The app, Hello Heels, was relaunched during first-year orientation last fall after undergoing a redesign following input from students through advisory boards, focus groups and surveys.
Since the relaunch, the app now draws about 90,000 page views per week from roughly 37,000 users—up from 10,000 page views and 6,000 users before the redesign.
Elizabeth Poindexter, executive director of communications and special projects in UNC’s Office of Student Affairs, said students rely on the app for “real-time” updates on everything from bus tracking to dining hall offerings.
“Nothing thrills me more than running to the dining hall to grab my own lunch and seeing a student using the app or talking to their friends about it,” said Poindexter.
She added that student feedback has allowed the app to become a multifaceted “dynamic space,” featuring modules on career services and health and wellness and an up-to-date events calendar.
Poindexter also said the redesigned app has proven cost-effective, saving more than $40,000 in new student and family programs by eliminating the need for duplicative services. Instead of costly printed materials, the app provides real-time agenda updates and announcements.
“The more people hear about that cost savings, the more interested in and engaged with the app they become,” said Poindexter.
The approach: Poindexter said student input came from a diverse group, including undergraduates and graduate, transfer and international students.
“We really had a good spread of students who are representative of the student body at large, and they had some incredible recommendations,” said Poindexter, including suggestions to “overhaul” and “refresh” the health and wellness and career services modules.
She added that other features, such as real-time updates on recreation center occupancy, dining hall hours and integration with academic tools like Canvas, also arose directly from student feedback.
The app includes an opt-in messaging feature that allows campus offices to send targeted updates to students who choose to receive them. Poindexter said the most popular channels come from the financial well-being center and the mental health and wellness center.
The financial well-being center sends weekly money tips and appointment reminders, while the mental health and wellness center shares well-being messages during high-stress periods like finals, which she said students respond positively to.
The app also gathers in-app survey responses. Of roughly 250 respondents, 98 percent said they plan to continue using Hello Heels.
“That is why it’s been so successful,” Poindexter said. “We have student voices integrated every step of the way.”
What’s next: Poindexter said part of the redesign involved partnering with UNC’s business school to ensure the app’s long-term sustainability and continued improvement.
“It’s been really wonderful to see that we can have this universitywide impact and improve the student experience in how we communicate with them,” she said.
Poindexter recommended that higher education leaders take a close look at their own media, from mobile apps to online newsletters, and use student feedback to make sure those tools are actually engaging and informing their target audience.
“Our best advocates are our students, and they have really useful insights decision-makers should consider,” she said.
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The Carnegie Foundation announced on Monday that more than 230 colleges and universities received its Community Engagement classification.
The designation from the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching highlights institutions that have formed and sustained successful community partnerships. Of the 237 institutions recognized in 2026, 48 received the classification for the first time. The group includes157 public colleges and universities, 80 private institutions and 81 minority-serving institutions.
“We celebrate each of these institutions, particularly their dedication to partnering with their neighbors—fostering civic engagement, building useable knowledge, and catalyzing real world learning experiences for students,” Timothy F.C. Knowles, president of the Carnegie Foundation, said in a news release.
Some colleges and universities celebrated making it to the list.
“This recognition means a great deal to the University of Houston, because it reflects who we are, and how we prepare educated, engaged citizens, while showing up for our community every day,” Diane Z. Chase, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, said in a statement.
ACE and Carnegie also shared the news that the University of San Diego, a Catholic institution in California, will house the Community Engagement classification for the next two cycles.
Combining trusted content from Wiley with Top Hat’s powerful student engagement platform gives educators new opportunities to personalize instruction, foster active learning, and improve outcomes.
TORONTO – January 12, 2026 – Top Hat, the leader in student engagement solutions for higher education, today announced a strategic partnership with Wiley, a global leader in authoritative content and research intelligence, that combines Wiley’s academic expertise and Top Hat’s innovative engagement tools. As part of the collaboration, select titles from Wiley’s widely respected Psychology and Anatomy & Physiology catalogs will be seamlessly integrated into the Top Hat platform, giving educators access to powerful features to personalize content, enhance student success, and save time on course preparation and delivery.
“At Wiley, we believe great content is the foundation of great teaching,” said Lyssa Vanderbeek, Wiley Group Vice President, Courseware. “Through our partnership with Top Hat, we’re delivering our respected titles in key disciplines through another avenue, a platform specifically designed to spark classroom engagement and support evidence-based teaching practices.”
Key Benefits of the Partnership
Easily Customize Trusted Wiley Content: Educators gain the flexibility to adapt select Wiley psychology and anatomy & physiology textbooks using intuitive content customization tools to rearrange, edit, delete or enrich with multimedia so course materials emphasize what matters most.
Promote In-Class Engagement: Wiley’s selected textbooks and ancillaries become the foundation for in-class engagement. Educators can use built-in classroom engagement tools, including 14 interactive question types, to make learning active and more impactful.
Make Learning Active Outside the Classroom:Wiley-authored teaching resources like question banks, slides and videos can be directly integrated within the textbook, to create a richer, more cohesive learning experience.
Enhance Teaching and Learning with Built-In AI Support: Ace, Top Hat’s AI-powered assistant, expands the impact of Wiley content by generating tailored polling questions, discussion prompts and relatable examples, while students benefit from on-demand study help and unlimited practice questions tied to assigned readings.
Support Student Success with Real-Time Data: With Top Hat, every interaction—from attendance, to readings and assessments—generates real-time insights, providing a holistic picture of student performance, and enabling timely interventions to help more learners succeed.“We are proud to partner with Wiley through a shared goal of supporting educators and students,” said Maggie Leen, CEO of Top Hat. “Together we’re redefining what’s possible with course materials and reimagining how courses can be delivered by making content more flexible, personalized, and accessible—taking another big step toward our vision to make learning personal for every student.”
Top Hat and Wiley share a common belief that by sparking better teaching and learning, we open up opportunities for fulfilling careers, better lives and a brighter world. Through this partnership, both organizations address the evolving needs of higher education, ensuring educators and students benefit from innovative, flexible and personalized learning experiences. For more information, visit tophat.com/partnerships/wiley.
About Top Hat
Grounded in learning science and powered by AI, Top Hat is the leader in student engagement solutions for higher education. We enable educators to adopt evidence-based teaching practices through interactive content, tools, and activities across in-person, online, and hybrid classrooms. Top Hat also provides access to thousands of digital textbooks and OER resources, along with authoring tools that let instructors customize or create their own accessible, interactive course materials. More than 1,500 institutions and thousands of faculty use Top Hat to support the learning of over three million students each year. To learn more, please visit tophat.com.
For instructors, it’s clear when student engagement strategies are needed, especially when facing blank stares, eyes focused on cell phones, and a lack of participation. These are telltale signs that students are not engaged during class. But why is student engagement so important? Student engagement is a broad concept that encompasses both the physical and psychological energy students dedicate to learning, as well as their motivation and emotional connection to academic material.
This article covers 34 student engagement strategies suitable for any college-level course, intended for instructors seeking practical tips and research-backed guidance on building classroom engagement. As a comprehensive guide to boosting student engagement, it highlights collaborative learning and digital interaction as key approaches to increase participation, understanding and enjoyment in both online and traditional educational settings.
Audience: This guide is designed for college instructors and educators who want to address disengagement and improve learning outcomes in their courses.
Why strategies matter: Student engagement is crucial for academic success and overall learning outcomes. Higher levels of student engagement are associated with improved academic performance. Engaged students are more likely to persist in their studies and achieve their educational goals. Engagement in learning activities enhances students’ motivation to learn—and students who are engaged in their learning are more likely to develop critical thinking skills.
Key benefits of student engagement:
Fosters critical thinking and deeper understanding
Improves academic performance and learning outcomes
Increases student persistence and achievement of educational goals
Enhances motivation and sense of belonging
In an era where technology permeates virtually every aspect of our lives, distractions are an ever-present concern. And this means that engagement strategies for students are becoming even more essential in modern college courses. So how do instructors build learning environments that are engaging, lively and motivated? They have to incorporate strategies to build community, connection and a love of learning.
Engaged students are typically more curious about a subject—perhaps even more passionate about it. Encountering new ideas can spark motivation and lead to deeper engagement, as students find joy in exploring innovative concepts and approaches. Increasing student engagement is crucial for enhancing students’ confidence, comprehension, and overall learning experiences. While some students may be motivated primarily by the pursuit of good grades, true engagement involves a desire to learn for its own sake and a deeper sense of intrinsic motivation. Increasing engagement can help improve student motivation and, in turn, boost student progress and achievement.
