by Aaron Ratcliffe | Jan 9, 2026 | AI, Blog, Classroom, Educational Technology, Faculty Development Workshop
Using Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Teaching & Learning
Tuesday, January 27 | 3:30 – 5:00 pm
Hunter Library 156 (CFC) or via Zoom
You’re invited to an open forum for faculty across disciplines to share ideas, challenges, and best practices focused on uses of AI in the classroom. The forum will be structured into two parts. Part 1: Faculty will share ideas regarding how they are using generative AI for teaching innovation and to ease course administration burdens. Part 2: Faculty will share ideas for setting and maintaining clear expectations regarding ethical and responsible student use of AI and the impacts of AI on student learning processes. We will also reflect on how faculty and students can set competency-based learning goals that emphasize distinctive human skills. Come ready to share your ideas and to learn from and be inspired by others.
by April Tallant | Nov 4, 2025 | AI, Blog, Classroom, Educational Technology, Faculty Development Workshop, Help Your Students, Learn, Pedagogy, Student Engagement, Teaching and Learning
AI in the WCU Classroom
Join colleagues for an open discussion on using AI in teaching and learning on Tuesday, Nov 18, 3:30-5:00 pm. This two-part program will include sharing strategies for integrating generative AI into instruction and course management, as well as approaches for setting clear expectations around ethical student use. We’ll also consider how to design learning goals that emphasize key human skills. For more information and to register, read the blog post.
UNC System Pilot: Student AI Literacy
The UNC System Office is piloting a new AI Foundational Skills program, developed collaboratively by faculty, librarians, and instructional designers across the System, in Spring 2026 to strengthen student AI literacy and workforce readiness. This collaborative initiative gives students practical AI experience and critical evaluation skills while connecting them with industry perspectives. We’re seeking faculty to integrate the training into their courses and provide feedback, which will help refine the program. Faculty will receive a stipend. Interested? Complete this interest form to receive more information. Questions? Contact Dr. Heather McCullough, Director, Learning Technology and Open Education, hamccullough@northcarolina.edu
by Aaron Ratcliffe | Oct 29, 2025 | AI, Blog, Classroom, Educational Technology, Faculty Development Workshop
Tuesday, November 18 | 3:30 – 5:00 pm in Hunter Library 156 (CFC)
You’re invited to an open forum for faculty across disciplines to share ideas, challenges, and best practices focused on uses of AI in the classroom. The forum will be structured into two parts. Part 1: Faculty will share ideas regarding how they are using generative AI for teaching innovation and to ease course administration burdens. Part 2: Faculty will share ideas for setting and maintaining clear expectations regarding ethical and responsible student use of AI and the impacts of AI on student learning processes. We will also reflect on how faculty and students can set competency-based learning goals that emphasize distinctive human skills. Come ready to share your ideas and to learn from and be inspired by others.
by John Hawes | May 5, 2022 | Blog, Classroom, Educational Development
3rd post of 9 in the Small Teaching Series
Small Teaching by J.M. Lang presents methods for making small changes in your teaching practices (hence the name) that can significantly improve your students’ learning. Each chapter provides the research-based evidence behind the practices Lang proposes so you can have confidence that Lang’s ideas work. The Coulter Faculty Commons will be boiling the Small Teaching chapters down into blog posts to provide instructors with concepts they can apply to a lesson, a class, or a course.
“A rose by any other name…” (from Romeo & Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2)
Interleaving
Lang had to call it something, so interleaving it is. I must admit that I was a bit disappointed that interleaving didn’t involve some sort of quantum-level warped space-time learning technique. The truth is a bit more mundane as Lang explained interleaving as, “… the practice of spending some time learning one thing and then pausing to concentrate on learning a second thing before having quite mastered that first thing, and then returning to the first thing, and then moving onto a third thing, and then returning to the second thing, and so forth. In short, it involves the process of both spacing and mixing learning activities— the spacing happening by virtue of the mixing” (Lang, 2016, p. 68). That’s not as cool as a tachyon generator powered by a bucket of dilithium, but infinitely more practical.
Lang noted the combination of interleaving and retrieval (covered in an earlier blog linked below) implies that all major exams should be cumulative (cue the student groans). This does not mean that the third major exam should be evenly divided between the material from the first two exams and the material from the third unit, but that each exam should harken back to what has previously been learned and assessed. The revisiting of material shouldn’t be limited to major exams either. Lang proposed three ways to work this concept into your classroom instruction:
- Open each class session by posting a test question from a previous exam or a potential test question related to previous course content. Give students time to consider and discuss their answers.
- Close class sessions by asking students to create a test question based on that day’s material and pose that question back to them in future class sessions.
- Open or close class sessions by asking students to open their notebooks to a previous day’s class session and underline the three most important principles from that day; allow a few moments for a brief discussion of what they featured from their notes. (Lang, 2016, pp. 76–77)
In the section on Principles, Lang discusses last the value of explaining to your students the benefits of interleaving, how it is incorporated into the course assessments, and the nature of short- and long-term learning, but I think it is vital your students understand the reasoning behind your course design. If you don’t, interleaving may appear as a serious case of “this instructor doesn’t know what they are doing.”
