News of the Week – September 4, 2026
This week’s issue is curated by Zachary Adams. Zach is the Assistant Director, Center for Teaching and Learning and Instruction Specialist at Hope College.
Teaching and Learning
Rethinking Course Design to Enliven Student Engagement (Nasreen Sultana, Times Higher Education Campus, August 20, 2026): Sultana offers four practical strategies for making in-person class time more interactive, relevant, and clearly connected to assessment.
Are Office Hours Pointless? (Tim Franz and Lauren Vicker, Inside Higher Ed, August 26, 2026): Franz and Vicker argue that office hours still matter, but faculty may need to rethink how, when, and why they invite students to use them.
A Four-Step Writing Protocol to Teach Students How to Practise Attention (Leonard Nalencz, Times Higher Education Campus, August 27, 2026): Nalencz shares a simple classroom protocol that combines rereading, writing, reflection, and conversation to help students practice sustained attention and close reading.
Today’s Students
What New Research Reveals About Student Success (Joshua Bay, Inside Higher Ed, August 18, 2026): Recent research on mental health, financial vulnerability, campus resources, neurodiversity, and career preparation challenges assumptions about what students need to persist and succeed.
Tech-ish
Student’s Perception of UX Design on an LMS Course: Designing Online Courses Students Can Actually Navigate (Mark Savignano and Scott Page, Faculty Focus, August 10, 2026): A useful reminder that LMS design is part of course design: clear navigation, consistent organization, and accessible layouts can reduce frustration and help students focus on learning.
Top Tools for Learning 2026, with Dave Stachowiak (Bonni Stachowiak and Dave Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, August 27, 2026): Bonni Stachowiak shares her current top tools for learning and the “seek-sense-share” practice behind them, offering faculty a useful way to think about how digital tools support their own learning and teaching.
Tidbits
A Classroom in Concert: How to Design a Truly Rockin’ Learning Experience (Teresa Thompson, Faculty Focus, August 21, 2026): Thompson draws parallels between a well-designed concert and a well-designed class, highlighting how intentional openings, sequencing, storytelling, and use of space can create a more engaging learning experience.
What Students Know About College That Critics Don’t (opinion) (Richard Detweiler, Inside Higher Ed, September 2, 2026): Detweiler, former president of the GLCA and author of The Evidence Liberal Arts Needs: Lives of Consequence, Inquiry, and Accomplishment (MIT Press, 2021) argues that we must continue to create relational, intellectually stretching, community-embedded experiences to produce not just capable workers, but citizens, leaders and contributors to the larger human project.
GLCA is hiring!
The GLCA is hiring a Senior Program Director to help lead collaborative academic and administrative initiatives across our thirteen liberal arts colleges. This hybrid role is an opportunity for an experienced faculty or faculty-adjacent administrator to convene faculty and academic leaders, strengthen professional development and leadership programs, and help institutions respond creatively to a changing higher education landscape. Review of applications begins October 30, 2026. More information about the position and the application process can be found here.
Editor: Colleen Monahan Smith, GLCA, [email protected]