"A campus locus for conversations about learning and teaching in the liberal arts"

In recent years, there have been dramatic changes in the ways we structure knowledge, in what we have come to understand about effective teaching and learning, and in the possibilities afforded by new technologies for improving teaching and learning.

The Center for Innovation in the Liberal Arts (CILA) was founded in 2000 to provide support for faculty working to meet the challenges posed by these changes. On the premise that the liberal arts colleges are ideal laboratories for pedagogical innovation and reform, CILA seeks to provide time and space for conversations and collaboration among faculty about learning, teaching and scholarship. CILA programs of the Center are supported in part by a grant from the Bush Foundation.

News ... 

  • St. Olaf College was selected by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to participate in be The CASTL Institutional Leadership Program. The College is the lead institution for a group of eight colleges and universities that will explore ways in which the scholarship of teaching and learning can be used to examine a variety of questions about liberal learning. The program is a three-year partnership between Carnegie and selected colleges, universities and higher education organizations with a strong commitment to the careful examination of teaching and learning. Participants were selected for their ability to influence work in 12 areas, ranging from assessment and accountability to undergraduate research.