Spring 2026 The Teaching Inquirer Issue 1 | | Because every student deserves good teaching | | Welcome to our Spring 2026 Semester! | | by Alison Barton, CTE Director | | |
Even before our semester began, we were thrilled to have record attendance at our Micro-CHIIPs event on January 7, and a smaller number of us enjoyed community support while developing our classes at our January Teaching Retreat (January 8) here in Sherrod Library.
As we get the start of our classes under our belts, I am pleased to share all that we have to support your great teaching here at the Center for Teaching Excellence.
We continue to focus on pedagogical wellness – the idea that when instructors’ and students’ wellbeing are in good shape, better learning can happen. While some aspects of student wellbeing will be beyond our control, there’s plenty we can do with our instruction and course design to support it. You can learn more about such ideas in our Student Wellness Series, which continues this semester. And we also have support for your own instructional wellbeing in our continuing Instructor Wellness Series, and share your inner experiences about teaching challenges with others in our upcoming Teaching Rounds. Finally, join our latest 10-day challenge – our Class Community Wellness Challenge, currently open and continuing until the Friday before Spring Break.
We offer plenty more beyond our wellness workshops here at the CTE – see our January 20 email for a full lineup of all we have to offer (and all the registration links). We look forward to building connections with you over teaching this semester.
Happy Teaching!
-Alison
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Student Wellness Series
Joyful and Playful Learning
Friday, February 6, 1-2PM
Zoom | Register
Flexibility in Teaching
Friday, March 6, 1-2PM
Zoom | Register
Learning Strategies that Build Community
Friday, April 24, 2-3:30PM
Zoom | Register
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Instructor Wellness Series
Slaying Our Teaching Fears
Friday, February 13, 1-3PM
433 Sherrod Library | Register
Slow & Strategically Restful Teaching
Friday, April 17, 1:30-3:30PM
433 Sherrod Library | Register
| | Community-Engaged Learning | | by Scott Jenkinson, CTE Faculty Fellow for Community-Engaged Learning |
 | | ETSU has earned the Carnegie Foundations Community Engagement Classification! This achievement recognizes the long-standing work of our faculty, staff, community partners, and students to engage in a wide range of community-engaged commitments. While the Carnegie’s classification looks broadly at all community engaged work across campus, we continue to see growth in our academic programs use of a Community-Engaged Learning (CEL) as a high impact teaching practice. This Spring semester, we have CEL designated courses reaching over 1200 students from 6 colleges, in both undergraduate and graduate programs. This wide breadth of CEL activity connects students with more than 45 community partners in our region and beyond. Each of these unique opportunities to connect course content to the needs of our partners represents a specific moment in which our students and facilitators can reflect on the importance of their work in relationship to the diversity of human experience. The newly designated Center for Community Engagement is the hub for getting connected to this meaningful work.
| | Compiled by Phil Smith, CTE Assistant Director | | |
At our CHIIPs conference last Fall, we asked faculty to share a guiding intention for their teaching this year. We then shared some of these intentions with students who read them aloud and offered their reflections. The results were so heartening we wanted to share them out in a little video series here.
I asked AI to generate a summary of the main themes and what emerged was a snapshot into how deeply students value what their instructors bring to the classroom. Below are a few of these themes with videos of student reactions, along with supporting resources and research for more on these themes. Click the pics to watch the brief videos!
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Students appreciated it when instructors framed themselves as learners alongside their students, emphasizing growth, curiosity, and openness to new ideas. One reflection captured this well: “It makes me feel good to know that teachers are learning off of us as well.”
Always staying open to learning something new yourself is one of the best remedies for the expert blind spot: Instructor Prior Knowledge: Expert Blindspot, Research Roundup: Curiosity & Engagement
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Themes of authenticity and connection appeared throughout. Students spoke to the importance of genuine interactions, transparency, and meaningful relationships. “I just love when teachers are transparent with me and honest. That way I can be better for them and do better,” one noted.
Some follow-up resources for connecting with students and being transparent: Reflection on Your Role as an Educator, TILT Higher Ed
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Watch for more themes, videos, and accompanying resources in our upcoming newsletters!
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Open it Up!
by Phil Smith
Sharon Lauricella had a fun activity during her keynote at micro-CHIIPs earlier this month. She polled us about what we most like and dislike about teaching. Responses varied but common ones for what we like had to do with genuine interaction with students, such as the light-bulb moment. For what we dislike grading was the big one. Then she pointed out how students say the same thing about learning and being in class -- we all like the same things, and dread the same things (more or less)! So what might it look like to re-imagine common activities and assignments to highlight this shared interest? A framework based on open pedagogy offers ways to think about it: Engage students with something fun that results in a project that meets the learning outcomes that they will enjoy working on and you will enjoy grading. See how Scott Jenkinson created a timeline project with his class. Some keywords to search for more examples and ideas include: open pedagogy, open assignments, renewable assignments, non-disposable assignments.