Student engagement is closely linked to student achievement. Numerous studies have found that when instructors use strategies that are explicitly designed to get students’ attention—and to actively engage them in the learning process, including quick, low-order activities to hold students attention during brief periods of inactivity—test scores and graduation rates increase, and learning objectives are more likely to be met, which makes understanding how to engage students even more important for instructors.
Here, we provide 34 strategies to bring creativity, collaboration and participation to your classroom.
How student engagement strategies can fit in your classroom
In a classroom where engagement is emphasized, students are asked to participate more rigorously in the learning process and sometimes even in course design. Lectures still exist, but they now incorporate multimedia, technology and class participation. In hybrid and online learning environments, this can mean polling, classwide discussions and competitive activities. Integrating digital tools such as laptops, tablets and videos directly into lesson content can further enhance student engagement and make lessons more dynamic and relevant to digitally literate students. These approaches are highly effective for boosting student engagement by increasing participation, understanding and enjoyment in both online and traditional educational settings. These engaging, relevant activities for students can energize your classroom and take learning to a new level, wherever it takes place.
By engaging in hands-on activities, students learn to support, trust and listen to each other, while developing important skills like collaboration and communication—skills that can’t be learned from a textbook, interactive or not. Learning to get along with peers, for example, isn’t something you can pick up through memorization.
Transition: Next, we’ll define what student engagement strategies are and explore key terms and approaches that underpin effective engagement in the college classroom.
What are student engagement strategies?
Student engagement strategies are activities, tactics and approaches that serve as a core educational practice for effective teaching. Educators can leverage these strategies during and after class to keep students invested in their learning. They can be used to increase active learning, participation and collaboration in the classroom—and can be everything from simple changes made in your next class to a complete revamp of your curriculum, course delivery and assessment methods.
Key definitions and interconnections:
Active learning techniques include group work, inquiry, hands-on experiments and role-playing.
Using group work and collaboration gives students a welcome break from solo bookwork, allows them to express their ideas and provides opportunities to encounter and explore new ideas, which can deepen engagement.
Inquiry-based learning gives students ownership by allowing them to explore their own questions.
Creating a positive climate involves building strong teacher-student relationships and fostering a safe environment.
Engaging with students’ interests builds strong relationships and rapport while enhancing their learning experience.
Using varied active-learning strategies can engage a broader population of students.
Using diverse engagement opportunities can help reach students with varying learning preferences.
The following strategies are effective methods for engaging diverse learners and can be adapted to fit various educational settings. Here are some creative strategies for engaging students in learning—ranging from small changes to more substantial pedagogical shifts.
Transition: With these definitions in mind, let’s look at how to create a positive classroom environment as the foundation for engagement.
Creating a positive classroom environment
A positive classroom environment is the foundation for promoting student engagement and building a thriving learning community. When students feel welcomed, respected and supported, they are more likely to participate actively and take ownership of their learning.
Arranging the classroom for collaboration
Teachers can foster this environment by thoughtfully arranging the classroom to encourage collaboration—such as grouping desks for small group work or creating spaces for student-led discussions. Displaying inspirational quotes and showcasing student work on classroom walls not only celebrates achievements but also helps students feel valued and connected to the learning process.
Encouraging collaborative learning
Encouraging collaborative learning is another key strategy. By providing opportunities for students to work together in small groups, teachers promote active participation and help students develop strong relationships with their peers. This sense of community makes students more comfortable sharing ideas and taking academic risks.
Modeling positive interactions
Teachers who model positive interactions and set clear expectations for respectful communication further contribute to a supportive classroom environment. Ultimately, a positive classroom climate is essential for keeping students engaged, motivated and eager to learn.
Transition: Once a positive environment is established, instructors can implement specific engagement strategies in their teaching practice.
Student engagement strategies for your teaching
1. Active learning: Create a teaching and learning environment primed for student participation, such as calling on students to answer a question, individual reflection and group problem-solving. Encourage students to take on active roles in collaborative learning environments, where they can teach or practice concepts with their peers. When students explain concepts to other students, it not only reinforces the explainer’s understanding but also benefits the rest of the class by clarifying ideas and promoting inclusive participation. Incorporate open-ended questions that may have more than one correct answer, allowing students to demonstrate comprehension beyond simple recall. Be mindful that distractions and feelings of exclusion can impact students’ working memory and learning outcomes.
Use case: Donna Smith, Instructor of Mathematics at Sierra College, used Top Hat to create a connected, engaging learning experience for students learning asynchronously. Leveraging Top Hat’s streamlined platform with features to customize course content, Smith uses more than 14 different question types to assess student learning as the course progresses. Next term, she plans to embed interactive questions between lecture videos, so students have the opportunity to practice course concepts right after learning them. Key takeaway: Flexibility and anonymity in questioning can support first-generation students and encourage participation.
2. Participatory teaching: This student-centered approach to pedagogy accounts for the different skills, backgrounds and learning styles of students. The focus of participatory teaching is on self-regulation and self-reflection; specific strategies include using different teaching methods and varying means of assessment, which adds a greater level of flexibility, a key part of any engagement strategies for online learning. When asking questions, provide wait time to allow students to think and formulate thoughtful responses, which can enhance participation and engagement.
3. Flip the classroom: Flip the traditional lecture-homework relationship. Students study the subject matter independently and outside class through tools such as pre-recorded videos. Class is then spent on student-centered learning such as working through problems, debating or group work. When engaging in group work, encourage students to collaborate on the same topic to enhance understanding and ensure everyone is included. After posing questions, allow students sufficient wait time to reflect before responding, which supports deeper engagement.
4. Technology in the classroom: Students expect to be constantly connected and want immediate feedback. Online and mobile technology can be used to provide active learning activities and to keep students engaged outside the classroom.
5. Classroom management strategies: Classroom strategies help instructors build a distraction-free environment. As an instructor, you can build in student engagement by asking learners to help shape classroom rules. As an activity in the first week of classes, decide on a set of shared values and create a set of guidelines, like active listening, what respectful disagreements look like and how to create a safe space for questions. Incorporate physical activity into the classroom to maintain engagement and alertness. Structure participation in such a way as to promote inclusivity and equitable involvement from all students. Design classroom environments to support students and their individual needs, ensuring everyone has the opportunity to succeed. Using humor throughout lessons lightens the mood and makes for a more enjoyable learning experience.
6. Writing: Exercises such as journaling and one-minute papers can help keep students engaged in class as well as improve thinking skills. These activities allow students time to reflect and engage more deeply with the material.
7. Culturally responsive teaching: This strategy ensures students see themselves reflected in course readings, activities and lesson plans. Faculty might bring in diverse guest speakers to give a lecture on a niche topic. Alternatively, educators might ensure a certain percentage of their required readings are authored by scholars from under-represented populations. Use relevant examples from students’ cultural backgrounds and real-life experiences to illustrate concepts and promote engagement.
Transition: With foundational teaching strategies in place, the next step is to align engagement activities with your curriculum for maximum impact.
Student engagement activities based on your curriculum
Instructors can start lessons with engaging hooks to capture students’ interest and set the stage for active participation throughout the session.
8. Set expectations: At the beginning of a course, ask students what they expect from you and then try to meet those expectations. Students are more engaged when they have a good relationship with the instructor. It’s also important to recognize and engage individual students, considering their unique learning experiences, characteristics and needs to promote equitable learning outcomes.
9. Integrated curriculum: Combine disciplines rather than compartmentalizing subjects. Some medical schools, for example, have moved away from teaching subjects in isolation such as physiology and anatomy and moved toward studying organ systems where students learn the physiology and anatomy associated with that system.
Use case: John Redden, Associate Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology at the University of Connecticut, is a long-time Top Hat user and has leveraged the platform to offer a consistent and equitable hybrid learning experience. Key takeaway: Giving students control over their schedules and diversifying teaching and assessment methods supports engagement and equity.
10. Think-pair-share: Think-pair-share encourages students to work together to solve problems.
Students take a few moments of individual reflection to gather their thoughts on a given topic.
Then, have them discuss their thoughts with a peer.
