives, visually and cognitively accessible to students, and supportive of methods for review and retention.
-
Hypothes.is: Modeling & Prompting Meaningful Annotations
UAF’s Center for Teaching and Learning arranged for a vendor webinar presentation from Hypothesis on their annotation tool. Although some of the talk centered on new features with Hypothesis, such as the ability to annotate images using its rectangular region grabbing tool and pinpoints of interest, a good portion of the conversation went beyond the…