CETL’s Annual Report illustrates impact during the 2025-2026 academic year

CETL engages faculty, graduate students, staff, and others in activities supportive of our mission to promote exemplary teaching and meaningful learning.

Liz Norell

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Instructional Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Bin Xiao is shown demonstrating a concept from physics in his classroom by stacking red boards above a student sitting below.
Instructional Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Bin Xiao’s use of active learning techniques aligns with CETL’s mission to promote exemplary teaching and meaningful learning at the University of Mississippi. Photo by Srijita Chattopadhyay, Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services.

Each year, the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) documents its accomplishments and reach in our annual report, shared digitally on our website and by email with department chairs, deans, and the Provost. In the 2025-2026 academic year, CETL:

  • Reached 674 members of the University of Mississippi teaching community with its workshops and services, including 300 faculty, 284 graduate students, and 90 staff members, undergraduate students, and others. 
  • Funded 12 course redesign applications through our Faculty Learning Community in calendar year 2025. The 15 faculty who participated taught about 1,000 students in their own classes in the Fall 2025 semester, as well as redesigning the First-Year Experience course that reached more than 4,000 students that semester. 
  • Shared 105 notes of gratitude from students with faculty in January 2025, through our Thank an Instructor program. These notes have a notable impact on faculty, who respond with messages like, “Thank you for sharing this student’s feedback. Reading this makes me want to continue to make a difference.”
  • Completed 42 individual consultations, nine teaching observations, and 22 department-specific workshops or programs.
  • Appeared on 10 podcast episodes, attended 12 conferences (eight of which included a presentation), and wrote 16 blog entries. 

Our team members are seen as experts nationally and internationally on topics related to teaching and learning. We were invited to give talks at an impressive number of other institutions and professional gatherings, including talks at Dartmouth College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, and the University of California, Berkeley (among many others). 

What’s more, we remain actively engaged in the classroom, teaching courses in 2025-2026 for the departments of Teacher Education, Writing and Rhetoric, and Integrated Marketing Communications. 

Rounding out our work is considerable achievement in scholarship, both traditional and for the public, with our works published in nationally recognized media outlets like The Conversation and The Hill, as well as chapters in edited volumes and book projects in progress. 

We appreciate the support and engagement from those on our campus and from the broader higher education community! We invite you to read our full report to see how our team remains focused on our mission of promoting exemplary teaching and meaningful learning.

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