TEACHxperts Archive

Fall 2025

Alternative Assessment in Practice: Seven Voices of Experience

October 9, 2025

Join us for a session featuring seven WCAS and McCormick faculty who have implemented alternative assessment methods across a wide range of courses—from lab-based STEM classes and writing seminars to computer programming and hands-on design. Presenters will share their approaches, the principles guiding their work, and the outcomes they have achieved through practices such as specifications grading, feedback-driven assessment, engagement-based grading, and reflection and self-assessment.

The session will also introduce a new mentoring initiative, launching in Winter Quarter 2026, designed to support a faculty community of practice in advancing innovative assessment and pedagogy. Participants will leave with a digital packet of resources to help them explore and adapt alternative assessment strategies in their own courses.

Presenters

Veronica Berns (WCAS Chemistry)
Ordel Brown (McCormick Office of Undergraduate Engineering)
Lisa Del Torto (WCAS Writing)
Meaghan Fritz (WCAS Writing)
Katie Gesmundo (WCAS Chemistry)
Chris Riesbeck (McCormick Computer Science)
Kiki Zissimopoulos (McCormick Office of Undergraduate Engineering)

Conversation with Canvas Hall of Fame Winners

September 4, 2025

Join the 2025 Canvas Hall of Fame winners to discuss their insights for building effective Canvas courses. From big picture course goals to the details of building content in Canvas, this conversation will center practical and student-focused strategies for building award-worthy courses.

Presenters:

Yiji Zhang, Assistant Professor of Instruction, Computer Science, McCormick School of Engineering
Mindy Thorpe, Assistant Professor, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Feinberg School of Medicine
Danielle Gilbert, Assistant Professor, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, Faculty Associate, Institute for Policy Research

Spring 2025

AI in Teaching: Success Stories from Northwestern Faculty

AI is rapidly reshaping higher education, offering new opportunities for teaching and learning. But what does AI integration look like in practice?

Join this session to hear firsthand success stories from Northwestern instructors on leveraging AI for learning. Gain practical insights, explore challenges, and walk away with strategies to integrate AI into your own courses.

This session will be held remotely via Zoom.

Presenters:

Leigh Cohen, Assistant Clinical Professor, School of Communication
Franziska Lys, Professor of German and Director, MENA languages program, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Mindy Thorpe, Assistant Professor, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Feinberg School of Medicine

Winter 2025

Jacqueline Babb

Senior Lecturer and Director of IMC Full-Time Program, Medill School of Journalism

Integrating Metacognition into Your Teaching Practice

Tuesday, January 28

In this interactive workshop, we will explore the concept of metacognition and its positive effects on student learning. Participants will uncover the power of "thinking about thinking" and why it is crucial for fostering critical thinking, problem-solving, and self-directed learning. You will learn how to embed metacognitive practices into your courses through practical strategies, helping students develop skills to monitor and improve their learning. You will leave this session with actionable tools to enhance your teaching and empower your students to become more effective learners in your class and beyond.

Spring 2024

Dr. Rebecca Pope-Ruark

Director of the Office of Faculty Professional Development, Georgia Institute of Technology

Burnout Resilience through Connection

Wednesday, April 3

The last four years have been challenging, to say the very least. Many faculty and academic staff were on the edge of burnout before 2020, and the events since then have tested our coping skills as individuals and as a higher education community. Understanding and creating conditions that prevent burnout are important steps to creating resilience. In this workshop, we will explore what burnout is, how to recognize it, and how to approach your work through the lens of connection as a path to burnout resilience.

Winter 2024

Daniel Stanford

Faculty Development and Instructional Technology Consultant

Questioning AI Assumptions in Teaching and Learning

March 5, 2024

In this presentation, we’ll review "evergreen" strategies for fostering AI literacy—strategies that encourage transparency and experimentation without abandoning critical thinking. We’ll contrast common assumptions about student use of AI with findings from recent studies and use cases.

