Designed for Learning

American higher education has always stood out for its strong commitment to general education courses, or gen ed, the premise being that undergraduates should not necessarily jump directly into a major but instead have the room to learn and explore a variety of fields before choosing a particular path.With that principled purpose comes a practical teaching challenge: Most students enroll in a gen ed course to fulfill a curricular requirement, not because they actively chose to take that class.So how do teachers make the best possible case for a required course? And how do they make it a good experience for the students who may never return to the subject when the semester ends?A professor at Boston College and regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine, Carlo Rotella has written a book that follows 33 students through his own general education course and explores answers to questions like these.Key Topics Discussed:A description of the required literature course Carlo teaches at Boston College and why he chose to write about itHow he uses the first day of class to attempt to overcome students’ skepticismLeading with the utility of the course, even when you as the instructor believe in the subject’s inherent beautyThe distinct value to students of coming together to participate in a classroom with peers and an instructor and why that value only continues to grow as technology advancesStrategies for getting students to participate, including working with those who aren’t as comfortable speaking during classCarlo’s approach to managing the flow of discussions, why he doesn’t fear silence, and thinking of what goes on in the classroom as “the main event”Guest Bio: Carlo Rotella is a professor of English, journalism, and American studies at Boston College. He writes regularly for The New York Times Magazine, and his work has appeared in a number of other outlets, including The New Yorker, Harper’s, and The Best American Essays. He has written books about cities, boxing, blues, and literature and film, among other subjects; his latest, What Can I Get Out of This? Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics, was named a Forbes Best Higher Education Book of 2025.Resources Mentioned:Carlo’s New Book: What Can I Get Out of This? Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics (University of California Press)Episode TranscriptDesigned for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.

Imagine you have a student who starts the semester strong but unexpectedly misses a deadline, and then you don’t see them in class for a few sessions. You reach out and are surprised to learn it isn’t because they lost interest in the course; it’s because they were so ashamed of missing that due date that it prevented them from coming back.Maybe you don’t have to imagine. If you’ve been teaching awhile, chances are you’ve had this exact experience, one that might be related to a student having ADHD.So what do learners with ADHD need from us as teachers? In her new book An Educator’s Guide to ADHD: Designing and Teaching for Student Success, Karen Costa shares strategies aimed at not only supporting these students but also taking advantage of the valuable strengths and perspectives they can bring to the classroom.Key Topics Discussed:Thinking of the ADHD neurotype as a house with all its doors and windows thrown openWhat we need to unlearn about ADHD, starting with the implications of the name attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorderTapping into the creativity and outspokenness often exhibited by students with ADHD to improve the overall classroom environmentStrategies for helping students with ADHD that will benefit everyone in the classKaren’s own experiences as someone with ADHD—both as a student and a professional—and why that drives her to talk about them openly, even when it’s uncomfortableNavigating potential sticking points between students who might thrive with more flexibility and faculty who are responsible for structuring a courseHow helping learners with ADHD can start with something as simple as making a checklistGuest Bio: Karen Costa is a faculty development facilitator, adjunct faculty member, and the author of 99 Tips for Creating Simple and Sustainable Educational Videos: A Guide for Online Teachers and Flipped Classes. Her latest book, An Educator’s Guide to ADHD: Designing and Teaching for Student Success, was published in January 2026 by Johns Hopkins University Press.Resources Mentioned:Karen’s New Book: An Educator’s Guide to ADHD: Designing and Teaching for Student Success (Johns Hopkins University Press)Karen’s Website: 100faculty.comEpisode TranscriptDesigned for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.