Next, have the pair of students form a group with another pair and encourage the group of four to inquire about one another’s opinions.
Make sure all students share their ideas during group discussions to maximize participation and engagement.
11. Make the course relevant: Students want courses to be relevant and meaningful. Use real-world examples to teach. Where the course is relevant to a specific occupation, ensure it’s aligned with the current needs of the occupation.
12. Cooperative learning: Encourage students to work together by arranging them in partners or small groups to help them achieve learning goals. Group work can include assignments, discussions, reviews and lab experiments—even having students discuss a lesson with their peers.
13. Authentic learning experiences: Encourage active engagement in the classroom by having students tackle real-world problems and attempt to come up with a solution through methods such as inquiry and experimentation. Ideally, the solution will benefit others or the community. Experiential learning—when students learn from reflecting on their real-world learning experience—is a further development of this, and is an effective teaching strategy.
14. Social media: Potential uses for social media include sharing relevant content, posting instructional videos on YouTube and facilitating ongoing discussion groups. However, strict guidelines for use must be put in place and enforced.
15. Quick writes: During each lesson, ask students to write down their questions, thoughts and points of clarification. This is an easy-to-implement way to encourage students to think critically and analytically about the course content.
Transition: To further promote higher-order thinking, the next section focuses on engagement strategies for critical thinking.
Engagement strategies for critical thinking
Promoting critical thinking in the classroom is essential for deeper learning and academic achievement. Engagement strategies that encourage students to analyze, evaluate and synthesize information help them move beyond surface-level understanding.
Techniques for fostering critical thinking
Ask open-ended questions that require students to justify their reasoning, interpret data, or solve real-world problems.
Incorporate real-world examples and case studies, prompting students to apply theoretical concepts to practical situations.
Use instructional strategies such as think-pair-share, jigsaw reading, and Socratic seminars to encourage discussion, debate and reflection on complex issues.
Require students to engage in thoughtful dialogue and collaborative problem-solving.
By requiring students to engage in thoughtful dialogue and collaborative problem-solving, teachers help them develop the critical thinking skills needed for success in the modern age. These strategies not only increase student engagement but also foster a classroom culture where deeper learning and meaningful academic achievement are the norm.
Transition: Empowering students with autonomy is another powerful way to enhance engagement, as explored in the next section.
Giving students autonomy
Empowering students with autonomy is a powerful way to enhance student engagement and motivation. When students are given choices in their learning process—such as selecting topics for projects, choosing how to present their work, or setting personal learning goals—they feel a greater sense of ownership and investment in their education. This sense of agency encourages students to take an active role in their learning environment, leading to deeper learning and understanding.
Strategies for student autonomy
Provide learning menus, choice boards, or opportunities for self-directed projects.
Allow students to work at their own pace and reflect on their progress through self-assessment.
Support student autonomy to create a classroom environment where students are motivated to learn and achieve their best.
Transition: Assessment is another key area where engagement strategies can make a significant difference, as detailed in the following section.
Student engagement strategies for assessments
16. Prepare for class before class: Students get more out of class time if they’re familiar with the material before they arrive. Exercises such as pre-class quizzes ensure they’re knowledgeable enough to contribute.
17. Assess early and often: Frequent quizzes for formative assessment (for “fun”) work well alongside traditional midterm and final exams. Frequent testing reduces the temptation for students to cram and forces them to space out their learning, which leads to better retention. Having the first test within the first few classes also helps prevent students from falling behind—boosting student achievement early. Use formative assessments to hold students accountable for their learning, encouraging consistent participation and responsibility.
18. Assess attendance: Student attendance can improve grades as well as engagement. Consider making attendance part of their overall assessment. Many learners enter university without proper study skills and first-year students can benefit from the structure of mandatory attendance.
19. Problem-based or project-based learning: Students are tasked with solving a problem or completing a project, but the focus is on the end product, allowing students to determine what resources are needed to solve the problem or complete the project.
Instructors should also regularly self assess their use of student engagement strategies, using tools like self-assessment tables, to identify which approaches they currently use and which could be adopted to improve classroom inclusion.
Transition: Presentation skills and classroom delivery also play a vital role in engaging students, as discussed next.
Classroom engagement strategies using your presentation skills
20. Use visual representations: Engage students with animations, 3D representations and concept maps, all of which can help them visualize complex subjects. Instructors should also focus on paying attention to individual students’ engagement and needs when using visual tools, ensuring that every learner benefits from these strategies.
21. Inquiry-based learning: To answer questions posed by the instructor or by the students themselves, a learner undertakes his or her own research to arrive at an answer. Inquiry-based learning can be as simple as watching video lectures, or more involvement could come from designing and performing an experiment. Encouraging participation from one student at a time during inquiry-based activities helps foster an inclusive environment where each individual feels valued and supported.
22. Use simulations: Games or role-playing place students in an imaginary setting defined by the instructor, providing for an interactive, participatory learning experience.
23. Tell stories: Wherever possible, tell stories to illustrate concepts when giving lectures. This helps students to process course concepts in their own words and move past rote memorization. For example, you might ask them to paraphrase a story or definition, explain a concept in their own words, tell a story that relates to it, or provide analogies to further illustrate a course concept. Encouraging one student at a time to share their perspective or story can promote inclusivity and ensure that every voice is heard.
Use case: Steve Joordens, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, has devoted much of his career to the issue of student distraction and its ephemeral counterpart, student engagement. And if he’s learned one thing about engagement, it’s that there’s more than one way to foster it. So he set about trying to name the different techniques, which led Joordens to create a taxonomy of student engagement, complete with its own handy label: RIFS, an acronym for “Relevant, Interesting, Fun, Social.”
Key takeaways:
Relevant: Answering the well-worn student grouse, “Why are we learning this?” Classroom activities such as problem-based or work-integrated learning can enhance any course material’s relevance.
Interesting: Personalized learning strategies in the classroom encourage students to take greater ownership over their own education, which develops a stronger sense of intrinsic motivation.
Fun: Making the classroom experience enjoyable helps keep students’ minds relaxed and open.
Social: Encouraging students to interact and learn from each other as well as from their instructors or their readings. Tactics such as response systems and peer assessments foster more social interaction in learning.
Transition: Technology is another powerful tool for enhancing engagement, as explored in the next section.
Using technology to enhance learning
Integrating technology into the classroom is a highly effective way to boost student engagement and promote deeper learning. Technology offers students interactive and immersive experiences, such as virtual field trips, simulations, and educational games, which make learning more dynamic and memorable.
Leveraging digital tools
Use online platforms to facilitate collaboration and communication, enabling students to participate in discussions, share resources and work together on projects regardless of location.
Provide students with real-time feedback, track progress, and identify areas where additional support is needed.
Encourage critical thinking and creativity by allowing students to explore complex ideas in innovative ways.
By leveraging digital tools, teachers can create a learning environment that supports student engagement, fosters deeper learning and prepares students for success in the modern age.
Transition: Collaboration is also essential for engagement—let’s look at strategies that encourage students to work together.
Student engagement strategies to encourage collaboration
24. Snowball discussions:
Continue combining groups until the class is back together
Randomly assign students in pairs with a discussion question.
After a few minutes, combine the pairs to form groups of four.
After another five minutes, combine groups of four to form a group of eight—and so on.
25. Philosophical chairs:
Read a statement that has two possible answers—agree or disagree—out loud to your class.
Ask students to move to one side of the room or the other, depending on whether they agree or disagree with the statement.
Once all participants have selected a side, encourage students on either side to argue in favor of their position.
This way, students can visualize where their peers’ opinions lie, compared to their own.
26. Affinity mapping:
Place students in small groups and pose a general question or problem to them that has many possible answers, such as “How would the history of the United States be different without Teddy Roosevelt” or “How would society be different if the Internet was never invented?”
Have students write their ideas on small index cards or on an online discussion thread.
After ten minutes, ask students to group their similar ideas into categories, then label the different groupings and discuss how each idea fits.
Suggest that students consider how the categories are related.
This allows students to participate in critical thinking by analyzing ideas and organizing them in relation to one another.
27. Concentric circles:
Ask students to form two circles: an inner circle and an outer circle.
Each student on the inside is paired with a student on the outside. Have them sit facing each other.
Pose a question to the broader group and ask the pairs to discuss their responses.
Have students on the outside circle move one space over after five minutes so they’re standing in front of a different peer.
