About the TLC
Our Mission
Created to both honor and renew the university’s longstanding tradition of outstanding teaching and bold educational experimentation, the Teaching & Learning Center (TLC) serves all members of the UCSC teaching community. The TLC uses research and equity-minded practices to strengthen the culture of teaching, promote student success and equitable outcomes, and support teacher-leaders at UC Santa Cruz, a thriving minority-serving research institution.
We collaborate with campus educators and other partners to inspire the exploration of innovative and accessible teaching practices and technologies that advance equity, foster deep learning, and increase student engagement.
On Equity-Mindedness & Servingness
It’s not just about what we teach; it’s also about how we teach. UC Santa Cruz has a long history of prizing education for social justice, and today, as a double minority-serving institution (HSI, AANAPISI), we have new opportunities to extend that tradition. We support educators to develop and share equity-minded teaching methods that embody “servingness.” These methods are known, from current research on teaching and learning, to improve student retention, persistence, academic achievement, and sense of belonging. With our campus partners, we aim to serve the students we enroll, including first-generation college students, multilingual students, and students historically and currently minoritized on campus. We believe this work can happen at the level of our teaching practices, and a commitment to equity and servingness infuses all of our programs.
Who We Are
Meet the Teaching & Learning Center
The Center for Innovations in Teaching & Learning (CITL) and Online Education (OE), established in 2016 and 2014 respectively, merged in 2023 to become the Teaching & Learning Center. The merger of OE and CITL allows us to bring together the expertise of both units to support the campus in navigating the contemporary instructional landscape, including pedagogy for teaching with technology. As a comprehensive teaching center, we can better serve instructors at all levels with integrated course design and delivery, promoting and assessing student learning, making equity data actionable, and changing how we evaluate and reward teaching on campus.
Our Partners
TLC partners with key units on campus who are engaged in student equity work, including student-facing units, to encourage a more holistic and collaborative approach to addressing inequity and ensuring student success.