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“Bringing Myself to Class”: What Students Tell Us About Presence and Learning

by | Apr 23, 2026 | Blog, Teaching & Learning Tip

May’s Teaching & Learning Tip

By Scott Seagle

One of the favorite aspects of my job is conducting Teaching Analysis Polls at the midpoint of the semester. A couple of weeks ago, in response to “What are you doing to help your learning in this course?” a student reported simply “bringing myself to class.” I guess it’s easy to read this as passive, just showing up. But research suggests something far more intentional may be at work.

Coulter Faculty Commons' Teaching & Learning Tip

Student engagement scholars describe learning as encompassing three interlocking dimensions: behavioral, cognitive, and emotional. Engaged students are not just absorbing content; they try to make meaning of what they are studying by putting in intellectual effort and working through challenging ideas. Engaged learners care about the subject, feel motivated or excited to learn, and take ownership of their own learning (Barkley & Major, 2020, p. 6). When a student consciously decides to bring themselves to class, their full attention, curiosity, and personal stake, they are doing exactly this. They are making a deliberate psychological investment rather than merely occupying a seat. Student engagement occurs when students make a psychological investment in learning: they try hard to learn what school offers, taking pride not simply in earning the formal indicators of success like grades, but in understanding the material and incorporating it into their lives. That kind of intentional presence, chosen rather than required, may be one of the most powerful things a student can bring to a classroom. 

While “bringing oneself to class” is a good first step students can take, we as instructors can help create a learning environment that fosters engaged learning. A positive classroom climate characterized in part by strong, trust-based relationships helps facilitate a sense of belonging among students, which improves learning, development, and wellness, especially for those who are at higher risk for poorer outcomes. Research on student identity in the classroom reinforces this: when students have opportunities to integrate their multiple identity dimensions and feel whole as a result of bringing their full selves to their learning and growing experiences, this inclusion and validation is foundational to cultivating belonging, agency, and purpose. In practical terms, this means that a student’s ability to “bring themselves” is not solely a matter of individual motivation; it’s also a response to whether they feel seen, valued, and safe enough to show up fully. Instructors who build in moments for connection, invite students’ prior knowledge and lived experience into discussions, and signal that the whole person is welcome (not just the note-taking, test-taking self), actively create the conditions in which that kind of engaged presence can take root. 

Barkley, E. F., & Major, C. H. (2020). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 

Ferlazzo, L. (2025, February 13). Student identity is complex. Here’s how to honor it (opinion). Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-student-identity-is-complex-heres-how-to-honor-it/2024/08 

The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good: A Call for an Early Start in Undergraduate Research

by | Mar 25, 2026 | Blog, Problem Based Learning, Student Engagement, Teaching & Learning Tip

By CFC Faculty Fellow Chad Hallyburton, Environmental Health Sciences 

I absolutely hated high school. 

As an undergraduate student, I spent some semesters just “phoning it in.” 

But when I arrived at WCU as a graduate student, the creativity and independence of original research ignited my passion for learning, and I haven’t looked back since. I sometimes wonder what my academic career would have looked like if I’d discovered research earlier, and that makes me want to give my students an early start with scholarship. 

This is important, because early involvement in undergrad research is a high-impact practice that improves scientific skills, critical thinking, and problem solving, and makes students more employable by fostering their time management, teamwork, and communication skills. 

Undergrad research students are better prepared for their degree work, for graduate school, for their future careers, and for life. 

But too few students get involved. I see my own Undergraduate Research Student Partners grow and flourish, but often only the “best and brightest” show up at my door looking for opportunities, and often only later in their undergraduate careers. 

So, during the Fall 2025 semester I developed and evaluated a curriculum engaging first-year seminar students who conducted an applied Public Health project.

They collected and analyzed data on low flu vaccination rates among our first-year WCU students, described barriers to vaccination in this population, and worked with the Division of Student Affairs to share social media and print messaging encouraging student vaccination. They described the reach and impact of their messages and developed poster presentations with their suggestions for how WCU could more effectively support students’ vaccine decision-making.

Poster of a WCU student in a purple shirt and backpack chasing a cartoon flu virus, with the caption “Don’t let the flu call the shots.”

After completing this Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience, or CURE for short, science process confidence grew in over 80% of the class, many identified as potential future scientists, and about two-thirds said they were more interested in finding future undergrad research opportunities.

Was this project perfect? Did it include all the elements of undergraduate research that students might experience working in an advanced research lab? Absolutely not. But it was a first step towards showing the newest members of our WCU community that scholarship is within their reach. 

Many of you already support undergraduate research. If you try to engage more students earlier in their careers, will your efforts be perfect? Nope. But you can surely do something good. 

If you need some inspiration, here are a few good resources to get you going: 

From $100 Textbooks to Zero: One History Instructor’s OER Revolution

by | Feb 25, 2026 | Blog, OER, Teaching & Learning Tip

When I hit “publish” on my first OER-based syllabus, I’ll admit I was nervous. Would the materials hold up? Would students take free resources seriously? Would I regret abandoning the familiar, glossy textbook and publisher resources I’d used for years? 

Three weeks into the semester, a student emailed me at 11 pm. Not to complain but to thank me. She’d just accessed our primary source collection from her phone while waiting tables, squeezing in reading between shifts. “I never could have afforded the old textbook,” she wrote. “This changes everything.” 

That’s when it hit me: I hadn’t just changed my course materials. I’d changed what was possible for my students. 

OER Commons Logo.

Five years ago, I took the plunge and replaced my standard $100+ U.S. History textbook with Open Educational Resources, or OER for short. The decision came after years of watching students show up to class without required readings, not because they didn’t care, but because they couldn’t afford them. Some waited weeks for financial aid. Others simply went without, cobbling together whatever they could find online or hoping a classmate or I would share. 

The results of switching to OER? For one, the financial impact was immediate. Twenty-eight students, zero textbook costs. That’s roughly $2,800 staying in students’ pockets. Money that went toward rent, groceries, and other course materials instead of a single book they’d use for one semester. 

Another impact of my adoption was that access barriers vanished overnight. On day one of the semester, every single student had complete access to all course materials. No waiting for paychecks. No scrambling for library reserves. No apologetic emails about not having the reading. They had instant, universal access from any device, anywhere. 

But here’s what surprised me most. The content itself fit my teaching style better. The OER materials I curated included primary sources from the Library of Congress, digital archives, and a textbook which engaged students in ways my old textbook never did. They weren’t passively highlighting paragraphs; they were analyzing Ida B. Well’s actual words, zooming in on Civil War photographs, and exploring multimedia narratives that brought history alive and made the class relevant. 

As for my own workload, the transition was more or less a wash. There was some upfront time spent identifying quality OER materials and making sure they covered what I needed, but once that foundation was laid, things ran pretty smoothly. I wasn’t constantly working around a publisher’s chapter structure so, in some ways, having the flexibility to pull from multiple sources made my planning feel a little more intentional. 

Making the switch wasn’t just about saving students money, though that alone would have been worth it. It was about rethinking what’s possible when cost isn’t a barrier to learning. 

Interested in exploring the potential of adopting OER materials for your classes? CFC is partnering with the Bookstore and Hunter Library to provide funding and support. Visit the OER Grant Program website for more details. 

Hunter Library (2026): Open Educational Resources (OER). Research Guides. https://researchguides.wcu.edu/oer/home 

Information on what OER is, how to find and evaluate course appropriate OER, as well as tips on adapting OER resources.