Repeat the process for a few rounds, asking a new question each time and exposing students to their peers’ different perspectives.
28. Make it personal:
After a lecture unit or lesson concludes, arrange learners into discussion groups or online breakout rooms.
To encourage students to reflect on their personal connections to the material they are learning, ask them questions like “How did this change your initial understanding of the concept” or “Describe your initial reaction to this idea.”
29. Socratic seminar:
To prepare for a discussion, ask students to review a textbook chapter or a separate reading and develop higher-order thinking questions to pose to their peers.
During class, ask an open-ended question to introduce the activity.
Have students continue the conversation, encouraging their peers to use evidence-based claims, based on course concepts or texts.
Students are encouraged to share the floor with their peers, however, there doesn’t need to be a specific order for speaking.
Transition: Communication skills are also vital for student success; the next section highlights strategies to build these skills.
Student engagement strategies to build communication skills
30. Brainwriting:
To build rapport and respect in your classroom, give students time to reflect on their learnings in writing, following a challenging course concept.
Using guided prompts or leaving it open to your students’ interpretation, have them share their thoughts and questions in a conversation with peers during class time or through an online discussion thread.
Knowing how to keep students engaged throughout the duration of class ensures that they will be able to understand course concepts on a deeper level.
31. Concept mapping:
Collaborative concept mapping is a way of visually organizing concepts and ideas, in order to better understand how they are related.
In small groups, students can use this exercise to go over past work or to brainstorm ideas for future assignments and projects.
For face-to-face classes, have students place sticky notes and chart paper on the classroom walls.
For online classes, the digital whiteboard feature in Zoom allows students to map out ideas and connect concepts.
32. Debate:
Pose an issue or topic to your class.
Place students into groups according to the position they hold on the topic.
Ask each group to develop some arguments or examples to support their opinion.
Put each group’s idea on a virtual whiteboard or piece of chart paper, to be a starting point for a classwide discussion.
To conclude, encourage students to debate the strengths and weaknesses of each group’s argument, to help students improve their higher-order thinking and analysis skills.
33. Compare and contrast:
Place students into groups and ask them to focus on a specific chapter in their textbook.
Encourage them to find similarities and differences between ideas that can be found in course readings and external sources, like articles and videos they may find.
This way, students benefit from sharing resources and learning from one another’s perspectives.
34. Assess/diagnose/act: This activity helps strengthen students’ problem-solving abilities and can spur more dynamic discussions. Propose a topic or controversial statement, then follow the steps below to start a discussion:
Assessment: What is the main problem or issue?
Diagnosis: What is its root cause?
Action: How can we, as a group, solve the issue?
Transition: To ensure these strategies lead to meaningful learning, it’s important to focus on fostering deeper understanding, as described in the next section.
Fostering deeper learning and understanding
To foster deeper learning and understanding, teachers must go beyond surface-level instruction and create opportunities for students to engage in critical thinking, analysis, and reflection.
Combining direct instruction with practice
Combine direct instruction with guided and independent practice to help students build a strong foundation while encouraging them to apply new knowledge in meaningful ways.
Use scaffolding, think-alouds, and self-assessment to help students connect prior knowledge to new concepts and develop a deeper understanding.
Making learning relevant
Incorporate real-world examples and case studies to make learning relevant and show students how their knowledge applies outside the classroom.
Use project-based learning, service-learning and experiential learning activities to give students hands-on opportunities to solve problems and make connections to the real world.
These approaches not only increase student engagement but also help students develop essential skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication. By providing students with varied and authentic learning experiences, teachers support deeper learning and prepare students to thrive in the modern age.
Transition: The following sources inform these strategies for engagement and deeper learning.
Conclusion: The lasting impact of student engagement
Student engagement is a broad concept that extends far beyond simple participation—it is the driving force behind meaningful learning, academic achievement, and the development of essential skills in individual students. When teachers encourage students to take an active role in the learning process, they create a classroom environment where collaborative learning, real-world applications and technology come together to make lessons relevant and memorable.
Promoting student engagement requires a thoughtful blend of instructional strategies, such as think-pair-share, group work, and open-ended questions. These approaches not only hold students accountable for their learning but also encourage them to reflect on their understanding and connect course material to real-world situations. By providing students with relevant examples and opportunities to share their ideas, teachers help students feel valued and motivated to stay engaged.
A supportive learning environment is central to increasing student engagement. When students feel included and respected, they are more likely to participate actively, think critically, and pursue deeper understanding. Engagement strategies that foster emotional engagement, critical thinking and active participation lead to higher levels of motivation, persistence and overall academic achievement.
Teachers play a vital role in promoting student engagement by designing classroom activities that are interactive, inclusive and aligned with learning goals. By prioritizing collaborative learning and giving students the chance to take ownership of their education, educators can transform the classroom into a space where deeper learning and academic success are the norm.
Ultimately, making student engagement a central idea in educational practice benefits both students and teachers. When learning is relevant, interactive and fun, students are more likely to thrive academically and reach their full potential. By following these engagement strategies and fostering a positive classroom environment, teachers can ensure that all students feel supported, motivated, and empowered to learn and grow—creating a lasting impact on their educational journey.
References
Ojalvo, H. E., & Doyne, S. Five Ways to Flip Your Classroom With The New York Times. [Blog post] New York Times. Retrieved May 15, 2019 from https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/five-ways-to-flip-your-classroom-with-the-new-york-times/
Evans, C., Muijs, D. & Tomlinson, M. (2015). Engaged student learning: high-impact strategies to enhance student achievement. [White paper] Retrieved May 15, 2019 from: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/engaged-student-learning-high-impact-strategies-enhance-student-achievement
Twelve Best Practices for Student Engagement and Retention. [White paper] Retrieved May 15, 2019 from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania: https://www.mansfield.edu/academic-affairs/upload/Twelve-Best-Practices-for-Student-Engagement-and-Retention-2012.pdf
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Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly counts as “student engagement?”
In this context, “student engagement” refers to students’ active participation and investment in their own learning. That includes not just attending class, but interacting with course content (e.g. doing readings, watching lectures), contributing in discussion, applying ideas to assignments or problem sets and reflecting on materials—whether in class, online, or during self-study.
Why is engagement important—can’t students just passively learn by reading or listening?
Research and teaching experience show that active engagement helps students better understand, retain, and apply concepts. Engaged students learn more deeply, develop critical thinking, and often perform better academically. Passive learning tends to result in poorer retention and less ability to apply knowledge outside the classroom.
Which strategies work best for large lecture courses vs small seminars?
Many engagement strategies can be adapted to both settings. For large lectures, tools like interactive polls, low-stakes quizzes, clicker questions, or online discussion boards help engage many students at once. In smaller seminars, group discussion, peer-review, collaborative assignments, or open discussion foster deeper interaction and student voice. Blended approaches—combining lecture, active learning, and ongoing formative assessments—often work well regardless of class size.
How much time does it take for instructors to implement these engagement strategies?
It depends on the strategy. Some activities like adding a quick in-class poll or discussion prompt may take only a few minutes. Others, like redesigning assignments around active learning or setting up peer review, require more planning up front. However, many instructors find the extra effort pays off: engaged students are often more motivated, more likely to participate, and may require less remedial support later on.
Chronic absenteeism is a longstanding problem that has surged to troubling levels. Recent data show that in 20 states, more than 30% of students are chronically absent, about twice the rate seen before the pandemic. Absenteeism is a multifaceted problem, and the reasons students stop showing up aren’t always academic. Sometimes it’s because they don’t feel connected to their school, or they are not engaged in the curriculum. Other times, they face adversity outside the classroom. While the problem is complicated, it’s easy to overlook one of its simplest, most effective solutions: What if the key to keeping students is a performance stage, a music room or an art studio — a creative outlet to shine?
Despite decades of research, arts education is still treated as a “nice-to-have” when education budgets allow. From 2015 to 2019, the NAMM Foundation conducted a four-year study across 1,700 New York City public schools serving over 1.1 million students. They found that schools offering music and arts programming had lower rates of chronic absenteeism and higher overall school-day attendance than those that didn’t. Similarly, a comparison of cohort data over seven years found that dropout rates fell from 30% to just 6% among students participating in consistent arts programming.
