Designed for Learning

American higher education has always stood out for its strong commitment to general education courses, or gen ed, the premise being that undergraduates should not necessarily jump directly into a major but instead have the room to learn and explore a variety of fields before choosing a particular path.
With that principled purpose comes a practical teaching challenge: Most students enroll in a gen ed course to fulfill a curricular requirement, not because they actively chose to take that class.
So how do teachers make the best possible case for a required course? And how do they make it a good experience for the students who may never return to the subject when the semester ends?
A professor at Boston College and regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine, Carlo Rotella has written a book that follows 33 students through his own general education course and explores answers to questions like these.
Key Topics Discussed:
A description of the required literature course Carlo teaches at Boston College and why he chose to write about it
How he uses the first day of class to attempt to overcome students’ skepticism
Leading with the utility of the course, even when you as the instructor believe in the subject’s inherent beauty
The distinct value to students of coming together to participate in a classroom with peers and an instructor and why that value only continues to grow as technology advances
Strategies for getting students to participate, including working with those who aren’t as comfortable speaking during class
Carlo’s approach to managing the flow of discussions, why he doesn’t fear silence, and thinking of what goes on in the classroom as “the main event”
Guest Bio: Carlo Rotella is a professor of English, journalism, and American studies at Boston College. He writes regularly for The New York Times Magazine, and his work has appeared in a number of other outlets, including The New Yorker, Harper’s, and The Best American Essays. He has written books about cities, boxing, blues, and literature and film, among other subjects; his latest, What Can I Get Out of This? Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics, was named a Forbes Best Higher Education Book of 2025.
Resources Mentioned:
Carlo’s New Book: What Can I Get Out of This? Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics (University of California Press)
Episode Transcript
Designed for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.

Imagine you have a student who starts the semester strong but unexpectedly misses a deadline, and then you don’t see them in class for a few sessions. You reach out and are surprised to learn it isn’t because they lost interest in the course; it’s because they were so ashamed of missing that due date that it prevented them from coming back.
Maybe you don’t have to imagine. If you’ve been teaching awhile, chances are you’ve had this exact experience, one that might be related to a student having ADHD.
So what do learners with ADHD need from us as teachers? In her new book An Educator’s Guide to ADHD: Designing and Teaching for Student Success, Karen Costa shares strategies aimed at not only supporting these students but also taking advantage of the valuable strengths and perspectives they can bring to the classroom.
Key Topics Discussed:
Thinking of the ADHD neurotype as a house with all its doors and windows thrown open
What we need to unlearn about ADHD, starting with the implications of the name attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Tapping into the creativity and outspokenness often exhibited by students with ADHD to improve the overall classroom environment
Strategies for helping students with ADHD that will benefit everyone in the class
Karen’s own experiences as someone with ADHD—both as a student and a professional—and why that drives her to talk about them openly, even when it’s uncomfortable
Navigating potential sticking points between students who might thrive with more flexibility and faculty who are responsible for structuring a course
How helping learners with ADHD can start with something as simple as making a checklist
Guest Bio: Karen Costa is a faculty development facilitator, adjunct faculty member, and the author of 99 Tips for Creating Simple and Sustainable Educational Videos: A Guide for Online Teachers and Flipped Classes. Her latest book, An Educator’s Guide to ADHD: Designing and Teaching for Student Success, was published in January 2026 by Johns Hopkins University Press.
Resources Mentioned:
Karen’s New Book: An Educator’s Guide to ADHD: Designing and Teaching for Student Success (Johns Hopkins University Press)
Karen’s Website: 100faculty.com
Episode Transcript
Designed for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.