For decades now, the call to college teachers has been to rely less on lecture and to draw more on active learning techniques such as discussions, small group brainstorming, and think-pair-shares.Strategies like these fit well within smaller courses. But in an auditorium with a couple of hundred students, how do we encourage participation and community?To meet this challenge, Notre Dame’s Rachel Branco has turned to an assessment approach known as the two-stage exam. It’s worked so well that she has now written a how-to guide to help other instructors incorporate this active learning experience into classes of any size.Key Topics Discussed:How Rachel initially encountered the concept of two-stage exams, in which students answer the same set of questions first as individuals and then in groupsHer experience incorporating two-stage exams into her smaller courses and why that inspired her not only to adapt the setup for her larger classes but also to write a guide for other instructors interested in doing soWell-established advantages of using two-stage exams as well as Rachel’s own observations of the benefits based on surveys of her studentsThe logistics of deploying two-stage exams in a class with hundreds of students, including the importance of seating plans, the creation of the exam documents themselves, and group constructionWhy Rachel has each student turn in their own answer sheet for the group part of the exam and the kinds of questions that work best in light of the group dynamicWhy it’s critical to communicate the rationale behind this style of assessment to studentsGuest Bio: Rachel Branco is a neuroscientist and an associate teaching professor at the University of Notre Dame, where she teaches courses through both the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the Neuroscience and Behavior Program. She is passionate about researching and implementing practical classroom strategies that improve how students learn about and experience science.Resources Mentioned:Rachel’s Implementation Guide for Two-Stage ExamsMail Merge Tool for Notre Dame Instructors: Yet Another Mail Merge (YAMM)Grading Assistance Software for Notre Dame Instructors: GradescopeEpisode TranscriptDesigned for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.

Among the most fundamental promises education makes is this: What you learn here, on campus, will help you when you’re out there, in the world. Learning researchers call this far transfer, describing the process by which students take a skill and apply it in another class, in an internship, or even in their careers after college.But what does it look like when that far transfer is part of the class itself? In community-based learning, professors embed their courses in real-world contexts, creating partnerships with organizations who have real needs connected to the course material.Notre Dame’s Wendy Angst has long embraced this approach to teach design thinking and business consulting, and she has now amplified it to a whole new level with the help of virtual reality (VR) technology. The result has been to give her students an unforgettable experience that makes an impact far beyond their classroom.Key Topics Discussed:How coming from an industry background motivated Wendy to incorporate hands-on consulting work into her teachingThe evolution of her Innovation & Design Thinking course to build a robust partnership with Saint Bakhita Vocational Training Center in Northern Uganda, starting with an eventful trip there in March 2020Working with ND Learning’s Office of Digital Learning to use VR to bring the experience of being on the ground in Uganda to more Notre Dame studentsThe businesses in Uganda that have grown out of student-partner projects in the courseHow VR builds empathy and understanding among the large number of students who do not actually go to Uganda—but also among those who doLessons Wendy has taken away from years of leading community-based learning and advice she’d give instructors looking to get started with itGuest Bio: Wendy Angst is the Michael & Melanie Neumann Director of the Powerful Means Initiative and a teaching professor in the Department of Management & Organization at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. She also serves as the director of undergraduate studies for the impact consulting minor and has been instrumental in shaping experiential learning opportunities that empower students to drive meaningful social impact and grow the good in business.Resources Mentioned:More About the VR Immersion in Wendy’s ClassOffice of Digital Learning’s Digital Learning Sprints ProgramProject Partner Website: Saint Bakhita Vocational Training CenterEpisode TranscriptDesigned for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.

In this engaging conversation, Lily Abadal, an assistant professor at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, discusses the impact of AI on traditional classroom dynamics. She advocates for bringing writing back into the classroom to foster integrity and intellectual virtues. Lily reimagines the term paper into step-by-step in-class assignments, emphasizing slow, thoughtful writing as essential for deep understanding. Her practical approach to teaching and unique grading methods reveal how students become more engaged and take ownership of their learning.