Past Canvas Hall of Fame Winners

Canvas Hall of Fame Winners Showcase

February 9, 2024

Featuring:

Annie Wilkinson, SPAN Postdoctoral Fellow, 2022-24
2023 Excellence in DEI/Accessibility Winner
Aude Raymond & Patricia Scarampi, Professors of Instruction in French
2023 Most Innovative Course Site Winners
Emily Kadens, Edna B. and Ednyfed H. Williams Memorial Professor of Law Vice Dean
2023 Best Use of Lecture Videos/Recordings Winners
Ilya Mikhelson, Associate Professor of Instruction
2022 Best Use of Lecture Videos/Recordings Winner
Katie Gesmundo, Assistant Professor of Instruction, Co-Director of General Chemistry Laboratory
2022 Most Innovative Course Site Winners

Fall 2023

Dawn Diperi

Education Specialist - Learning Passport Digital Content Lead at UNICEF Learning Passport

Make Learning Stick with Visually Appealing Course Materials

November 16, 2023

Presented by Dawn Diperi, Education Specialist - Learning Passport Digital Content Lead at UNICEF Learning Passport, this session will cover principles of visual design that support learning. Dawn is the author of “Graphic Design for Course Creators, Digitally accessible, Visually Appealing Courses” published by Press Books with a CC-BY Creative Commons license.

Spring 2023

Ruthann C. Thomas

Associate Director of Teaching and Learning at MIT's Teaching & Learning Lab

Learning Strategies to Support Equitable Student Engagement

April 5, 2023

In this interactive presentation we will learn and apply principles from the science of learning to design structured and inclusive learning activities that engage students through the practices of retrieval and self-explanation. We’ll discuss technological tools and teaching strategies that require minimal preparation and grading time to encourage more equitable engagement from all students.

Winter 2023

Veronica Berns

Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Chemistry Department

Adapting Ungrading Principles to STEM Lab Courses

February 2, 2023

Ungrading – an assessment philosophy which deemphasizes grading by “points” – offers many benefits to students, including transparency, flexibility, and forgiveness in assessments. Most often, Ungrading approaches are seen in small seminar or writing-centric courses due to the high time cost in providing written feedback to students. In this interactive presentation, we will discuss how Ungrading ideas inspired a change in the assessment structure of general chemistry lab courses at Northwestern. You’ll hear how Veronica and co-lab director Katie Gesmundo adapted a Specifications Grading model to fit courses of 100-450 students that heavily rely on teaching assistants. You will also have an opportunity to identify core ideas of Ungrading compatible with your own course formats, and discuss actionable ways to incorporate them into your grading scheme.
The work at the heart of this discussion was funded by a Weinberg College Summer Teaching Grant, co-authored with Assistant Professor of Instruction Katie Gesmundo, titled “Reconsidering methods of grading for lab reports in General Chemistry.”

Fall 2022

Megan Kohler

Learning Designer with the John A. Dutton e-Education Institute at Penn State

Strategies for Creating Neuroinclusive Learning Environments

October 26, 2022

It is estimated that up to 30% of the learners in your classroom have some form of neurodivergence such as autism, ADHD, or Tourette’s syndrome. They are gifted with a unique way of viewing the world and processing information but are faced with the challenge of learning in classrooms that do not support this variance. This talk explores the barriers neurodivergent learners encounter, the impact of those barriers on a social and emotional level, and strategies for creating neuro-inclusive learning environments where every student can thrive.

Winter 2022

Jessica Rowland Williams

Director, Every Learner Everywhere

The Intersection of Digital Learning and Equity: Key Considerations

February 2, 2022

Digital learning can be a catalyst for improving course outcomes for minoritized students, and awareness and tools for faculty are paramount to address the affective, interpersonal, and situational challenges that Black, Latinx, Indigenous, first-generation, and poverty-affected students experience. In this session, Dr. Williams will share key considerations for faculty, administrators, and other staff using digital learning for transformation that centers equity and racial justice at private universities.

Winter 2021

NU Faculty Panel

Handwriting Online

March 2, 2021

Moving handwriting online has required instructors and students to experiment and get creative with new technologies and hardware. Being able to share handwritten work is a vital connection between students and instructors. At this event you can learn about a variety of handwriting techniques from experienced instructors and contribute to Teaching & Learning Technologies' understanding of the ongoing challenges of handwriting online for both students and staff.

NU Faculty Panel

Faculty Connections

February 3, 2021

Connect to your fellow Northwestern instructors through this panel and small group discussion event. Our TEACHxperts are Northwestern instructors who have been navigating the complex teaching landscape of 2020 -2021. They all also participated in the Keep Teaching Video series; get a sneak peek of our panelists and discussion leaders in action by viewing the videos here. The session opens with a small panel of experienced instructors discussing a range of topics. Following the panel, you’ll have the chance to join a small group for discussion led by another experienced Northwestern instructor.

