Graduate Student Teaching Certificate of Completion Program
Learn - Reflect - Practice
The Graduate Teaching Certificate of Completion Program has been redesigned to take advantage of the Best Practices in Teaching courses and a refresh on some of the workshops. The program outlined on this page is only open to students who have registered for it prior to June 1, 2023. To enroll in the new Graduate Student Teaching Certificate of Completion Program, Follow this link to the redesigned GSTCC page.
Those who are currently enrolled in the old program may complete the program as originally designed by January 5, 2025, or transfer their status to the newer version. After January 5, 2025, the old program will no longer be available.
Why Earn a Graduate Teaching Certificate of Completion?
If you are among the 70 percent of graduate students who plan to teach at a college or university after completing your degree, the Graduate Teaching Certificate of Completion Program will give you a head start.
The Program…
- Is flexible, allowing you to complete the requirements within one year.
- Allows you to participate in a community of faculty, staff, and students who are dedicated to excellence in teaching.
- Offers a self-directed course of study, so you can focus on the aspects of teaching in which you are most interested. Whether you want fundamental knowledge about post-secondary teaching, or want to gain expertise in specific areas, the Graduate Teaching Certificate program allows you to create a relevant and meaningful course of study.
- Provides you with important credentials. In an increasingly competitive academic job market, potential employers want evidence of both scholarly achievements and teaching ability. The teaching Certificate can significantly enhance your professional prospects.
- Offers you opportunities for experiential, hands-on learning through its internship, tutoring, and teaching options.
- Results in a Teaching ePortfolio, which illustrates your teaching expertise. The ePortfolio is both a comprehensive collection of pedagogical knowledge and a valuable tool in academic job searches.
You will learn to:
- Determine appropriate goals for student learning outcomes.
- Understand and work effectively with diverse student populations.
- Design courses, including selecting and sequencing course materials, and developing course assignments.
- Employ evaluative procedures which validly assess student learning.
- Use innovative pedagogical approaches, such as teaching with technology, optimizing available Learning Management Systems, practicing sustainable service-learning strategies, and so on.
- Reflect on and revise your pedagogical practices throughout your teaching career.
General Requirements
To complete the full program, students must attend 10* Pedagogical Workshops/Seminars and write and submit the workshop/seminar review form. Faculty and staff from across the university offer a variety of pedagogical workshops each semester. You will find many of them in the Professional Development section of the TILT website. These can be any combination between the 10 Workshops/Seminars or 6 Short Courses over the time span of enrollment to achieve the 12 credits needed.
*For those required to participate in a 1-3 credit pedagogical course by their department for the GTA program, this number is only 6, as the other 6 workshops will be covered by the class. You will still be required to complete 10 Workshop/Seminar Review forms as a reflection on what you’ve learned. If you have already taken the credit course you will need to fill out review forms for 6 things you learned in the course.
Students can combine and include more than one avenue of teaching in order to meet the 20 hour requirement. Students can also include more than 20 hours in their portfolio if they have participated in more than the required amount.
If you are a GTA, your experience in the classroom will contribute to your teaching expertise. If you are not a GTA, you can enroll in a teaching internship course, or you can apply to work as a tutor in one of CSU student services programs such as the CSU Writing Center or The Academic Advancement Center or as a research mentor with the Graduate-Undergraduate Mentor Program.
Apply using the Experiential Learning Form
The primary record of your work on the Graduate Teaching Certificate will be presented in a PDF OR website portfolio. This portfolio will reflect your beliefs about and experience with teaching.
Please see the certificate checklist for an up-to-date list of portfolio requirements. Once you have completed developing your portfolio, please submit it for review to Karen Falkenberg and Kira Marshall-McKelvey.
After getting permission from the instructor, visit a class session of an instructor who has at least 1 year of teaching experience and uses active learning strategies. This observation opportunity is meant to expose you to a variety of teaching practices and personas. We encourage you to observe an instructor outside of your home discipline. You will then fill out the TILT teaching observation form and include it in your final teaching portfolio.
Graduate Teaching Certificate Resources
Certificate Forms
Workshops and Courses
Sample Portfolios Graciously Provided By:
Contact Info
Dr. Kelly Bradbury
Director, Graduate Student Teaching Certificate of Completion Program
Contact
Email: Kelly.Bradbury@colostate.edu
Credit Courses for Graduate Teaching Certificate
- BZ 560 Teaching and Communicating Science
- E501 Writing and Composition
- E502 Language, Literacy and Learning
- E503 Investigating Classroom Literacies
- E504 Situating Composition
- E526 Foreign/Second Language
- E603 Computers in Writing
- E633 Seminar in Writing Across the Curriculum
- E607 or E608 gtPathways
- EDUC 619 Curriculum Development
- EDUC 628 Models of Teaching
- EDUC 629 Classroom and Communication
- EDUC 713 Teaching, Learning and Professional Growth
- GRAD 792 Seminar in College Teaching
- MIP 580A3 Teaching & Mentoring Undergraduate Research
- SPCM 570 Instructional Communication Theory & Practice *
- SPCM 675 Speech Communication Pedagogy
- Departmental 684 and 784 Supervised College Teaching courses
* Online Course
What the Graduate Teaching Certificate Can Do
“The TILT Graduate Teaching Certificate program proved both transformative for my growth as a scholar/teacher as well as invaluable in my journey on the academic job market. I began the teaching certificate program with a passion for teaching, but very little formalized knowledge or skill. Not only did the TILT GTC program fill in those gaps for me, it gave me a space to share my passion for teaching with others and become continually inspired by other educators who hold a commitment to excellence in pedagogy. Each semester, after attending workshops and seminars and refining my own teaching materials, I developed a strong sense of who I was as a teacher and how I would like teaching to fit into my overall career goals. Indeed, I wanted it to be central.
Though I had the misfortune of applying for academic jobs during the height of a global pandemic, I still fared quite well, earning several phone interviews and even some virtual campus visits. All of my interviews were for teaching-centric jobs and I strongly believe that touting my teaching certificate in my cover letters got my foot in the door. Indeed, my teaching portfolio (which is what this program culminates in) was routinely referred to as “dynamic” and “impressive” by various search committees. The knowledge I gained throughout the certificate program also gave me the confidence to speak clearly, assertively, and passionately about my views on pedagogy and how I hope to develop as an educator throughout my career.
If you think you may pursue a career path that values teaching in any way, the TILT Graduate Teaching Certificate is more than worth your time—it will help you grow as a teacher, develop confidence in your pedagogy, and position you as a valuable to asset to any institution of higher education.”