When satellite maps became available on our phones, some wondered what we would lose by becoming less oriented to the places we live or visit. But most of us have used these maps for many years now and find them to be incredibly useful. Which begs the question: Does it matter if we’ve lost our sense of direction a bit? Educators now find themselves asking similar questions about AI and teaching. What happens when we stop using a skill and allow technology to do it for us? Do we become de-skilled? When does that de-skilling matter? And in those cases where it does matter, how do we help students understand the importance of committing themselves to the hard work of learning?Educator, author, and higher ed consultant Derek Bruff joins host Jim Lang for a thoughtful conversation exploring how we might answer.Key Topics Discussed:The rubber duck effect as a way to think about AI’s potential role in brainstorming processesConcerns over people accepting the responses of AI as authoritativeThe sycophantic tendencies of chatbots and the importance of teaching students to read AI outputs with a degree of skepticismHow consulting AI compares to collective class discussion as a starting point for student papersDeveloping students’ metacognitive awareness and self-regulation so that they can determine when it’s helpful to use AI and when it’s notThe value to students of encountering course material in both digital and analog waysThe need to be intentional about AI use because the skills and experiences at play feel more core to who we are as humansA low-stakes experiment for instructors who don’t currently use AI muchGuest Bio: Derek Bruff directed the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching for more than a decade and is currently an associate director at the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Virginia, where much of his work focuses on helping faculty respond to the challenges and opportunities posed by generative AI. Derek has written two books, most recently Intentional Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in College Teaching. He writes a weekly newsletter called Intentional Teaching and hosts and produces the Intentional Teaching podcast.Resources Mentioned:Derek’s Podcast: Intentional TeachingDerek’s Newsletter: Intentional TeachingAlternative Use Test Article: “How does generative artificial intelligence impact student creativity?” (Journal of Creativity)Example Assignment: Do Something Impossible with AINotre Dame Learning’s Lab for AI in Teaching and LearningEpisode TranscriptDesigned for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.

When you become a teacher, you commit to a life of learning—not just for your students, but for yourself. You can feel totally comfortable and confident in your teaching practices, and then suddenly some new technology or some new group of students comes along and upends everything you think you know about education.In those moments, instructors often seek out resources and conversations with peers and students to think through how they might adapt their teaching. But actually giving up a beloved teaching technique can provoke a real sense of loss, and adopting a new approach can be scary.Jordan Troisi, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Colby College, talks with host Jim Lang about one way colleges and universities can support faculty on this journey: course design institutes. Both Colby and Notre Dame are home to such programs, in which faculty gather with colleagues and teaching specialists in an extended process of reimagining their work as educators.Key Topics Discussed:How course design work led Jordan to make a concrete change to his own teaching practicesCommon features of course design institutes, which run for a relatively short amount of time, and ways they can advance instructors’ lifelong efforts to improve as teachersMaking the time instructors spend in these institutes worth their commitmentIncorporating your experience in a course design institute as part of the narrative around your CVThe prevalence of grading as a topic Jordan sees instructors wanting to discussDrawing on relationships among faculty and a broader sense of belonging to motivate more instructors to participate in structured explorations of their teachingThe questions to ask when planning a course design instituteGuest Bio: Jordan Troisi serves as the director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Colby College. He previously spent nine years as a psychology faculty member, first at Widener University and then at Sewanee: The University of the South. His scholarly work includes more than 20 peer-reviewed and invited publications on effective teaching as well as two books: Midcourse Correction for the College Classroom: Putting Small Group Instructional Diagnosis to Work and, most recently, Developing High-Impact Course Design Institutes: A Model for Change.Resources Mentioned:Book: Developing High-Impact Course Design Institutes: A Model for Change (Routledge)Colby Center for Teaching and Learning’s Course (re)Design InstitutesNotre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center Course Design AcademyEpisode TranscriptDesigned for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.