2020

Kate Sonka

Accessibility in the Time of Remote Teaching

Accessibility in the Time of Remote Teaching
April 3, 2020

As college instructors all over the world are suddenly grappling with teaching their courses remotely, there is growing concern about how to ensure learning experiences are inclusive and accessible to all students. In this presentation, Kate Sonka will discuss practical tips and strategies, as well as leave room to discuss challenges instructors and institutions are still working to resolve.

Michael Mills

Vice President of the Office of E-Learning, Innovation and Teaching Excellence at Montgomery College

OER, Equity, and Social Justice in the Time of Remote Teaching
May 7, 2020

Dr. Michael Mills and his team at Montgomery College have saved students an estimated $4.2M in textbook costs over the last three years through the MC Open Initiative, but saving money isn't the only positive impact the program has had. Specific student demographic groups have seen dramatic improvements in student outcomes. In this talk, Dr. Mills will share his experience leading the MC Open Initiative, including data about student success and equity. He'll share reports from professors and students participating in this initiative since the sudden shift to remote teaching. He'll also share approachable strategies and tips about developing OER in your discipline.

Suzanne Wakim

Distance Education Coordinator

How Open Educational Practices Support Universal Design
March 5, 2020

There is no “typical” student; how can we design courses that meet varied student needs? Universal design for learning (UDL) can help us build courses that are both more accessible and flexible enough to engage a diverse group of learners. UDL includes giving students various ways of acquiring information, interacting with the content and demonstrating understanding. Open Educational Practices (OEP) provide a framework for developing engaging and adaptable learning activities and assessments. We will discuss some simple (and some more complex) course designs based on the principles of OEP and UDL.

Jon Emery

Associate Professor of Instruction, Northwestern University

Multilevel Co-Authoring of OERs: Collaborating with Students for the Creation of Course Materials
January 30, 2020

Professor Emery will speak about the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Departments efforts – supported by an Open Educational Resource Grant funded by the Office of the Provost and the Libraries – to develop and deploy a series of low- or no-cost, open educational resources for use in the MSE department’s core curriculum. The first half of this talk covered the philosophy and execution of this project, which aims to create and maintain more than 10 open textbooks co-authored by students and MSE faculty (with significant support from the Libraries). The second half of this talk was a hands-on workshop demonstrating the workflow for co-authoring of a “text” (a recipe book) by interested attendees.

2017-2019

John Rome

Deputy CIO, Arizona State University

Voice Technology Innovation: Alexa Goes to College

Judy Franks & Jim Stachowiak

Better Learning Experiences for All with UDL

Bonnie Stewart

Experiential Approaches to Digital Teaching and Learning

Ashley M. Purpura

Making the Move from Lecturing to Active Learning

Ariel Rogers & Rebecca Poulson

VR/AR Experiences in Education: Immersive Computing on Campus

Laura Trouille

co-PI for Zooniverse and Senior Director of Citizen Science at the Adler Planetarium

Citizen Science: Engaging Your Students and the Public in Your Research

Lisa Cravens-Brown

Associate Vice Chair for Instruction, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University

Making Community in the Classroom

Sande Chen

Co-author of Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform

Games and Gamification in the Classroom

Mei-Ling Hopgood

Associate Professor in the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications

Developing Empathy Through Multimedia Storytelling

Bennett Goldberg

Learning Sticks When Students Work Together: Fundamentals of Active and Collaborative Learning

Mark McDaniel

Make It Stick: A Took-Kit for Teachers to Improve Student Learning and Retention

William C. McGaghie, David Salzman, Jeffrey H. Barsuk

Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern

Developing a Mastery Learning Curriculum

Derek Bruff

Director, Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University

Students as Producers: Active Learning Instruction for Innovative Assignments

Tim McKay

Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Physics, Astronomy, and Education in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, University of Michigan

Why Learning Analytics? How exploration of data has driven reform in foundational classes

Sam Van Horne

Assessment Director, University of Iowa

Elements of Success: A Learning Analytics Intervention in Introductory Chemistry

Ray Schroeder

Director of the Center for Online Leadership at the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA)

Active Learning Strategies