Center for Teaching Effectiveness
Main Building 2200 (G2100), The University of Texas at Austin,Austin, TX 78712-1111
Marilla Svinicki, Director;
Karron Lewis, Asst. Director (512) 471-1488

The University of Texas at Austin is a public, Carnegie-classification Research University I with about 2500 FTE faculty; 3000 TAs, 48,000 undergrads, and 10,500 grad students.

The Center for Teaching Effectiveness (CTE) was established in the fall of 1973 at the request of the Faculty Senate. It is a line-item in the University’s budget, funded by state appropriations. CTE reports to the Executive VP and Provost for its faculty programs and to the VP and Dean of Graduate Studies for programs involving the graduate TAs. It is organized into four units: the faculty program, the TA program, the ITA program, and the general administrative functions. Permanent staff include a Director (100%), Asst. Director (100%), Faculty Program Coordinator (100%), ITA Program Coordinator (100%), Assistant Coordinator of ITA Program (25%), Conference Coordinator (100%), Media Specialist (25%), and Administrative Assistant (100%), plus work study students as clerical assistants. Our staff expands as we have research grants to fund other positions. The non-salary budget is $7,400 plus another $22,000 for the ITA program. This is supplemented by regular appropriations from the President’s budget for special programs.

CTE’s overall goal is to have classes at UT taught using the best available information about teaching and learning. The following activities are illustrative of our programs.

Consultation: The consultation process involves class visits, review of assignments, reading materials, exams, collection of student feedback, videotaping where appropriate, and an array of other activities designed to create a portrait of the individual’s classes. This service is available to faculty and TAs.

New Faculty Seminar: This three-day pre-fall seminar allows new faculty to meet students and experienced faculty and hear their impressions of UT. Other sessions review course design, syllabus construction, various teaching methods, tenure procedures and life at UT in general

Experienced Faculty Conference: Run like a professional conference, this mid-year two-day activity highlights innovative ideas for teaching which are being tried on this campus as well as having some basic sessions on teaching in general. The primary theme of this conference changes each year to reflect "hot" topics.

398T Course Support: 398T is taught in each department to prepare grad students for their TA responsibilities and teaching careers in general. We offer a summer workshop for 398T instructors to give them ideas about its content and to demonstrate some critical components. We provide support materials for instructors, offer specialized workshops for the courses, and coordinate TA videotaping and critiquing.

ITA Program: State law mandates the monitoring of the English proficiency of the teaching staff. We oversee the assessment, conduct a 3-day orientation and teach a course in teaching skills and communication for International Teaching Assistants.

Materials production and distribution: CTE produces written materials in support of teaching, including a newsletter, handouts and handbooks focusing on specific teaching situations.

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