For decades now, the call to college teachers has been to rely less on lecture and to draw more on active learning techniques such as discussions, small group brainstorming, and think-pair-shares.
Strategies like these fit well within smaller courses. But in an auditorium with a couple of hundred students, how do we encourage participation and community?
To meet this challenge, Notre Dame’s Rachel Branco has turned to an assessment approach known as the two-stage exam. It’s worked so well that she has now written a how-to guide to help other instructors incorporate this active learning experience into classes of any size.
Key Topics Discussed:
How Rachel initially encountered the concept of two-stage exams, in which students answer the same set of questions first as individuals and then in groups
Her experience incorporating two-stage exams into her smaller courses and why that inspired her not only to adapt the setup for her larger classes but also to write a guide for other instructors interested in doing so
Well-established advantages of using two-stage exams as well as Rachel’s own observations of the benefits based on surveys of her students
The logistics of deploying two-stage exams in a class with hundreds of students, including the importance of seating plans, the creation of the exam documents themselves, and group construction
Why Rachel has each student turn in their own answer sheet for the group part of the exam and the kinds of questions that work best in light of the group dynamic
Why it’s critical to communicate the rationale behind this style of assessment to students
Guest Bio: Rachel Branco is a neuroscientist and an associate teaching professor at the University of Notre Dame, where she teaches courses through both the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the Neuroscience and Behavior Program. She is passionate about researching and implementing practical classroom strategies that improve how students learn about and experience science.
Resources Mentioned:
Rachel’s Implementation Guide for Two-Stage Exams
Mail Merge Tool for Notre Dame Instructors: Yet Another Mail Merge (YAMM)
Grading Assistance Software for Notre Dame Instructors: Gradescope
Episode Transcript
Designed for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.

Among the most fundamental promises education makes is this: What you learn here, on campus, will help you when you’re out there, in the world. Learning researchers call this far transfer, describing the process by which students take a skill and apply it in another class, in an internship, or even in their careers after college.
But what does it look like when that far transfer is part of the class itself? In community-based learning, professors embed their courses in real-world contexts, creating partnerships with organizations who have real needs connected to the course material.
Notre Dame’s Wendy Angst has long embraced this approach to teach design thinking and business consulting, and she has now amplified it to a whole new level with the help of virtual reality (VR) technology. The result has been to give her students an unforgettable experience that makes an impact far beyond their classroom.
Key Topics Discussed:
How coming from an industry background motivated Wendy to incorporate hands-on consulting work into her teaching
The evolution of her Innovation & Design Thinking course to build a robust partnership with Saint Bakhita Vocational Training Center in Northern Uganda, starting with an eventful trip there in March 2020
Working with ND Learning’s Office of Digital Learning to use VR to bring the experience of being on the ground in Uganda to more Notre Dame students
The businesses in Uganda that have grown out of student-partner projects in the course
How VR builds empathy and understanding among the large number of students who do not actually go to Uganda—but also among those who do
Lessons Wendy has taken away from years of leading community-based learning and advice she’d give instructors looking to get started with it
Guest Bio: Wendy Angst is the Michael & Melanie Neumann Director of the Powerful Means Initiative and a teaching professor in the Department of Management & Organization at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. She also serves as the director of undergraduate studies for the impact consulting minor and has been instrumental in shaping experiential learning opportunities that empower students to drive meaningful social impact and grow the good in business.
Resources Mentioned:
More About the VR Immersion in Wendy’s Class
Office of Digital Learning’s Digital Learning Sprints Program
Project Partner Website: Saint Bakhita Vocational Training Center
Episode Transcript
Designed for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.

With the advent of AI, many are questioning the traditional model of having students do much of the heavy lifting of a course on their own. If outside of class students can prompt AI to do homework, write essays, and create presentation slides, should instructors be using time inside the classroom differently than in the past?
An applied ethicist, Lily Abadal has been a vocal proponent of a philosophy that has always existed on the edges of higher ed but that has taken on new prominence in this current moment: If we care about it, students should be doing it in class.
Lily and host Jim Lang explore this idea and how she applies it to continue to push her students to become better writers and, in the process, stronger thinkers.
Key Topics Discussed:
How virtue ethics informs Lily’s argument that instructors should bring writing assignments into the classroom—and make students take their time with them
The way she has reimagined the traditional term paper as an in-class assignment
What this restructuring has meant for both the material she covers and what she does during a class period
The role of the instructor as coach in pushing students to expend the effort to master the fundamentals
Lily’s still-evolving approach to grading these assignments and getting students to focus on the process rather than checking boxes
How student attitudes toward the paper assignment change over the course of the semester
Guest Bio: Lily Abadal is an assistant professor of instruction at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Her research focuses on virtue ethics and moral formation, particularly in relation to emerging technologies. She is interested in helping mission-centered schools design pedagogical strategies, develop integrity-centered policies, reimagine assessments, and encourage genuine character formation in the age of AI.
Resources Mentioned:
Inside Higher Ed Piece: “A Way to Save the Essay”
Journal Article: “Ensuring Genuine Assessment in Philosophy Education” (Teaching Philosophy)
Lily’s Website: drlilyabadal.com 
Lily’s LinkedIn
Episode Transcript
Designed for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn.