In this episode of Agile Ed, Lindsay and Ashley unpack what it means to balance agility and sustainability in course design while keeping student motivation at the center. From guitars and Duolingo streaks to flipped classrooms and collaborative exams, they explore how timing, autonomy, and friction shape durable learning.

Together, they reflect on an instructor who co-created a “no-tech” classroom contract with students—and what that says about agency, motivation, and trust in higher education. Along the way, debate mandatory attendance and ask: what happens when students help define the rules?

It’s a conversation about learning when you want to learn, teaching with flexibility instead of fatigue, and rediscovering the human side of higher ed—where, as Dave Cormier reminds us, the community is the curriculum.

Attributions

• Dave Cormier – “The Community is the Curriculum”

• Rethinking Student Attendance Policies for Deeper Engagement and Learning – TiHE episode with Danny Oppenheimer & Simon Cullen

• Assign2 – Digital assessment platform enabling paper-based but digitized grading

• H5P – For interactive, asynchronous learning activities