In 1990 the Committee on Educational Development (COED) was established as an experiment in providing support for instructional development at Trent University. The COED was instrumental in developing the Teaching Effectiveness Program. In 1999 the committee was dissolved on the understanding that its mandate would be passed on to a new Interactive Learning Centre (ILC), which would have a physical presence on campus and sufficient staff and resources to offer improved support for excellence and innovation in teaching and learning.

1999-2002 was a formative period for the ILC. During this time Associate Dean Elizabeth Popham and part-time Program Coordinators Richard Pinet and Trevor Holmes carried out the traditional work of the COED by developing a collection of instructional development materials, and mounting a program of papers and workshops on effective teaching practices, pedagogical techniques, and professional development issues. Due to their efforts, the concept of the ILC was deemed successful, and in July 2002 the ILC became a regular part of the University's operations, receiving permanent funding and staff positions as a part of a general restructuring of teaching and learning support at the university.

In May 2003 the ILC Advisory Board unanimously recommended that the Centre's name be changed to the Instructional Development Centre (IDC) to align with cognate units at other institutions and to better reflect the Centre's mandate. From 2003-2014, the IDC worked to provide faculty and teaching assistants with opportunities to help develop their teaching skills. This included workshops in the Teaching Effectiveness Program series, a TA Training Certificate Program, the administration of the Academic Innovation Fund from 2001-2010, and the Learning Innovations Grant from 2007-2014. Until the fall of 2008 the IDC published a newsletter that highlighted teaching effectiveness and professional development issues. The IDC also coordinated all of the internal teaching awards at Trent, and was highly successful in providing support for faculty applications for external teaching awards.

In the fall of 2014, the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) was launched in a concerted effort to once again, elevate the relevance of high quality teaching and learning at Trent. The CTL is dedicated to celebrating and enhancing the outstanding teaching and learning opportunities at Trent University.  In line with Trent’s strategic plan, the mandate of the Centre for Teaching and Learning is to foster meaningful teaching innovations, develop responsive professional learning programs and dialogue about what it means to teach and what it means to learn. The team at the Centre aims to support the Trent community of faculty and staff in providing personalized, collaborative and productive learning opportunities for students.

In January 2024, the Centre for Teaching and Learning merged with Trent Online to form the Trent Teaching Commons. Under this new name, the Commons remains committed to its mission of driving innovation in teaching and learning, enhancing educational practices, and celebrating educators. With the integration of Trent Online, the Commons will take the lead in supporting and developing resources for online course creation.