Clearly, the arts are a powerful tool for academic engagement, resilience and, most importantly, graduation. For example, after tracking more than 22,000 students for 12 years, the National Dropout Prevention Center found that those with high levels of involvement in the arts were five times more likely to graduate from high school than those with low involvement.
But while over 90% of Americans feel the arts are important for education, only 66% of students participate, and access remains uneven. Charter schools, the fastest-growing segment of public education, have the lowest availability of arts courses: Just 37% of public charter high schools offer arts instruction. Students in charter schools, military families and homeschool programs are too often the ones with the fewest opportunities to engage with the arts, despite needing them most.
This is an issue that the Cathedral Arts Project in Jacksonville, Florida, is trying to solve.
In partnership with and with funding from the Florida Department of Education, our program piloted a year-long arts education initiative during the 2024-25 school year, reaching more than 400 students in charter schools, homeschools, military families and crisis care. Our teaching artists visited classrooms weekly, providing instruction in dance, music, visual arts and theater. Throughout the year, students in kindergarten through high school found joy, confidence and connection through creative learning. Homeschool students brought history to life through art projects, children from military families found comfort and stability during times of deployment and young people in crisis discovered new ways to express themselves and heal. Each moment affirmed the power of the arts to help children imagine what’s possible.
To better understand the impact of this work, we partnered with the Florida Data Science for Social Good program at the University of North Florida to analyze reports and survey evaluations collected from 88% of program participants. Here’s what we found:
Students grew not only in artistic skill, but also in self-confidence, teamwork, problem-solving and engagement. After completing the program, over 86% of students said they “like to finish what they start” and “can do things even when they are hard” — a key indicator of persistence, which is a strong predictor of long-term academic success. Students rated themselves highly in statements like, “I am good at performance.”
Families noticed, too. In the age of screens, nearly three-quarters reported that their child had increased in-person social interaction since beginning arts programming and had improved emotional control at home. Nearly one-third saw noticeable gains in creative problem-solving and persistence through challenges.
According to the State of Educational Opportunity in America survey conducted by 50CAN, parents view the arts as a meaningful contributor to their child’s learning, and they want more of it. In Florida, where families have been given the power of school choice, they’re increasingly seeking out programs that inspire creative thinking and meaningful engagement while promoting academic success. But finding them isn’t always easy. When funding allows, traditional public schools may offer band or visual arts, but these options are often unavailable to families choosing alternative education options for their children.
Now in its second year, our program fills this critical gap by working directly with school choice families across northeast Florida, bringing structured arts instruction to students who otherwise wouldn’t have access.
What makes the arts such an effective intervention? It’s structure, expression and connection. When students learn through the creative process, they navigate frustration, build resilience and find joy in persistence. These are not soft skills — they’re essential for survival, and increasingly important in today’s workplaces.
Arts education is a necessary investment in student achievement. It’s time for other states to treat it that way and follow Florida’s lead.
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The current state of UK higher education in 2025 is marked by an existential crisis, rather than merely a series of difficult challenges.
This crisis comes from the inherent tension of attempting to operate a 20th century institutional model within the complex realities of the 21st century. This strain is exacerbated by complex socio-economic difficulties facing students, coupled with the immense pressures experienced by staff.
A city under siege
Conceptualising UK HE as a “city”, it becomes evident that while valuable as centres of learning, community and potential, this “city” is currently under siege and there is a “dragon at the gates”. The “dragon” represents a multifaceted array of contemporary pressures. These include, but are not limited to, funding reductions, evolving regulatory demands and the escalating cost-of-living crisis. Empirical research indicates that the cost-of-living crisis profoundly impacts students’ capacity for engagement.
Furthermore, this “dragon” is continuously evolving. With the rapid ascent of artificial intelligence (AI) and the distinct characteristics of Gen Z learners representing two of its newest and most salient “heads”. While AI offers opportunities for personalised learning, simultaneously, it presents substantial challenges to academic integrity and carries the risk of augmenting student isolation if not balanced with human connection. Concurrently, Gen Z learners have learned a state of “continuous partial attention” through constant exposure to multiple information streams. This poses a unique challenge to pedagogical design.
Defence, survival and the limits of future-proofing
In response to these multifaceted challenges, the prevalent institutional instinct is to defend the city. This typically involves retreating behind existing structures, consolidating operations, centralising processes, tightening policies and intensifying reliance on familiar metrics such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), National Student Survey (NSS) action plans, attendance rates and overall survey scores.
However, survival mode often means the sacrifice of genuine student engagement. This refers not to the easily quantifiable forms of engagement, but the relational, human dimension, wherein students develop a sense of belonging, perceive their contributions as meaningful and feel integrated into a valuable community. Research consistently demonstrates that this sense of belonging is paramount for psychological engagement and overall student success. Consequently, an exclusive focus on defending established practices, reliant on systemically imposed metrics, risks reinforcing barriers that actually impede connection, wellbeing and the institutional resilience that is critically needed.
While the concept of “future-proofing” is often invoked, it is imperative to question the feasibility of achieving perfect preparedness against unknowable future contingencies.
Attack strategies
Given the limitations of a purely defensive stance, a different strategic orientation is warranted: a proactive “attack” on the challenges confronting HE. Genuine engagement should be reconceptualised not merely as a student characteristic, but as an institutional design choice. Institutions cannot expect students to arrive with pre-existing engagement; rather, they must actively design for it.
This proactive engagement strategy aligns precisely with the University of Cumbria’s commitment to people, place, and partnerships. These themes are woven through the university’s new learning, teaching and assessment plan, providing a framework for institutional pedagogic transformation.
Relationships as the bedrock of community
The “citizens” of our HE “city” – students and staff – constitute its absolute bedrock. Strong relationships between these stakeholders are fundamental to fostering a resilient academic community. A critical institutional challenge lies in ensuring that existing systems, policies and workload models adequately support these vital connections. It is imperative to grant staff the requisite time, flexibility and recognition for their crucial relational work. This represents a shift in focus from a transactional interaction to a relationship-centric approach.
Understanding the distinct experiences of diverse groups of students (e.g. apprentices, online learners and commuter students) is of critical importance for building meaningful and authentic engagement. Fundamentally, ensuring that students feel “seen, heard and valued” is a key determinant of psychological engagement and a prerequisite for all other forms of learning to take root.
Designing for inclusive environments
The concept of “place” encompasses the entire physical and digital environment of the HE institution. Belonging, rather than being an abstract sentiment, possesses a strong spatial and environmental dimension. For institutions like the University of Cumbria, intentional design of consistent environments that cultivate a sense of “This is my place” is paramount. An important tactic in this regard is to build belonging by design, particularly at critical transition points such as induction.
This notion of “place” is particularly vital for commuter students, who often lack the built-in community afforded by residential halls. For this cohort, the physical campus serves as the primary site of their university experience. A critical assessment of their campus experience between scheduled classes is needed. Are institutional spaces designed to encourage students to remain, study and connect? When students choose to utilise them, these spaces facilitate spontaneous conversations, the formation of friendships, and the organic development of belonging.
This kind of intentionality is required for digital learning environments. Are virtual learning environments (VLEs) merely content repositories, or are they designed as welcoming community hubs? The creation of inclusive, supportive environments – both physical and virtual – where students feel genuinely connected, is absolutely fundamental to effective engagement. Moreover, clear opportunities exist to strengthen recognition of how an individual’s sense of place can positively impact learning experiences primarily delivered online.
Partnerships in fostering genuine student experiences
The final pillar, “partnerships,” refers to the cultivation of alliances within the HE “city”. While “student voice” is frequently championed, research strongly indicates a necessity to move beyond mere collection of voice towards fostering genuine student influence and co-creation. The distinction is crucial: “student voice” may involve an end-of-module survey, whereas “student influence” entails inviting students to co-design assessment questions for subsequent iterations of that module.
The University of Cumbria’s recent consistent module evaluation approach serves as an exemplary model. Achieving a 34.2% response rate in the first semester of 2024/25, which exceeds sector averages, and, critically, delivering 100% “closing the loop” reports to students, demonstrates a commitment to acknowledging and acting upon all feedback. This provides a concrete illustration of making student influence visible.
