Center for Advancing Teaching Excellence: About Us

Mission

The mission of Moody College is to advance and enhance society through the study and practice of human communication. Aligning with the College’s mission, CATE will promote a culture of teaching excellence among all instructors and enable effective teaching practices to ensure the desired learning outcomes among students in preparing them to change the world.

Objectives

The primary objectives of CATE are to:

1. Foster innovation and collaboration in teaching.
2. Support new instructors in designing courses and developing teaching proficiency.
3. Facilitate implementation of effective teaching practices.
4. Identify and recognize excellent teaching within the college.
5. Enhance the visibility of excellent teaching in order to propagate best practice.
6. Manage and support strategic learning initiatives.

CATE Services 

• Individual Instructional Consultation
  

  Experienced teaching and learning consultants are available to meet with you individually to discuss your teaching goals and help craft tailored solutions. Whether you’re facing a specific challenge, need a sounding board, or want to explore new ideas, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

• Learning Technology Support
  

  Get assistance with educational technology and online learning tools.

• Course Review
  

  We are happy to review your syllabus and Canvas course and offer tips and tricks to "kick it up a notch".

• Course Design
  

  If you need to design a new course (or redesign an existing course), we can help you follow a structured design process, keeping inclusive teaching practices and accessibility standards in mind.

• Departmental Programming
  

  Invite the CATE team to present to your faculty or graduate students on any number of topics, such as inclusive teaching practices, student engagement, creating and using rubrics, building community, promoting academic integrity, and more.

• New Faculty Onboarding
  

  CATE offers trainings for new faculty and graduate students at the start of each long semester. We are also available for individual sessions to help new faculty get off to a good start.

People

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Mary Crawford, Director

Mary is the Founding Director of the Moody College Center for Advancing Teaching Excellence. She enjoys working with faculty to understand their needs and the needs of their students. Her grounding in evidence-based practices is critical to helping faculty craft tailored solutions for online, hybrid, and face-to-face instruction. Mary received a B.A. in psychology from Austin College and an M.A. in Instructional Technology from the University of Texas at Austin. In her free time, she hangs out with her dogs, Violet and Gus.

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Kate has spent her career collaborating with faculty to design and deliver innovative courses in the U.S. and abroad and believes in the use of technology in education as a means of increasing access for all. She enjoys learning about the individual needs of faculty and students in order to best support their goals. She holds an M.A. in International Education and a B.A. in Anthropology. In her free time Kate practices Brazilian jiu jitsu and enjoys exploring Austin with her partner and their dogs.

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Ivy is a PhD candidate and assistant instructor in the School of Journalism, where she researches travel media, local news, visual journalism, and stereotyping. She currently teaches multimedia news reporting to non-majors, and was a teaching assistant in Reporting Images for two years. Her pedagogy is greatly influenced by being a former Montessori kid, and emphasizes project-based and student-centered learning.