Teaching and Learning Strategies
VITAL's annual Teaching and Learning Strategies (TLS) conference is held by Villanova faculty for Villanova faculty to share instructional practices that advance students’ learning and to network with colleagues.
2026 Program
May 13, 9:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. | Bartley Hall
Registration is Open - RSVP by Wed., May 6
Agenda at-a-glance | Detailed Agenda
Questions
Co-sponsor: UTS-Learning Technologies
The TLS program affords us the opportunity to come together as a teacher-scholar community to deepen, diversify and innovate our instructional practices. The program offers an engaging, collegial campus-wide forum to share teaching approaches that support students’ learning and exchange ideas and practices. The program was attended by over 140 faculty members. The keynote speaker, Dr. Peter Felton, Elon University, examined how fostering relationships drives student success, especially within the rise of AI. Thirty faculty colleagues across disciplines facilitated concurrent sessions.
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.
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.
In this workshop, we will look at how feedback on student work can support learning, connection, and well-being—even in large classes and 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. Reception in Appreciation of a Year of Teaching and Learning Together with Kevin Hanson, renowned guitarist, composer, producer, faculty at Temple University and Philadelphian