From strategy to action
This approach is a fundamental paradigm shift: from a reactive, defensive posture focused on metrics to a proactive engagement strategy. This “attack” on the challenges, framed by the University of Cumbria’s distinctive strategic approach, is predicated on three core actions: prioritising People by enabling relational work, designing a sense of Place to foster belonging, and building authentic Partnerships that transform student voice into visible influence. Translating this strategy into actionable practice does not necessitate additional burdens, but rather the integration of five practical tactics into existing workflows:
Rethink what you measure and why: Transition from a “data-led” to a “data-informed” approach. This involves utilising data for meaningful reflection and making deliberate choices to enhance the student experience, rather than reacting defensively to metrics such as KPIs, NSS scores and attendance data.
Build belonging at transitions: Recognising belonging as a critical component of psychological engagement and overall student success, this tactic underscores the importance of intentionally designing key junctures in the student journey, such as induction and progression points, to be inherently inclusive.
Enable relational work: Acknowledging that strong student-staff relationships form the “bedrock” of a resilient academic community, and that staff often face conflicts between fostering these connections and workload pressures, this tactic advocates for formally enabling “relational work”.
Turn voice into influence: Meaningful partnership necessitates moving beyond mere collection of student “voice” to cultivating their genuine “influence”. The critical determinant is not simply whether the institution is listening, but whether substantive changes are being implemented based on student feedback. This can be achieved through the establishment of “visible feedback loops” that demonstrate the impact of student input and leveraging technology to complement, rather than replace, human interaction.
Partnership by design: This final tactic advocates for embedding co-creation with students as an intrinsic element from the initial stages. Rather than being an occasional or supplementary activity, authentic partnership should be structurally integrated, with students actively involved in key decision-making processes.
The fundamental question facing HE in 2025 – “What is a university for?” – is increasingly met with the unsettling realisation that conventional answers no longer suffice. However, a cautiously optimistic outlook prevails. The answer to this pivotal question lies not in defending existing paradigms, but in actively and courageously constructing a new institutional reality.
This article has been adapted from a keynote address delivered by Dr Helena Lim at the University of Cumbria Learning and Teaching Conference on 18 June 2025, and has been jointly authored with Dr Jonathan Eaton, Pro Vice Chancellor (Learning & Teaching) at the University of Cumbria.
For further insights into the research underpinning these arguments, the “Future-proofing student engagement” report is available here.
November 2, 2025, By Dean Hoke — When Sweet Briar College’s trustees voted to close in 2015, they framed the decision as a financial necessity. Alumnae mounted an extraordinary campaign—raising $28.5 million in 110 days—and, through a state-brokered settlement, the college reopened under new governance. By 2023, donors had contributed well over $133 million since the crisis. What looked like an inevitable failure became one of higher education’s most remarkable turnarounds.
Sweet Briar is not only a story of crisis response; it exposes a recurring miscalculation in today’s merger conversations: the assumption that boardroom consensus equals donor legitimacy. Trustees speak for donors in a fiduciary sense—they hold legal responsibility for institutional assets—but not in the communal sense that captures sentiment, legacy, and trust. When colleges announce merger talks, headlines dwell on enrollment curves and debt ratios. Yet behind every deal stands a quieter, decisive constituency: major donors, family foundations, and planned-giving benefactors whose confidence (or loss of it) can determine whether the combined institution thrives—or limps forward under the weight of broken relationships.
This article reframes mergers as philanthropic integration projects. The legal mechanics matter, but durable success is won in the design phase: early engagement with philanthropic stakeholders, explicit safeguards for identity and donor intent, transparent transition planning, and a mission-first case that invites continued—and new—investment. When leaders bring donors and alumni into the architecture of the merger rather than the press release, they convert anxiety into commitment and preserve the institutional DNA that constituents care about most.
We’ll see this principle in contrasting cases: mission-advancing acquisitions that attracted significant philanthropic support, integrations that prioritized identity and donor intent from the outset, and lessons from failed or contested processes. The throughline is simple: treat philanthropy as a core workstream—not an afterthought—and the odds of a credible, sustainable merger rise dramatically.
The stakes have never been higher. Survey data from Ruffalo Noel Levitz’s 2025 National Alumni Survey, which surveyed more than 50,000 alumni, reveals that donor relationships with higher education are already strained. While 81% of alumni report that being philanthropic is important to them personally and 77% make charitable donations, their connection to their alma mater has weakened dramatically. Only 31% of alumni who donate to any charity gave to their alma mater last year, dropping to just 19% among Millennials and 10% among Gen Z graduates.
Even more troubling: 59% of alumni who never donate to their alma mater actively support other causes, as do 83% of lapsed donors. They have not stopped giving—they have simply redirected their philanthropy elsewhere. This suggests that alumni disengagement reflects institutional failure rather than generational selfishness.
Satisfaction drives everything. Alumni who report being ‘very satisfied’ with their student experience are 18 times more likely to donate than neutral respondents and 73 times more likely than dissatisfied graduates. Yet only 42% of Gen Z alumni report feeling ‘very satisfied’ with their experience, compared to 72% of Silent Generation graduates.
Mergers test already-fragile relationships. When institutions announce consolidation, donors who felt lukewarm about their undergraduate experience see confirmation that their alma mater is failing. A merger framed solely as a financial necessity will not inspire them. But a merger presented as advancing mission-driven impact—expanding access, strengthening programs that address social challenges, or preserving an educational model under threat—can mobilize support from the very alumni who have drifted away.
As Millett (1976) noted, successful integrations often ‘show structure, not just sentiment’—for example, Case Western Reserve kept a distinct Case Institute identity, and Carnegie Mellon created a Carnegie Institute of Engineering and a Mellon Institute of Science to carry legacies forward.
A half-century ago, John D. Millett’s 1976 analysis of U.S. college mergers examined a range of cases—from research institutes to liberal arts colleges—and distilled lessons that remain strikingly current. Four observations deserve renewed attention today:
1. Endowments transfer; relationships do not. In many mergers, endowments and restricted funds move to successor institutions through standard legal pathways. The mechanics are manageable. The harder work is relational: ensuring donors can see how their original intent will be honored in the new configuration, and that the program or ethos they loved will not be erased.
2. Alumni skepticism is predictable—and manageable. Leaders should not assume alumni approval, especially when the smaller institution is absorbed. Visible steps to cultivate and retain legacy alumni—keeping familiar staff contacts for a transitional period, acknowledging a distinct identity, and offering tangible ways to shape the merged future—go a long way.
3. Governance approval is not donor legitimacy. Even when boards vote, state bodies concur, and presidents sign, philanthropic legitimacy remains a separate test. Communities expect to be consulted; they often oppose mergers if they learn about them too late. Participation must be planned early, not added later.
4. Language and structure matter more than sentiment. Labels and explanations—federation versus absorption, mission expansion versus rescue—shape how alumni and donors interpret the outcome. Leaders who explain clear educational benefits and who visibly protect identity through formal structures earn trust faster.
Historical Examples: Structure, Not Just Sentiment
After the Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University merger, the successor Case Western Reserve University continued the designation of Case Institute of Technology as an organizational component. At Carnegie Mellon University, leaders created a Carnegie Institute of Engineering and a Mellon Institute of Science—formal structures that carried legacy identities forward within the new entity.
The Bellarmine-Ursuline (Louisville) merger (1968-1971) offers another instructive example. The combined institution briefly used the Bellarmine-Ursuline name before reverting to Bellarmine College in 1971, but Bellarmine has continued to honor Ursuline identity through durable structures—explicitly including Ursuline alumnae in alumni awards and honors and recognizing the Ursuline legacy through commemorations and alumni programming. These are structural signals that preserve identity even when the combined name does not persist.
Millett also notes that successor institutions often made special effort to cultivate and retain alumni of the absorbed college, including keeping an alumni-relations officer from the legacy institution and providing a special alumni designation or status—practical ways to keep traditions and community intact during transition.
Crisis-Reactive: What Not to Do
Planning is done privately, the announcement is abrupt, and donors are asked to accept a fait accompli. Mills College’s merger with Northeastern University proceeded despite alumni resistance, prompting legal challenges over donor intent. The Alumnae Association spent hundreds of thousands in legal fees opposing the merger, and a class action lawsuit resulted in a $1.25 million settlement. The litigation divided alumnae and consumed resources that could have been invested in the merged institution’s success.
Even when the legal mechanics are sound, the community verdict is that identity has been erased. The result: backlash, donor-intent disputes, and years of costly trust repair.