To recap, here are the interleaving quick tips that Lang proposes:
- Reserve a small part of your major exams (and even the minor ones, such as quizzes) for questions or problems that require students to draw on older course content.
- Open or close each class session with small opportunities for students to retrieve older knowledge, to practice skills developed earlier in the course, or apply old knowledge or skills to new contexts
- Create weekly mini-review session in which students spend the final 15 minutes of the last class session of the week applying that week’s content to some new question or problem.
- Use quiz and exam questions that require students to connect new material to older material or to revise their understanding of previous content in light of newly learned material
- In blended or online courses, stagger the deadlines and quiz dates to ensure that students benefit from the power of spaced learning.
As always, if you’d like to discuss these or other ideas with the Coulter Faculty Commons you can schedule an appointment at https://affiliate.wcu.edu/cfc/consultations/
Lang, J. M. (2016). Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hunter-ebooks/detail.action?docID=4455000
Small Teaching Blog Series
1: Retrieving 2: Predicting
by Eli Collins-Brown | Apr 20, 2022 | Active Learning, Blog, Canvas, Classroom, Educational Development, Educational Technology, Faculty Development Workshop, Summer Institute for Teaching & Learning (SITL)
It’s BACK!!
The Summer Institute of Teaching & Learning is back after a two year COVID hiatus. We will gather together in person on May 10 & 11th in HHS 204 for sharing and conversation.
We are keeping it low key this year. Come to relax, learn something new, and enjoy good food and conversation with your peers.
The keynote speaker will be Dr. Sudhir Kaul, Professor, School of Engineering and Technology, and the 2022 UNC Board of Governor’s Teaching Award winner from WCU.
Lunch is provided on both days – registration is required.
Agenda:
Tuesday May 10:
9:00-9:15 am – Welcome
9:15-10:00 – Student Engagement in the Times of a Pandemic Keynote: Dr. Sudhir Kaul, Professor, School of Engineering and Technology, BOG Teaching Award Winner, 2022
10:15 am-Noon – Workshop 1 – How to Engage with Students in any Modality
Noon-1:00pm – Lunch
1:00-3:00pm – Workshop 2 – The First Steps: Instructional Design or Redesign
Do you want to design or redesign an assignment, assessment, content, part of a course, or an entire course? This interactive session will get you started with brainstorming and an action plan to get you through the summer
3 – 3:15 – Summer Beach Read
3:15 – 3:30 – Sharing and Next Steps
Wednesday May 11:
9:00-11:30am – Workshop 3 – Student Engagement through Assessment and Grading in Canvas
11:30am-12:30pm – Lunch
12:30-3:00 pm – Workshop 4 – Undergraduate Students as Research Partners
3:00 – 3:30 pm – Sharing, Next Steps, and Closing
Registration
Use the QR code to access the registration form or https://wcu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1FX4RGQqj1AjF54
Looking forward to seeing you!
by John Hawes | Mar 30, 2022 | Active Learning, Assessment, Blog, Classroom, Help Your Students, Student Performance, Teaching and Learning
Small Teaching by J.M. Lang presents methods for making small changes in your teaching practices (hence the name) that can significantly improve your students’ learning. Each chapter provides the research-based evidence behind the practices Lang proposes so you can have confidence that Lang’s ideas work. The Coulter Faculty Commons will be boiling the Small Teaching chapters down into blog posts to provide instructors with concepts they can apply to a lesson, a class, or a course.
Let’s get started.
Chapter 1: Retrieving
Every subject requires students to know some foundational knowledge to successfully engage in higher levels of learning. For example, they need to know what a line is before they can understand more complex geometric shapes or the history of the earliest immigrants to the North American continent before they can discuss the nuances of current immigration policy. For your students to be successful, they need to be able to retrieve knowledge so that they can apply what they know.
Students need to retrieve knowledge from memory, but as Lang points out, “if you want to retrieve knowledge from your memory, you have to practice retrieving knowledge from your memory” (Lang, 2016, p. 20). How do you get students to practice retrieving knowledge? To illustrate a simple practice Lang cites studies where students were divided into three groups: one was given additional study time before a test, one given a practice quiz before the test, and one group where no intervention was taken. In one of the studies students that were quizzed prior to the test scored two letter grades higher than those that weren’t. Perhaps equally significant, students that were given additional study time scored no better than those that received no intervention. Re-reading did not improve knowledge retrieval.
Rather than just think of quizzes as assessment activities, consider them a means for your students to practice knowledge retrieval. But quizzing can take many forms. Here are the Quick Tips Lang suggests in Chapter 1:
- Give frequent, low-stakes quizzes (at least weekly) to help your students seal up foundational course content; favor short answers or problem-solving whenever possible so that students must process or use what they are retrieving.
- Open class periods or online sessions by asking students to remind you of content covered in previous class sessions; allow students time to reflect for a few moments if you do so orally.
- Close class by asking students to write down the most important concept from that day and one question or confusion that still remains in their minds (i.e., the minute paper).
- Close class by having students take a short quiz or answer written questions about the day’s material or solve a problem connected to the day’s material.
- Use your syllabus to redirect students to previous course content through quizzes or oral questions and discussion (Lang, 2016, p. 39).
