February 2025

Demonstrate Your Dedication to Accessibility:
Earn the New UDOIT Superstar Badge

Are you committed to making your Canvas course more accessible for all students? The UDOIT Superstar digital badge recognizes your efforts in improving accessibility using UDOIT. By scanning your course, resolving accessibility issues, and reflecting on the process, you'll not only enhance the learning experience for your students but also earn a high-quality, verifiable digital badge that you can showcase.

This is a great opportunity to demonstrate your dedication to inclusive teaching while adding a valuable credential to your professional portfolio. Take the next step in creating a more equitable learning environment—earn your UDOIT Superstar badge today!

LILE teaching consultants are available to help faculty who wish to reflect on the successes of their teaching and identify specific areas for improvement in their courses. We have two different programs to collect anonymous feedback from students:

"The Small Group Instructional feedback program was both beneficial and impactful. I was teaching a new class, so it helped me confirm what was working well and enabled me to make some critical adjustments so my student could better achieve our learning outcomes.

“The biggest value was to have an outside person being the go-between where the students would feel that they could be more candid because they know their anonymity is ensured, and it’s someone else summarizing the raw, qualitative information for me.”

Provost Charges Faculty Committees With Strengthening Teaching Excellence and Innovation

Three committees charged by the Provost with improving teaching and supporting innovative academic structures wrapped up their first semester of work in December. 

The Adaptable Academic Structures Committee - of which Vice Provost Yakut Gazi is a member - spent the fall benchmarking external practices and research and prioritize interventions with the most relevance to Duke. 

As members of the Teaching and Mentoring Excellence Committee, LILE representatives Aria Chernik and Ying Xiong contributed time last fall developing a definition for effective teaching grounded in experience and debating recommendations for practical methods of assessing teaching effectiveness. 

All events are virtual and in Eastern time unless otherwise noted.

Transforming the Teaching and Learning Environment

Monday, February 3 - Friday, February 14

LILE has purchased an institutional registration for the 17th annual virtual conference “Transforming the Teaching and Learning Environment.” Hosted and organized by Northeastern State University, the conference features 60 live online sessions on a wide range of pedagogical topics including increasing student engagement, AI bots for learning, virtual reality, and playful pedagogy. See the conference website for the full schedule. Note that session times are in Central Standard Time. All sessions will be recorded for later viewing.

Members of the Duke community who wish to attend virtual conference sessions should contact lile@duke.edu to receive the conference login information.

Audio Feedback for Student Writing

Monday, February 10  |  4 - 5 pm

Offered in collaboration with Thompson Writing Program and the Language, Arts and Media Program (LAMP)

Advances in technology have made spoken, recorded feedback a viable option. Spoken feedback can be more pleasant and efficient to give than written feedback, and students tend to respond positively to the intimacy of the spoken voice and the greater nuance of spoken comments. Topics will include benefits and drawbacks of recorded oral feedback, types of oral feedback, and options for recording and disseminating recorded responses. Register Now >

Supporting 1st Generation and Lower-Income Students in the Classroom

Tuesday, February 18  |  12 - 1:15 pm  |  Bolton Family Tower Room

Part of the Bass Society Seminar on Teaching Excellence series

Featuring Sachelle Ford, Director of Duke LIFE and David M. Rubenstein Fellows

The Bass Society Seminar on Teaching Excellence highlights successful teaching strategies through expert-led, interactive sessions. Bass Society of Fellows are Duke faculty who have each been recognized for excellence in teaching undergraduates and have a distinguished record of scholarship. A Bass Fellow leads each seminar session, outlining an aspect of their successful teaching strategies. Space is limited, and registration is required. Junior faculty are encouraged to attend. Lunch is provided for registrants. Register Now >

Open Playful Pedagogy Workshops

Thursday, February 27  |  3 - 5 pm  |  East Duke 204B OR
Wednesday, March 5  |  3 - 5 pm  |  Carpenter Conference Room 249

Sponsored by the Language, Arts and Media Program (LAMP)

Open workshops adapt and apply purposeful play activities that include improv, creative writing, oral storytelling, movement, and other arts-based activities to a variety of pedagogical challenges and opportunities. Participants do not need any arts background or talent, just curiosity and an open mind. To register or ask questions, e-mail Nan Mullenneaux.

Bridging Research, Teaching, and Program Building across Divided Legacies at Duke University

Part of the Spring 2025 Pedagogies of Care series

Thursday, March 20  |  12 - 1 pm

This workshop led by Dr. Nayoung Aimee Kwon will explore the possibilities and challenges in bridging research, teaching, and program building across disciplinary and historic divisions. Sharing program building and pedagogical experiences from the UNIV 101 course on Race as well as the Asian American & Diaspora Studies (AADS) Program at Duke, we will explore lessons learned on how to build connections across divisions of labor and contested histories toward creating more sustainable, caring, and sharing communities of scholars and teachers beyond historic and institutional divides. Register Now >

The Duke Office of Climate and Sustainability provides the Duke community with an institutional membership in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), which provides myriad helpful educational offerings and resources to support learning and teaching about climate and sustainability in any discipline. See AASHE's resource hub (create an account with your Duke email to login and access resources and events) and events calendar for more.

Our Top Blog Posts Still Shaping Learning Today

The LILE blog has been in operation since 2009, when it was started by a group known as the Center for Instructional Technology. Today, some of our posts published 10 or more years ago are still frequently visited. Join us in revisiting some of those posts to reflect on their relevance to the work we do today.

The journal CBE—Life Sciences Education (LSE) recently published an article co-authored by LILE STEM Teaching Consultant Jess Dewey entitled "Using a STEM Course on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility to Explore Student Reflections on their Socialization into STEM and their Observations of the Figured World of Higher Education STEM Contexts."

Every month we share the latest adventures of Lile the crocodile, LILE's unofficial mascot.

In January, Lile attended a hands-on workshop led by Carter Zenke ('20) to learn how to adapt the latest generative AI tools to a learning setting.

If you missed this online workshop specifically tailored to those wanting to begin teaching with AI, you can access the recording and workshop materials at ai.duke.edu/ai-resources/teach-with-ai/ (scroll to "Crafting Generative AI Tools for Your Classroom")

No prior experience with generative AI required.