Compliance-Only: Necessary but Insufficient
Teams carefully inventory restricted funds, ensure transfers align with donor intent, and communicate the basics. This prevents disasters but rarely generates enthusiasm or new investment. Survey data reveals that 70% of alumni need to believe their gift amount matters, and 66% rate the ability to see how their gift is used as critical. When a college merges, donors worry their legacy has been erased—regardless of legal assurances that funds will be protected.
The compliance model maintains existing donors but does not mobilize new support for the merged institution’s expanded mission. The message is ‘We will comply,’ not ‘Here is a better future you can help build.’
Strategic Partnership: The Target State
Donors and foundations are treated as co-creators from Day 0. Leaders conduct quiet briefings with major benefactors pre-announcement, frame the merger as mission expansion, and embed structural commitments to legacy preservation. This model doesn’t eliminate hard feelings, but it channels energy toward shared outcomes.
Delaware State University–Wesley College (2020–21). DSU—an HBCU—acquired Wesley and framed the move as mission advancement, launching the Wesley College of Health & Behavioral Sciences to expand pathways in nursing and allied health for underserved students. Financing combined philanthropy and prudence: a $20M unrestricted gift from MacKenzie Scott (with a portion—reported as roughly one-third of the $15M total—applied to transition costs) and a $1M Longwood Foundation grant for the acquisition. The case shows how a mission-first narrative can catalyze major-donor and foundation support.
By tying dollars to a new health‑workforce pipeline—rather than balance‑sheet triage—leaders converted donor anxiety into visible, restricted impact.
Ursuline College–Gannon University (ongoing). From the outset, both institutions engaged stakeholders publicly and affirmed philanthropy principles: “Honoring donor intent is important to Gannon University,” and donors will be able to designate gifts to the Pepper Pike campus. Ursuline will retain its identity as the Ursuline College Campus of Gannon University after the transition, and the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland have voiced support for the merger—signals aimed at preserving community trust and legacy while the integration proceeds through 2026. These commitments, paired with the HLC’s Change-of-Control approval, frame the merger as continuity-minded rather than absorptive.
University of Tennessee Southern (formerly Martin Methodist College).
University of Tennessee Southern (formerly Martin Methodist College) When Martin Methodist joined the University of Tennessee System in 2021, leaders prioritized transparent, compassionate communication—“a liminal space” requiring a strong plan, as President Mark La Branche put it. They also set aside portions of the legacy endowment (via the Martin Methodist College Foundation) to protect signature programs, showing that integration need not erase institutional identity.
Public commitments to donor intent and the campus naming convention did early legitimacy work that legal filings can’t.
When a stronger institution absorbs a struggling one, leaders often assume donor concerns belong primarily to the acquired institution. This is a strategic error. The acquiring institution’s donors also have a stake in the outcome—and their continued support is essential to merger success.
Major donors to the acquiring institution may question why resources should be directed toward absorbing another college. They may worry that the acquired institution’s struggles will tarnish their alma mater’s reputation, or that merger costs will compete with planned campus improvements. These concerns are legitimate and require proactive engagement.
Frame the Merger as a Strategic Opportunity
The narrative for acquiring institution donors must emphasize strategic opportunity rather than charitable rescue. Several frames can be effective:
Geographic expansion: The merger creates a presence in a new market, expanding the institution’s reach and visibility.
Program complementarity: The acquired institution brings academic strengths that fill gaps in the acquiring institution’s portfolio.
Mission advancement: The merger expands capacity to serve students and fulfill the educational mission on a greater scale.
Competitive positioning: In an era of consolidation, the merger strengthens the institution’s competitive position and long-term sustainability.
Rather than waiting for resistance to emerge, acquiring institution leaders should brief major donors before public announcement. These confidential conversations acknowledge donors’ legitimate interest in institutional strategy, allow leaders to address concerns directly, and create opportunities for donors to become merger advocates.
Legal clarity: When restricted funds cannot be used as originally intended post‑merger, pursue a cy‑près modification early—advancement and counsel should partner on donor communication before any filing to preserve trust.
You can brief a small set of major donors pre‑announcement under strict NDAs without privileging them over faculty governance or regulators. Use a defined rubric for who is briefed (e.g., top 10% of lifetime commitments and active pledgors), disclose no nonpublic counterparties’ terms, and limit to mission rationale, identity safeguards, and timeline. Record each briefing in counsel’s log.
Before Announcement (Day 0 Work)
Philanthropic due diligence—parallel to financial. Inventory endowed and restricted funds, bequests in the pipeline, and active foundation grants. Identify potential cy-près risks and draft stewardship language now. Treat this as a distinct workstream with advancement, finance, and counsel at the table from the start.
Quiet briefings with top donors and foundations on both sides. Under confidentiality, preview the rationale, surface donor-intent questions, and invite advice. Ask for early champions willing to speak publicly when the time comes.
Identity protections by design, not promise. Prepare a naming plan (e.g., ‘[Legacy] College at [Acquirer]’), preserve scholarship and reporting lines, and keep alumni-relations continuity for 12-24 months. Publish a short ‘Identity & Intent’ brief on day one that shows, in plain language, how donor purposes are carried forward.
At Announcement
Mission-driven case for support. Lead with the educational value only possible together: new academic pathways, access expansions, regional partnerships, research synergies. Avoid rescue framing. Make the case specific and concrete, tied to programs and outcomes donors care about.
Dedicated ‘Legacy to Impact’ funds with challenge matches. Create visible vehicles that convert anxiety into investment—restricted funds for scholarships, program launches, and student success tied to the integrated entity.
Community-benefit specificity. Spell out local benefits and stakeholder wins (clinics, teacher pipelines, innovation hubs). When people can ‘see’ the upside, they are likelier to invest in it.
First 12-24 Months
Quarterly transparency. Report enrollment in merged programs, first scholarship cohorts, renewed or new foundation grants, and capital milestones. Transparency reduces rumors and builds credibility.
Recognition symmetry. Offer parity for legacy and acquirer donors—naming walls, digital honor rolls, endowed-fund dashboards, and joint stewardship events.
Two-sided cultivation. Brief the acquirer’s major donors so they see strategic growth rather than a charitable drain. Ask two or three to seed a matching pool restricted to merger priorities; matches signal confidence and reduce perceived risk.
Because reliable analytics on donor behavior in mergers are sparse, leaders should build their own lightweight evidence base. For each merger, track three years pre- and post-integration for: total private support; alumni participation (where available); number of $1M+ gifts; and the mix of restricted versus unrestricted giving.
Pair quantitative metrics with a qualitative log: Was identity preserved in naming? Did a Legacy Alumni structure exist? Were there donor-intent disputes? Did the acquirer launch dedicated legacy funds? How soon were KPIs reported?
Even a simple dashboard, updated quarterly, changes the conversation with trustees and donors. It shows momentum (or lack thereof), prompts targeted stewardship, and gives leaders permission to make mid-course corrections. It also validates the core claim of this article: philanthropy works best when it is built into planning, not bolted on after the fact.
The most fundamental error in merger planning is treating donors as communications targets rather than strategic partners. Donors are not merely sources of revenue to be managed; they are partners whose investments reflect belief in institutional mission and values.
Mergers that succeed treat donors, foundations, and alumni as planning inputs, not a downstream audience for PR. Millett’s 1976 study reminds us that while the legal mechanics of endowment transfers are straightforward, the human mechanics are not. Alumni skepticism is predictable; identity needs visible protection through formal structures, not just promises; language and framing carry unusual weight.
When leaders internalize those lessons—and create structures that honor donor intent, invite co-creation, and make the mission upside measurable—legacy becomes leverage rather than liability. Higher education’s financial pressures are real, but so is the reservoir of goodwill that donors and alumni hold for institutions that respect them.
The Sweet Briar alumnae who raised $133 million did not do so because they were told the college would comply with donor intent. They did so because they were invited to co-create a future worth investing in. That is the lesson for every merger: bring philanthropic stakeholders into the room early, build identity protections into the design, launch vehicles that convert anxiety into investment, and report steadily and transparently on what their support makes possible.
That is how two proud legacies become one stronger future—and how the ‘silent stakeholders’ find their voice in shaping it.
Sources (selected): institutional FAQs and press releases (Ursuline–Gannon; DSU–Wesley; UT Southern), RNL Alumni Giving Data 2025 (for participation/attitudes), and Millett, J.D. (1976) ED134105 on college mergers.