Over the last couple of decades, we’ve seen an explosion of books and articles about what’s often called “brain-based learning,” as neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists study and explain what circuits are firing when a student tries to memorize a fact or solve a problem.Without question, this scholarship has been a boon to teachers seeking to improve their practices. But there is a caveat: Not all brains think alike.Researchers call this neurodiversity, and it refers to the notion that every population will include people who have a range of ways of thinking, learning, and feeling.Author of the forthcoming book An Introduction to Neurodiversity for Educators, faculty development expert Sarah Silverman talks with us about challenges students who learn differently might face in the classroom and how instructors can foster environments where everyone has an opportunity to thrive.Key Topics Discussed:Sarah’s Ph.D. in entomology—and her journey from studying insects to working in the area of teaching and learning with a focus on neurodiversityThe origin of the term neurodiversity to describe the full range of cognitive differences among humans as well as the meaning and use of the related terms neurodivergent, neurotypical, and neurodiverseHow the neurodiversity movement emerged out of the desire of autistic people to be accepted rather than “cured” and the ways that influences Sarah’s work with facultyReal-world examples, including from her own experiences as someone who is neurodivergent, that illustrate the value of instructors connecting with students to get a fuller picture of who they areWays instructors might support neurodivergent learners who are encountering challengesAccess friction—i.e., when the access needs of one person or group come into conflict with those of another—and how being flexible can help instructors approach such situationsThe value of having students themselves help you find solutions (and why it’s okay if they’re not utopian)Guest Bio: Sarah Silverman is an independent scholar and faculty developer focusing on neurodiversity and accessibility in higher education. In her work on many different campuses, she helps faculty better understand how neurodiversity impacts teaching and learning and how to balance many different needs among instructors and learners. Her book An Introduction to Neurodiversity for Educators will be published next year by the University of Oklahoma Press as part of the Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving in Higher Ed Series, which is edited by Designed for Learning host Jim Lang and Michelle Miller.Resources Mentioned:Sarah’s Substack Newsletter: Beyond the ScopeNeurodiversity concepts discussed during the episode drawn from Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline edited by Steven KappEpisode TranscriptDesigned for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.

Tricia Bertram Gallant, the Director of the Academic Integrity Office at UC San Diego and co-author of 'The Opposite of Cheating,' dives into the complexities of academic dishonesty in the age of AI. She explains why students cheat, emphasizing that motivations aren't new but have evolved. The conversation explores moral justifications that enable cheating and offers practical strategies for educators to foster integrity. Tricia also advocates for innovative assessment methods to rebuild trust and communicate more effectively with students about their learning.

Can you draw lessons from the way you teach and apply them in your writing? Designed for Learning host Jim Lang thinks so—so much so that he’s written a new book about it called Write Like You Teach: Taking Your Classroom Skills to a Bigger Audience.To learn more, we flipped the script and asked Kristi Rudenga, director of Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence, to interview Jim, a professor of the practice at the Kaneb Center, about his latest project.He shares his insights on the intersection of teaching and writing, offering strategies for educators looking to expand their reach through engaging, accessible prose intended for broader audiences. He also talks about how a life-threatening health situation shaped the creation of Write Like You Teach.Key Topics Discussed:Jim’s career trajectory as an academic, speaker, and writer of popular books and columns on teachingThe inspiration behind Write Like You Teach and how it bridges his passions for teaching and writingTranslating classroom teaching practices into impactful writing techniquesThree core areas to consider to write like you teach: questions, attention, and evidenceOvercoming impostor syndrome when writing for non-academic audiences by recognizing your role as an educator in both classroom and writing contextsJim’s personal journey of recovery from a heart transplant and stroke, and how it affected his writing processGuest Bios: Jim Lang is a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence. The author of several popular books on teaching, including Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It and Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, Jim writes regularly on teaching and learning for The Chronicle of Higher Education and co-edits a book series on higher education for the University of Oklahoma Press. His latest book is Write Like You Teach: Taking Your Classroom Skills to a Bigger Audience.Kristi Rudenga is the director of Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence, where she is appointed as a teaching professor. In addition to overseeing the Kaneb Center’s team, strategy, partnerships, and initiatives, Kristi consults with instructors on pedagogical approaches and facilitates seminar series and workshops on teaching and mentoring. She writes about pedagogy for The Chronicle of Higher Education, and she has served on the Core Committee of the POD Network, the national organization supporting educational development.Resources Mentioned:Book: Write Like You Teach: Taking Your Classroom Skills to a Bigger Audience (University of Chicago Press)Website: jamesmlang.comJim’s LinkedInEpisode TranscriptDesigned for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.