Notre Dame Learning

Want to make the most of your summer? Registration for Notre Dame Summer Online is open now! Courses are credit-bearing and meet once or twice a week in live online sessions, typically held in the evenings. Anyone with a high school degree can enroll. This year’s lineup features classes on everything from foundations of marketing, calculus, and the programming languages R and Python to photography, robot ethics, Shakespeare and film, and a variety of language offerings in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. With small class sizes that ensure students benefit from peer-to-peer interaction and close faculty attention, Summer Online courses offer the same rigor and excellence that define Notre Dame on-campus courses. And if you’re a Notre Dame faculty or staff member, your employee educational benefits can be used to help pay for courses for you (or for your children). Watch the video featuring University of Notre Dame - College of Arts & Letters student Vicki Gillespie here, and then check out courses at https://lnkd.in/gydRX3rb

If you teach writing, there’s a good chance you’ve spent time thinking about how the widespread availability of generative AI impacts the assignments you give your students. Kyler Schubkegel, a graduate associate at Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence pursuing a Ph.D. in English at the University, is no different. In a piece for the Notre Dame Learning website, he summarizes two pedagogical concerns, one related to the relationship between prediction and writing, and the other having to do with the “outsourcing” of thinking. “But if I want to believe in the transformative potential of the humanities classroom, it is precisely because of my role as a humanities instructor that I feel obligated to foster critical AI literacies in my students,” Kyler writes. “Where better for them to develop a human-centered and reasoned attitude toward these technologies?” He goes on to share several activities and assignments instructors can use to foster reflection on the relationship between labors performed by AI and by students themselves. You can read Kyler’s full piece at: https://lnkd.in/gjavsEK3

Episode 3 of our Designed for Learning podcast is out today! In it, host Jim Lang talks with Georgetown’s Margaret Debelius about the new book of essays she’s co-edited with Joshua Kim and Eddie Maloney. Instructors everywhere responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with new ideas and strategies for teaching students. The book, titled Recentering Learning: Complexity, Resilience, and Adaptability in Higher Education, highlights this work with the intention of helping colleges and universities become more resilient centers of learning. Published in December by Hopkins Press, the book features roughly 50 contributors, including Randall Bass, Jenae Cohn, PhD, Derek Bruff, Dr. Patrice Torcivia Prusko, Matthew Rascoff, Monique L. Snowden, Ph.D., PMP, and Elliott Visconsi. In the clip here, Maggie talks about why it was so important to her and her co-editors that the book’s essays represent a variety of perspectives drawn from across campuses. You can listen to the full episode in a variety of ways, including on: — Apple: https://lnkd.in/gUTjSmFp — Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gR8iU7Yb — YouTube: https://lnkd.in/g7ET3FRX — Our Website: https://lnkd.in/gtfWFu63 The episode player on our website also has links to find the show on a number of other podcast apps.

We’re excited to announce the launch of Sacred Texts in Dialogue: Exploring the Bible and the Qur'an, a new online course with Notre Dame’s Gabriel Said Reynolds available through Coursera. Gabriel, the Jerome J. Crowley and Rosaleen G. Crowley Professor of Theology in the University of Notre Dame - College of Arts & Letters, created the course in partnership with our Office of Digital Learning. Check out the trailer here, and then go to https://lnkd.in/g7Kk6Eda to learn more about enrollment options, including the ability to audit the course for free.

Offering an unsurpassed undergraduate education is one of Notre Dame’s four University goals. The third annual Teach@ND Day, hosted by our Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence on February 21, celebrated the individuals who make that education possible: Notre Dame instructors. As part of the event, more than a dozen Notre Dame faculty representing a variety of disciplines shared three-minute lightning talks about their teaching. Among them was Maria Warren, an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, who discussed what dogs can teach us about the power of choice in the classroom. We asked Maria if she would give her talk a second time and record it so we could share it more widely. You can watch the video here or check it out on our website as part of the full recap of Teach@ND Day, which also included a keynote from Cate Denial, a leader in the field of student-centered pedagogy: https://lnkd.in/ghEZR9DR

Did you know the Notre Dame Learning website offers a whole collection of videos and articles to help instructors think about AI in the context of their teaching? You can check out these resources—which include a quick-start four-pack if you only have a few minutes—at https://learning.nd.edu/ai

2025 Teach@ND Day is underway! Ronald A. Metoyer, vice president and associate provost for teaching and learning at Notre Dame, got us started with welcome remarks, telling instructors "You're more important now than ever." We're now listening to three-minute lightning talks on teaching from Notre Dame instructors in advance of a keynote by Knox College's Cate Denial, author of A Pedagogy of Kindness. Look for a full recap of the event here and on our site in the near future.

Digital Learning Sprints are back! These short-term projects (one to three months) are an exciting way for University of Notre Dame faculty to collaborate with the innovative teams in our Office of Digital Learning and OIT’s Teaching & Learning Technologies. Inspired by Notre Dame’s strategic framework and the inaugural address of Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., as University president, the 2025 Digital Learning Sprints seek to advance teaching and learning initiatives that do one or more of the following: — Foster Inclusive and Engaged Learning — Integrate Emerging Technologies for Transformative Learning (AI or XR) — Enhance Global and Interdisciplinary Learning Opportunities Notre Dame faculty can learn more and apply at https://lnkd.in/gpvJ4wz7. Applications are due by March 31. We’ll also be hosting a virtual information session on Thursday, March 6. Notre Dame faculty can sign up here: https://lnkd.in/g8d_spvf

“A visitor is coming to your classroom to watch you teach, and you’re worried,” write Jim Lang and Kristi Rudenga of our Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence in The Chronicle of Higher Education. “Maybe your teaching is being evaluated for tenure or promotion. Or maybe you have been asked to teach a class as part of a job interview.” In this piece, Jim and Kristi share practical strategies to “broadcast your teaching excellence” in just such a scenario, with their advice based on four big-picture ideas: 1) Create clear entry and exit points. 2) Don’t leave your interactions with students to chance. 3) Organize your teaching materials. 4) Climate matters.

Applications for Notre Dame Learning's 2025 Digital Learning Sprints are now open! These short-term projects (one to three months) aim to help University of Notre Dame faculty explore innovative tools, strategies, and/or focused topics in teaching and learning. Inspired by Notre Dame 2033: A Strategic Framework and the inaugural address of Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., as Notre Dame’s president, we're seeking faculty proposals related to digital learning that would do one or more of the following: —Foster Inclusive and Engaged Learning —Integrate Emerging Technologies for Transformative Learning (AI or XR) —Enhance Global and Interdisciplinary Learning Opportunities All regular faculty members at the University of Notre Dame are eligible to apply. Learn more at?https://lnkd.in/giyRBnZg