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Institute for Teaching and Learning Excellence (ITLE)

Welcome to the Institute for Teaching and Learning Excellence (ITLE) at the California Northstate University (CNU). The ITLE is a part of the office of the Vice President of Academic Affairs at CNU.

The CNU ITLE enshrines the principle of life-long learning which constitutes the foundation of a CNU education. The raison-de-etre of the ITLE is to facilitate, promote, and support collaborative, inclusive, culturally sensitive, sustainable and shared learning experiences for our faculty, students, and staff of CNU.

Healthcare needs and delivery are changing at a rapid pace both worldwide and in the US. Examples of significant changes in healthcare include transition to a patient-centered model, emphasis on an interprofessional team-based approach, adoption of skills-based curricula in medical, pharmacy and other healthcare education, increasing diversity of the student body with the accompanying need for the inclusion of cultural sensitivity in the classroom, and a transformation in the way cognitive and skills-based learning occurs within the groups of millennial and new generation learners. These factors have precipitated a need for a parallel evolution of the modalities of delivery of healthcare education. Major challenges still exist in the readiness of graduates to implement their learning which has created an urgent need for interactive, collaborative, peer-based, affordable, equitable, and socially responsible healthcare education. The ITLE was birthed to address these needs for innovative healthcare pedagogy and to centralize the innovative and cutting edge pedagogical approaches that our remarkable CNU faculty, staff, preceptors and students engage in daily.

The overall purpose of the ITLE is to provide academic support services and energize the CNU faculty and student communities by creating a collegial and collaborative learning environment. Our mission is to study, develop, and implement innovative, evidence-based approaches to teaching, with the goal of maximizing student engagement, critical thinking, and information retention. At the ITLE, we have developed a five-pronged support structure that includes 1) Interprofessional Education, 2) Learning Communities, 3) Distance Learning and Technology, 4) Faculty Development, and 5) Writing support. The ITLE is supported by an advisory council composed of the Deans of the CNU colleges and is made up of a faculty membership from all CNU colleges.

Our motto is omnia progressus ad unum and that is our promise to you, to progress with everyone together to effectuate meaningful, substantive and sustainable change for a better and brighter future for all.

CNU Leaders and Faculty Perspectives on ITLE