Faculty, a good course is now one of the strongest arguments a college can make for itself. The classroom is where institutions make their strongest case for their own value by providing students the experience of learning something well. Between AI reshaping what “learning” looks like and mounting pressure to show a clear path to a career, this has never mattered more. With August around the corner, it’s an ideal time to look at your own courses and find the small, meaningful updates that strengthen that learning experience.
Here are some ideas to try.
Invite the Real World In
Connecting course concepts and materials to the world outside of the classroom, whether it’s current events or real-world tasks students might need to do on the job, is one of the best ways to engage students and motivate them to keep learning.
How to Try It
Do a quick search for a recent news story or dataset that ties to one topic in your course, and either add it to that week’s readings or make it the foundation for a discussion. A course in macroeconomics could swap a textbook case study for recent inflation report data. A philosophy course could frame a discussion around a current controversy that builds on that week’s material.
Transform one assignment by challenging students to apply a course concept to a real-world task. A research paper could become a policy brief or analysis; a problem set could morph into a client-facing recommendation about how much to produce next quarter.
Thread an experiential component through the entire course. This could look like a series of role-playing simulations—mock negotiations, a fake courtroom, a crisis-response exercise—or an opportunity for students to partner with a local nonprofit or organization to take on a project with real-world stakes.
Put Your Spin on It
AI creates the illusion that you can learn anything under the sun by asking a chatbot. But access to information isn’t the same as access to expertise. Your course is worth studying not only because of the information it presents but also because of the unique perspective you bring to the material. Share your take on what matters, invite students into the debates of what’s contested in the field, and help them see why all this matters. This unique perspective can’t be replicated by a bot.
How to Try It
Add a short personal framing to one lecture, reading, or module that explains why you assign this particular piece, where you disagree with it, or how it connects to your own research or experience. Then, invite students to share their take after they’ve had the chance to engage with the material.
Revise an assignment to ask students to engage with a debate or open question in the field. The messier, the better; the ideal topic is something that has no clean resolution. Taking a position and weighing competing evidence while also seeing that there’s no settled answer helps students build the critical thinking and judgement that is essential in our AI era.
Center the course around an unresolved debate or a new finding you’re still in the process of interpreting yourself. Add recurring assignments where students have to construct their strongest possible position based on the materials they can find on the question and then debate their positions with their peers. Helping students think and work through ambiguity will build critical skills that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
Create Connection
The college classroom is a space for students to connect with the ongoing intellectual debates in the field and learn more about themselves and their fellow students in the process. Students who feel connected to the material, each other, and the field are more likely to stay engaged throughout the course. Look for moments where you can create opportunities for this kind of meaningful connection and collaboration.
How to Try It
Add one low-stakes structured moment for students to talk to each other about the material before class. This could look like a think–pair–share before a lecture, a short small-group discussion at the start of class, or an ungraded discussion post where students can get support and help from their peers. These small swaps help students build community and connection with each other.
Redesign one existing assignment to be a group assignment. Have small groups jointly produce a perspective for a discussion or debate, or have students work together on a presentation or research assignment. Even adding peer reviews to a few assignments can encourage students to build working relationships with one another.
Create small cohorts of students who work on different projects together throughout the semester. This could look like a small group that tracks a key debate in the field and updates the class at regular intervals or small groups that develop expertise in key areas related to the course and report back on their findings. The goal is to turn the classroom into a community of practice where students are collaborating to find and share answers to key questions in the field.
Ready to Get Started?
It can be big or small, but challenge yourself to do something different this semester. This isn’t about reworking every element of your course. It’s about looking at materials with a fresh perspective and identifying places that will meaningfully improve your course. This will help keep the course fresh as you and your students explore something new to all of you together.
Need some help making these changes, or in need of a brainstorming buddy to identify the highest impact swaps? Our instructional designers, many of whom were faculty themselves, can help you look at your course with fresh eyes and make the changes that will make the biggest impact on the student experience. Learn more about how we can help.
