YU-LEARNT
Yeditepe University Learning and Teaching Implementation and Research Centre
Founded in 1996, Yeditepe University offers an education that is necessary for people of the age of information. The mission to use the science of the day and the necessities of the society to provide high quality education to build a better world now more than ever requires a leap forward in educational design and structure, as much as reskilling and upskilling academic and administrative staff.
The recent Covid Pandemic showed us the world’s instability and the looming dangers of further pandemics. Therefore, the need to be online and remote has become a necessity and virtually a reality of the future. Not only the contingency of emergency situations that might be experienced in the coming years, but also the digital transformation in learning environments leading to hybrid models has become an inevitable fact in higher education. In fact, such models offer a great extent of benefits and opportunities to educational institutions, to students, faculty, and administrative staff, and even to support service workers.
While the traditional classroom offers guidance, face-to-face interaction, social growth, and many more pedagogical benefits, the online version also has its own unique advantages. Allowing learners to become independent, seeking knowledge rather than simply receiving, developing curiosity further, and the ability to continuously adapt and learn are all proven benefits of the ubiquitous learning models that online platforms allow. In addition, transforming some classes to online delivery relieves the university from physical classroom pressure and limitations, while adding flexibility for both faculty and students by reducing commuting demands. Whether it be a hybrid model - which is the ideal state - or a fully remote-online model in case of states of emergency, we need to heavily invest in making our educational programmes, structures, faculty, and students all very net-savvy and able to fully invest in both forms of higher education.
Established in 2021 as the Yeditepe University Learning and Teaching Unit, YU-LEARNT has grown steadily in both scale and institutional standing. In August 2024, the unit was formally elevated to the Yeditepe University Learning and Teaching Implementation and Research Centre - a recognition not only of the breadth of its service activities, but of its expanding commitment to original research, knowledge production, and contribution to the wider field of higher education. This dual identity - as a centre of service to learners and as a centre of research and implementation - now defines everything we do.
Serving Our Learners
At the heart of the Centre’s work is a commitment to every member of the Yeditepe University community. The Coursera partnership, which began in July 2021, continues to provide students and staff with access to a wide range of courses across multiple domains, enabling them to earn recognised certificates, develop competitive job-ready skills, and engage in lifelong learning. The YULearnMoodle platform hosts a growing library of in-house training modules covering communication skills, the Academic Advising Handbook, digital tools, academic writing, and many others - all designed with the needs of specific groups in mind, from first-year students to administrative staff and senior faculty.
The Centre operates through six dedicated sub-units - Learn, Execute, Admin, Research, Network, and Teach - each with its own mission and active programming. The YU-Teach sub-unit’s Educators’ Education Programme, delivered through a hybrid model of online modules and in-person workshops, supports faculty in developing their pedagogical competencies across in-person, online, and hybrid environments. Five core modules - covering Classroom Management, Instructional Planning, Teaching Approaches, Technological Tools in Teaching and Learning, and Evaluation and Assessment - are available via the YULearnMoodle platform, and a total of 17 academic staff members successfully completed the programme in 2025, with certification provided upon completion. The YU-Execute sub-unit’s Communication Skills Workshop Series equips academics and administrative staff with transferable leadership and interpersonal skills. The YU-Network sub-unit supports students and staff in building professional networks through training programmes including Networking Skills and Social Media Management, designed to help them manage their professional identities in digital environments. The YU-Research sub-unit has developed a short course on “Research with Artificial Intelligence Tools,” introducing students and researchers to AI-powered tools such as NotebookLM and large language models for use in their research processes.
Research, Knowledge Production, and International Engagement
Alongside this service mission, YU-LEARNT has built a substantive and growing research profile. In 2023, YU-LEARNT was the only centre accepted from Turkey for the European University Association (EUA) Thematic Peer Group on “Development and Strategic Benefits of Learning and Teaching Centres” - a group of ten centres from across the European Higher Education Area whose work culminated in a published EUA report and a presentation at the EUA Learning and Teaching Forum in Bochum, Germany in February 2024. The published report features YU-LEARNT as an example of a centre driven by the SDG of Quality Education, guided by the mission of “Leaving No One Behind,” and integrating the principles of “Learning How to Learn” and “Lifelong Learning” into a holistic model of learning and teaching excellence. This work also resulted in a co-authored peer-reviewed journal article published in 2025.
Building on this, YU-LEARNT was selected for a second consecutive EUA Thematic Peer Group in 2024, this time on “Learning and Teaching in Situations of Crisis: Needs and Support Provision” - a topic of particular relevance given the Centre’s own origins in the pandemic period. This group was chaired by the Centre’s Director, Prof. Dr. Berrin Yanıkkaya, who led all three meetings of the group, including one hosted in Istanbul. The group’s findings were contributed to and published by the EUA in 2025.
In parallel, the Centre has completed INTER-ACT, a university-funded research project exploring intercultural dimensions of learning and teaching. Finalised in 2025, INTER-ACT represents YU-LEARNT’s first internally funded research initiative and reflects the Centre’s growing capacity to generate and disseminate original knowledge - not just to implement best practice, but to contribute to defining it.
The Centre is also an active partner in the FLAIR (Fostering Learners’ AI Readiness) project, an Erasmus+ KA-220 initiative coordinated by the Vienna University of Economics and Business and bringing together partners from the Netherlands, Estonia, Ireland, Spain, and Turkey. The project focuses on artificial intelligence literacy, the integration of AI in education, and ethical considerations in higher education - areas that are increasingly central to the Centre’s own research and training agenda.
Through its annual activity reports, COVID-19 response publications, the Academic Advising Handbook, and its contributions to international forums and journals, YU-LEARNT continues to build a body of work that is both practically grounded and academically rigorous. As a research and implementation centre, it stands as Yeditepe University’s institutional engine for educational excellence - generating knowledge, translating it into practice, and equipping every member of the university community to thrive in an ever-changing world.
Sincerely,
Prof. Dr. Berrin Yanıkkaya
Director, YU-LEARNT
Yeditepe University Learning and Teaching Implementation and Research Centre