Launched in 2011 through a generous gift from Gustave and Rita Hauser, HILT’s mission is to catalyze innovation and excellence in learning and teaching at Harvard. As a University-wide initiative, HILT is overseen by the Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning (VPAL). Under the VPAL umbrella, HILT is a sibling organization to HarvardX and Data Science & Technology.
Four sub-goals guide HILT’s work:
- build on Harvard’s strengths in teaching and learning;
- meet the educational needs of students (both technological and pedagogical);
- strengthen the science of learning; and
- develop a robust network at Harvard around teaching and learning innovation.
HILT aims to be mutually reinforcing to and non-duplicative of related goals and efforts across Schools and to forge collaborations and provide support for these activities. These challenges require the combined efforts of individual students, faculty, and staff, and the thoughtful coordination of Programs, Centers, Departments, and Schools with each other and the University as a whole.
HILT has demonstrably seeded hundreds of local innovations and experiments at a variety of scales. We anticipate that those activities will engage a large number of Harvard instructors in renewing and improving their teaching, benefit student learning, and make teaching and learning efforts more visible and discussed across campus. We have also facilitated the “institutionalization” of successful self-sustaining innovations and experiments. We continue to develop and nurture a large and diverse community of practice around teaching and learning excellence that involves all Harvard Schools. Finally, we facilitate significant, high-quality research on learning and teaching used by Harvard instructors, students, and beyond.