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| Keeping up with AI in the Classroom | | by Phil Smith, CTE Assistant Director | | |
A conversation we are having more and more often at the CTE is with instructors who are noticing potential AI use and misuse in student work and wondering how best to respond. Unfortunately, by the time these questions arise, it can feel like the moment for prevention has already passed. Many of the most effective strategies work best when they are built in early: Planning for AI use in advance, including a clear syllabus statement, talking with students about AI expectations up front, and providing transparent guidance on assignments.
Remember it is never too late to start these conversations. You can still add or revise a syllabus policy, clarify expectations on upcoming assignments, and talk openly with students about appropriate and ethical AI use. You can also help set the tone by modeling transparency yourself and acknowledging how you do or do not use AI in your own work.
AI continues to rapidly reshape teaching and learning in higher education. Some familiar approaches to assignments and projects are becoming harder to sustain, which invites us to step back and rethink course and assignment design. The encouraging perspective is that we already have strong evidence about what supports meaningful learning: Supportive relationships, clear expectations, timely and generous feedback, and opportunities for active engagement. These teaching essentials may look different depending on discipline, class size, or modality, but they apply across contexts. They are not always quick and easy to implement, but they may be among our most effective responses to the challenges AI presents.
Last semester, we explored these ideas in several venues. We hosted a half-day event at the Carnegie featuring a panel discussion and table-based conversations where instructors shared practical strategies. We continue to support the AI Demystify Faculty Learning Community and are piloting the use of an educational AI platform, SchoolAI, with instructors across multiple disciplines experimenting in thoughtful and creative ways. This semester, watch for our “Flash AI” sessions, where faculty will briefly showcase how they are using AI in their teaching. We are also excited to announce the launch of a new online workshop on Generative AI Literacy for Educators. A very special shout-out to CTE Affiliate Dr. Brianna (Cusanno) August-Rae who designed and facilitates the workshop. Thank you, Bria!
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AI Demystify Faculty Learning Community
Thursday, January 29
2-3PM, 441 Sherrod Library or Zoom
Thursday, February 19
2-3PM, 441 Sherrod Library or Zoom
Thursday, March 26
2-3PM, 441 Sherrod Library or Zoom
Register for all here
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Flash AI: School AI Explorers
With AI Mentor Jennifer Hunt
Wednesday, January 28, 12:30-1PM
Zoom | Register
With AI Mentor Rebecca McCasland
Tuesday, February 17, 12:30-1PM
Zoom | Register
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We are pleased to announce two new SoTL groups undertaking cross-disciplinary research projects this year! SoTL, or the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, is research focused on effective teaching practices in higher education.
Two dedicated groups of faculty met for intensive sessions before and after our winter break, and are well on their way to developing a research project to test in their Fall 2026 classes:
SoTL Scholars, 2025:
- Stephen Rice, Biomedical Health Sciences (chair)
- Mark Hernandez, Medical Education
- Kimberly Jessee, Rehabilitation
- Heather Killmeyer, Music
- Michelle Sullivan, Marketing
SoTL Affinity Group*, 2025:
- Christina Djioba, Nursing
- Michelle Hurley, Counseling & Human Services
- Trisha Mims, Nursing
- Fenfen Wang, Engineering
*This group is unfunded but supported with materials, resources, and trainings from the CTE.
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Susan Epps, CTE Faculty Associate
I heard about Alex Edman’s book, May contain lies: How stories, statistics, and studies exploit our biases-and what we can do about it, when he was a guest on the Teaching and Learning in Higher Education podcast. I am teaching a research class for my master’s students in which we focus on being a good consumer of research, so Edman’s book is a great resource. He notes in the intro that “[w]hile this book aims to be practical, it also seeks to be realistic.” He notes that it’s not possible to overcome all of our biases in every situation or to “correctly evaluate every piece of information,” but argues that we can’t become perfect, but we CAN do better and each chapter helps us do that. In the Appendix, he includes a Checklist for Smarter Thinking with questions to ask as we evaluate statements, data, and facts.
| | | Find all kinds of teaching books for check-out in our CTE Teaching Collection - Room 441 Sherrod Library! | | | | |
