CoLab Podcast

Wentworth instructional designers Josh Luckens, Megan Hamilton Giebert, and Lucy Wolski discuss strategies to implement Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in college classrooms.

UDL is a framework that seeks to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn best. Research shows that the ways in which people learn are as unique as their fingerprints. UDL guides the design of learning environments that reduce barriers to learning and empowers students to become expert learners in the rich diversity of ways that people learn.

Additional resources:

• TLC Interactive Module: Universal Design for Learning
• Website: The UDL Guidelines
• Website: UDL in Higher Ed
• Website: CAST: Until Learning Has No Limits, the nonprofit education research and development organization behind UDL
• Book: Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education by Thomas J. Tobin and Kirsten T. Behling
• Podcast: Think UDL Podcast (September, 2022)

Josh Luckens interviews Dr. Susan Blum, who shares how she uses “ungrading” principles and practices to reinvigorate her role as a college professor and empower her students to be lifelong learners.

Dr. Blum is a professor of anthropology at The University of Notre Dame and the author of nine books, including her 2016 publication "I Love Learning; I Hate School: An Anthropology of College,” and her 2020 instant classic “Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead),” which she both edited and contributed to alongside higher education experts from across the world.

Ungrading is a process of pedagogical inquiry that calls conventional assessment practices into question and continually searches for instructional strategies that work better to promote deep engagement and lasting learning.

Dr. Blum shares a constellation of teaching practices applicable to a variety of disciplines that de-center grading and re-center genuine feedback and student growth.

In her words: “Students in my classes have shifted their focus from getting good grades to meaningful and authentic learning.”

Additional resources:

• TLC blog post: Asking the Big Questions in Learning Design

• Teaching What You Don’t Know by Therese Huston

• Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative

• Syllabus example that employs grading while integrating ungrading principles (from Professor Mark Sample of Davidson University)

(August, 2022)

Wentworth instructional designers Josh Luckens, Megan Hamilton Giebert, and Lucy Wolski team up again to discuss actionable ways to bring trauma-informed teaching strategies into the classroom.

Trauma-informed pedagogy is a holistic approach to teaching and learning that recognizes and responds proactively to the collective and individual traumas that both students and faculty experience.

Underpinned by the neuroscience of learning, this approach brings heightened awareness of the crucial role of emotion in cognition.

Trauma-informed teaching practices seek to create classroom communities in which students feel safe, empowered, and connected. Such thoughtful promotion of student and faculty well-being fosters deeper engagement and more equitable learning outcomes.

Additional resources:

• Infographic: Top 10 Trauma Informed Teaching Strategies

• Article: Leveraging the Neuroscience of Now: Helping Students Thrive in Times of Trauma (By Mays Imad, Inside Higher Ed)

• Guide: Trauma-Informed Teaching Checklist (By Karen Costa, 100 Faculty)

• Videos: Brené Brown on Empathy and Brené Brown's TED talk The Power of Vulnerability

• TLC blog post: Maslow’s before Bloom’s: Strategies to Mitigate Student Anxiety

  (July, 2022)

Josh Luckens interviews Dr. Saundra McGuire, who shares personal philosophies and inspiring stories from her decades as a leader in higher education.

Dr. Saundra McGuire is internationally acclaimed learning specialist who has been teaching students a rich tapestry of strategies for improving their study skills and achieving academic success for over 50 years as a Professor of Chemistry and as the Director Emerita of the Center for Academic Success at Louisiana State University. She is the author of multiple books, including “Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate Into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation.”

Dr. McGuire shares how she transformed as an educator as she investigated how students learn best, why she chose to make metacognitive equity her life's work, and how to turn student success into a virtuous cycle.

In her words: “My mission is to help others reach their potential. Very often, the only confidence that students have is the confidence that we give them. To be educated means that you know that you can always learn anything as long as you are genuinely interested, put your mind to it, and have the appropriate learning strategies.”

Additional resources:

• Top 10 Metacognitive Strategies

• Episode 3 of our podcast, 21 Strategies to Boost Student Motivation, which is drawn from Dr. McGuire's work

(June, 2022)

Twenty-one strategies. Two instructional designers. One timer. Can Josh Luckens and Megan Hamilton Giebert relay every strategy in just one minute each? Part-game, part-inspiration, this episode presents evidence-based strategies to increase intrinsic motivation that can be implemented in any classroom.

These strategies are drawn from the book: Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate Into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation by Dr. Saundra McGuire.

Check out episode 4 of our podcast, in which Josh Luckens interviews Dr. Saundra McGuire!

View the 21 strategies to boost motivation in the classroom discussed in this episode.

Transcript: View as Word Doc or PDF

(May, 2022)

Three TLC instructional designers – Josh Luckens, Megan Hamilton Giebert, and Lucy Wolski – discuss the benefits of the TILT framework, which is used to clearly state a course assignment’s purpose, task, and assessment criteria. TILT is an easy and impactful adjustment that instructors can make to help their students succeed.

Additional resources:

• Video: TILT's developer Mary-Ann Winkelmes describes the TILT transparency framework

• Website: TILT in higher education

• TLC blog post: From Our Toolkit to Yours: TILT!

• TLC blog post: Enhance Student Success with Transparency

• View examples of TILT in higher ed

  (April 2022)

Josh Luckens interviews Ilyas Bhatti, Professor of Construction Management at Wentworth, who reflects upon his rich career in public service and the connections that have defined it by sharing stories and lessons learned.

Ilyas Bhatti is the Interim Dean of the School of Management at the Wentworth Institute of Technology and has been a beloved professor of Construction Management at Wentworth for 21 years.

As a child in Lahore, Pakistan, he nearly died of typhoid, which he contracted from contaminated drinking water. After training as a civil engineer in Pakistan, he immigrated to the United States and worked in wastewater and watershed management, rising to become the director of the public water supply for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

He then served as the Metropolitan District Commissioner under both Democrat and Republican governors of Massachusetts, helping to manage the Big Dig, the largest infrastructure project in the history of the United States.

Bhatti shares how he inspires his students to be inquisitive and engaged in the classroom, and why sparking curiosity in college students sets them up to be adaptive and resilient professionals.

He stresses the importance of sharing positive feedback and real-life examples with students, helping them to see the relevance of their work and reframe failures as learning opportunities.

Bhatti highlights the power of supportive relationships in education, stressing that teaching and learning is a two-way street. In his words: “By sharing knowledge, you enhance your own knowledge.”

Learn more about Construction Management at Wentworth

(March, 2022)