In this episode of Agile Ed, we put our own courses through the lasagna check.

…or at least we start to. We only

got through the first layer: the dish!

With our fall syllabi and course calendars open in front of us, we turn our layered model for sustainable teaching into an on-air course design consultation. Rather than simply saying we value relationship-rich education, scaffolding, productive failure, and intrinsic motivation, we start asking a more challenging question: can we actually see those things in the courses we’ve designed?

We begin with the dish that holds the lasagna together: relationships. From designing meaningful interactions on the first day of class to building grade negotiations into a 200-student course, we explore what it means to create opportunities for students to build relationships with instructors, peers, TAs, course content, the wider university community, and beyond.

As the consultation unfolds, those decisions lead us into questions about difficult conversations, flexible deadlines, feedback, student choice, TA involvement, and how much support is enough before scaffolding starts getting in the way of learning.

It’s a live, imperfect course-design conversation about trying to walk the walk—and discovering what changes when you use the lasagna model not just to describe good teaching, but to examine your own.

In this episode of Agile Ed, we turn the Pretty Pencil Case Principle around on ourselves.

As a new semester approaches, it’s easy for instructors to fall into the same trap as students with their fresh notebooks and brand-new school supplies: this time, everything is going to be perfect. The syllabus will anticipate every question. The course calendar will be flawless. Every activity will be meaningful, every deadline intentional, and somehow we’ll manage all of it without creating an impossible amount of work for ourselves.

Starting with an 18-page syllabus, we unpack information overload, “Frankenstein” course outlines, duplicated deadlines, first-year students learning how to navigate university, and the tension between being comprehensive and actually being useful. We also get into the messier work of course redesign: giving each other feedback, letting go of things we’ve already carefully planned, making space in the semester, and asking whether all that extra effort is actually helping our students—or us.

Along the way, we rethink the end of the semester, experiment with grade negotiations and scalable oral defences, and remind ourselves that sustainable teaching means designing for the humans who have to teach the course, too.

Because instructors get excited about pretty pencil cases in September, too.

In this episode of Agile Ed, we ask what education might look like if we stopped organizing so much of it around competition and started prioritizing cooperation and collaboration instead.

We explore the ways competition is baked into academic culture—from authorship and intellectual property to teaching, grading, and the pressure to protect our own ideas—and what can happen when we deliberately push against those norms. Along the way, we turn the conversation toward course design: collaborative learning, group formation, student choice, feedback, grading, and creating opportunities for students to learn with one another rather than simply alongside or against one another.

We also get practical about the realities of doing this work. What happens when class sizes grow, TA support shrinks, and the course you imagined is no longer sustainable? Drawing on our lasagna model for sustainable teaching, we reflect on how relationships, scaffolding, productive failure, and intrinsic motivation can help us decide what really matters and ultimately what we can let go.

It’s a conversation about de-centering ourselves, sharing ownership of learning, and designing educational experiences that make cooperation more than something we say we value.

 Attributions

Megan Barker (colleague mentioned regarding approaches to group formation): linkedin.com/in/megan-barker-a9661960/ 

In this episode of Agile Ed, a rant about inconsistent Starbucks service opens into a much bigger conversation about inconsistency in teaching and learning.

From customer service and classroom culture to grading, feedback, trust, and workload, we explore what happens when educators say they value care, flexibility, and community but design courses in ways that send very different messages. Along the way, we reflect on the tensions between relational teaching and scale, the emotional labour of supporting students, the role of TAs as part of the teaching team, and the practical realities that shape assessment design in large classes.

This episode is a candid and thoughtful exploration of what it takes to align educational values with educational practice, and why trust, transparency, and intentional design matter so much when we want students to feel supported, challenged, and genuinely included in the learning process.

In this episode of Agile Ed, we start with habits and end up somewhere much bigger: student learning, perfectionism, and what sustainable teaching really requires.

From Duolingo streaks and guitar practice to classroom trust and unfinished assignments, we explore why all-or-nothing thinking can be so damaging and why relationships, scaffolding, productive failure, and intrinsic motivation matter so much. 

Along the way, we introduce a new metaphor for their emerging framework: the teaching-and-learning lasagna. We explore practical examples of embodying this type of approach in classes of any size. 

It’s an episode about practice, progress, and creating learning environments where students do not have to be perfect to keep moving.

Attributions

• This episode references ideas related to habit formation discussed by Mel Robbins.
• The conversation also gestures to themes discussed in Huberman Lab around reducing friction and designing systems for action.
• Special acknowledgment to Jodie Medd for the inspiring work that harnesses relationships and showcases the value of relationship rich education. Jodie has shared many of the works that have gone into shaping her practice. 
• The phrase “the community is the curriculum” is in reference to Dave Cormier’s work.
• Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu made the distinction between rigorous and vigorous on a podcast with Angel Acosta.

Agile Ed doesn't do intros.

No theme music.

No “Welcome back to Agile Ed.”

No polished setup.

Just a cold open...

In this episode, we’ve stitched together the beginnings of our conversations—the first thoughts, the unfinished sentences, the ideas that land before we even know where we’re going. It turns out, the start is often where the most honest thinking happens.

This is the Cold Open Reel: a collection of the moments before the moment.

Unscripted.

Unfiltered.

Exactly how we work.

In this episode of Agile Ed, we explore a simple but often overlooked truth about teaching and learning: relationships come first.

Sustainable teaching practices aren’t built on tighter policies, heavier surveillance, or increased rigor. They’re built on trust. When classrooms are relationship-rich, instructors can step back from over-functioning, learners can take intellectual risks, and productive failure becomes possible. Without that relational environment as a foundation, even the best-designed learning experiences can collapse under strain.

The conversation connects intellectual humility, expertise, imposter syndrome, and GenAI to a deeper structural question: What actually holds learning in place and ensures it has sufficient room to grow? The answer isn’t control. It’s connection, cooperation, and collaboration.

If we want teaching practices that endure times of rapid social and technological change—we need structures that are relational, not reactive. This episode unpacks what that looks like in practice.

Attributions

• Felton & Lambert's Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College

In the Season 3 premiere of Agile Ed, we begin with a question: What if students could time travel? This idea, sparked by a physics concept called a “time mirror”, is a powerful metaphor for the current state of learning in post-secondary education. While students can’t literally travel through time (yet!), they can use technology to take shortcuts. These shortcuts allow them to skip the friction involved in struggling to learn something challenging, which is the very thing instructors want learners to experience.

The conversation moves from quantum curiosities to very practical questions about assessment design, accommodations, faculty workload, and SNACKS!

Season 3 sets its roadmap here: design courses that prioritize relationships, remove structural barriers, support equity by design (not exception), and free up instructors’ time to focus on what matters most: learning that actually sticks.

Just a bunch of silly outtakes from our second season of AgileEd.

In the Season 2 finale of Agile Ed, we reflect on one of the most persistent—and problematic—assumptions in education: that obedience equals learning. Through stories from parenting, teaching, and course design, we explore why curiosity, autonomy, and relational trust matter more than compliance. The episode closes by tracing a clear through-line across the season—relationship-rich education—and setting the stage for what comes next.

Look out for some Season 3 themes in 2026:

- Rethinking perfectionism in education

- Making relationship-rich education concrete and accountable

- Continuing conversations on alternative grading, equity, and learner agency

- Naming and dismantling hidden curricula, especially in GenAI-shaped environments