Call for Proposals is Open.
Submit a session proposal online by Mon., April 13
Registration will open Fri., April 17
The end of the academic year offers a fitting venue to reflect on our teaching practices. The TLS program provides a stimulating campus-wide forum to share instructional practices that support our students’ learning, exchange ideas with colleagues, and learn from and with each other. Contribute your teaching expertise by offering an interactive session or facilitating a panel discussion.
Audience: Colleagues from all subject areas who value discussion, exchange of ideas and practices, and application to their respective course(s). Please consider including the students’ perspective by inviting one or two of your students to contribute their perspectives.
Your colleagues are interested in learning about innovative evidence-based practices grounded in the following questions: What did you learn? What worked well? What did not work so well? What would they do differently? Why, how? While an approach may no longer be novel for you, it may be new and helpful to a colleague!
Completing online proposal form: We suggest you review the online submission form first to get an overview of what’s asked for, create the proposal in a word docx, and then cut and paste the information from the docx. Please contact the VITAL team with your ideas and/or questions: phone#: ext. 9-5627 and e-mail
We look forward to receiving your proposals.
Keynote Speaker on Relationship-Rich Education
Peter Felten is professor of history, executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning, and assistant provost for teaching and learning at Elon University. He has published nine books about higher education, including Connections are Everything: A College Student’s Guide to Relationship-Rich Education (2023) and The SoTL Guide: (Re)Orienting the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2025). Both of those co-authored books have an open-access online version free to all readers. He is on the advisory board of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and is a fellow of the Gardner Institute
Keynote - Connections are everything: How trusting relationships drive student success
Research consistently shows that students’ relationships with faculty, staff, and peers are crucial to academic success and personal well-being in higher education. With the rise of generative AI, human connections matter even more for learning, motivation, well-being, and meaning-making. Drawing on almost 500 interviews with students, faculty, and staff at colleges and universities across the country, this interactive session examines how fostering relationships – especially educationally purposeful peer relationships – offers a practical, scalable, and humane path to ensuring that all students experience welcome and care, become inspired to learn, and explore the big questions that matter for their lives and our communities.
This session is offered in-person only.
Workshop Session: Relational feedback as a tool for learning, connection, and well-being
In this workshop we will look at how feedback on student work can support learning, connection, and well-being -- even in large classes, and even in a time of generative AI. We will consider both the feedback we give students and also opportunities for structured student peer feedback. You will leave the workshop with practical ideas for how you can use relational feedback to promote learning, connection, and well-being – without devoting all of your time to grading.
This session is offered in-person only.
9:30–10:00 a.m. Registration, Continental Breakfast
10:00–11:15 a.m. Welcome and Keynote with Dr. Peter Felten
11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Workshop Session with Dr. Peter Felten
11:30 a.m.-12:20 p.m. Concurrent Sessions 1
12:30–1:20 p.m. Concurrent Sessions 2
1:00/1:20–2:10 p.m. Lunch
2:20–3:10 p.m. Concurrent Sessions 3
3:10-4:00 p.m. Jazzy Reception with Kevin Hanson, renowned guitarist, composer, producer, faculty at Temple University and Philadelphian
I found the entire day uplifting. The enthusiasm among the faculty was contagious and renewed my interest in being the best teacher possible.
Sessions raised my awareness of gender issues and micro aggressions and it made me more conscious of the need to create an inclusive learning environment.
I appreciate the opportunity to discuss what I’ve learned with enthusiastic, motivated, intellectually curious, and caring colleagues.
I learned more ways to engage students, have them “do more of the work,” and what it means to be a teacher at Villanova. I feel very motivated and encouraged in my role as a teacher.
The keynote introduced some interesting perspectives about what motivates students to do the work of learning. I plan to communicate more clearly to my students the importance of the material in my classes.
Different approaches to building community in class as well as mechanisms for online sharing of course material.
I will try to use Kahoot as a classroom polling technology. I got a lot of good ideas regarding active learning strategies for helping students to feel more comfortable and engaged.
I learned some more details about flipped classes pertaining to technical content with details on getting students to watch the videos ahead of class, grading, and best enhancing the video without repeating it.
A colleague gave me an idea for a midterm survey related to participation that I plan to use - have the students evaluate their participation, and explain reasons for their level of participation.
It's great to gather as an interdisciplinary group all focused on teaching at Villanova. The insights shared in networking and the content from the sessions were excellent.