Dean Hoke is Managing Partner of Edu Alliance Group, a higher education consultancy. He formerly served as President/CEO of the American Association of University Administrators (AAUA). Dean has worked with higher education institutions worldwide. With decades of experience in higher education leadership, consulting, and institutional strategy, he brings a wealth of knowledge on colleges’ challenges and opportunities. Dean is the Executive Producer and co-host for the podcast series Small College America.
College students are mastering the art of “doing school” – but far too few are actually learning (Geddes et al., 2018; Stevens & Ramey, 2020; Weinstein et al., 2018). The widespread use of artificial intelligence tools among students complicates the learning process by blurring the line between genuine understanding and task completion (Gawande et al., 2020; Jie & Kamrozzaman, 2024). It is incumbent on faculty to design learning experiences that prevent students from mistaking a passing grade for a genuine education.
This hourglass paradigm, created by Western Kentucky University education faculty, outlines key stages of effective learning and aligns with current understanding of how the brain processes and retains information (Mahan & Stein, 2014). It functions as a conceptual guide, helping students contextualize instructional content within a broader framework of cognitive engagement. The hourglass shape represents the complexity and intellectual rigor inherent in genuine learning – an endeavor that far exceeds the passive acts of listening, reading, and rote repetition. Many students, shaped by their P–12 educational experiences, have developed habits that emphasize completing tasks over engaging deeply with the learning process. In high school, success often comes from passive methods like re-reading notes or even something as simple as listening attentively in class (Gurung & Dunlosky, 2023). These habits often persist into college, where students may misplace effort on checking boxes rather than meaningful engagement with the content. While this approach may yield favorable academic outcomes in the short term, it infrequently results in deep understanding.
Figure 1 – The Reading and Learning Hourglass Note. This figure was created by the authors.
Top Half of the Hourglass
The top half represents what students are expected to do when first exposed to novel material – either in lecture or when reading.
Step #1 – Establish a Purpose
This requires students orient themselves toward finding specific information. What specific information are they expected to discern while listening or reading? What are they supposed to do with the information they find? Purpose establishes reason for attention – a key component in encoding the visual/auditory stimuli (Dubinsky & Hamid, 2024). Good teaching provides purpose and directs attention to the most important information.
Practical Application for Instructors
Clearly communicate the purpose of each lecture, reading, or activity. Assign reading surgically – not whole chapters at once. Frame lessons with guiding questions or objectives that help students focus their attention and recognize what they are expected to learn and apply.
As students encounter information meeting the established purpose, they deliberately document (extract) the evidence. This, too, is an important part of the encoding process. It focuses attention, moving students from a passive state during which the mind is prone to wander to an active state of responsibility requiring productivity.
Practical Application for Instructors
Assign students a specific task during lectures or readings (e.g., identifying key arguments, examples, or terms) and require them to record and reflect on these findings. This encourages active engagement and accountability during knowledge acquisition.
Step #3 – Make Sense
Sense and meaning are both necessary for long-term learning, but they are different constructs. Sense means that something is readily comprehensible and consistently applied (Sousa, 2011). After students have extracted the evidence, do they comprehend the material? This is a stopping point if the answer is “No.” They should either revert to the material to try to make sense of it or ask questions of the instructor/classmates (or even generative AI, as permitted) to ensure comprehension.
Practical Application for Instructors
Pause periodically to ask comprehension questions or pose simple checks for understanding. Encourage students to identify confusing parts and model how to work through confusion by thinking aloud or unpacking difficult concepts together.
Step #4 – Form Meaning
Meaning is about connections and relevancy. Once the information has been extracted and is comprehensible, the next step is determining how it connects to other information. To what other concepts is it related in the subject/discipline? How does it connect to something the student knows personally? Formation of meaning and sense making are both crucial steps in the process of consolidation – the second step in the formation of long-term memory/learning.
Practical Application for Instructors
Help students connect new content to prior knowledge by explicitly referencing past lessons or real-world examples. Use prompts such as “How does this relate to what we learned last week?” or “Where have you seen this concept applied outside of class?”
Bottom Half of the Hourglass
With the passage of time comes opportunity to study the information. Studying requires consolidation, retrieval, and active production. If students are simply re-reading information or listening again to recorded lectures, they are still in the top half of the hourglass and are not yet studying – they are simply revisiting the knowledge event. Sometimes review is necessary to ensure sense and meaning. However, students need to understand that unless they are producing something new through active retrieval, they are not studying.
Step #5 – Integrate Knowledge
After students have read multiple assignments and listened to numerous lectures, the resulting notes must be integrated into a cohesive body of knowledge. Students must synthesize this information rather than treating each reading or lecture as a discrete element – a process that supports deeper consolidation over time (Squire et al., 2015).
Practical Application for Instructors
Design cumulative tasks that require students to synthesize information into thematic essays, comparative analyses, or concept maps. Encourage students to revisit and reorganize their notes periodically to build coherence across topics.
Step #6 – Reproduce Knowledge
The best way to study to facilitate long-term learning requires active retrieval (Karpicke, 2012; Sosa et al., 2018). This process strengthens neural connections by repeatedly firing related pathways, leading to long-term potentiation – essentially, learning. Crucially, retrieval typically involves unaided recall; the value lies in the act of retrieval itself, not the product it creates. Reflection and verbal production counts as retrieval even though the product is intangible.
Practical Application for Instructors
Design assignments that require students to produce something from memory (e.g., timed short-answer questions, practice exams, or unprompted written explanations). Encourage use of retrieval-based study tools and de-emphasize passive review.
Step #7 – Share Knowledge
Students often do not know when to stop studying. Many are surprised when asked when studying should stop – the answer feels obvious: “When the test is on my desk!” In reality, studying ends when one can teach the material to someone else. As the final step of the process, the reproduction of knowledge should be so comprehensive and fluent that the students can teach the material to a peer or another individual unfamiliar with the subject matter.
Practical Application for Instructors
Create opportunities for students to teach each other. Incorporate peer instruction, study partnerships, or group teaching assignments where students must explain key ideas to classmates or create short instructional videos.
In a time when grades are often mistaken for understanding and AI tools tempt students to outsource cognitive effort, we must reclaim the purpose of education. The hourglass paradigm reframes learning as an active, metacognitive process – one that challenges students to move beyond passive habits and toward lasting intellectual growth. By designing instruction that aligns with how the brain learns best, we as faculty can help students learn how to learn and not just how to pass. This is not just a pedagogical preference; it is a professional obligation.
Dr. Daniel Super is a Clinical Associate Professor in the School of Teacher Education and director of the Barbara and Kelly Burch Institute for Transformative Practices in Higher Education at Western Kentucky University.
Dr. Jeremy Logsdon is an Assistant Professor in the School of Teacher Education and director of the Center for Literacy at Western Kentucky University.
References
Dubinsky, J. M., & Hamid, A. A. (2024). The neuroscience of active learning and direct instruction. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 163, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105737
Gawande, V., Al Badi, H., & Al Makharoumi, K. (2020). An empirical study on emerging trends in artificial intelligence and its impact on higher education. International Journal of Computer Applications, 175(12), 43-47.
Geddes, B. C., Cannon, H. M., & Cannon, J. N. (2018, March). Addressing the crisis in higher education: An experiential analysis. In Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning: Proceedings of the Annual ABSEL conference (Vol. 45). Association for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning. https://journals.tdl.org/absel/index.php/absel/article/view/3188/3106
Gurung, R. A. R., & Dunlosky, J. (2023). Study like a champ. American Psychological Association.
Jie, A. L. X., & Kamrozzaman, N. A. (2024). The challenges of higher education students face in using artificial intelligence (AI) against their learning experiences. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 12(10), 362-387. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2024.1210025
Karpicke, J. D. (2012). Retrieval-based learning: Active retrieval promotes meaningful learning. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(3), 157–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412443552
Mahan, J. D., & Stein, D. S. (2014). Teaching adults – Best practices that leverage the emerging understanding of the neurobiology of learning. Current problems in pediatric and adolescent health care, 44(6), 141-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cppeds.2014.01.003
Sosa, P. M., Gonçalves, R., & Carpes, F. P. (2018). Active memory reactivation improves learning. Advances in Physiology Education, 42(2), 256–260. https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00077.2017
Sousa, D. A. (2011). How the brain learns. Corwin.
Stevens, R., & Ramey, K. (2020, January). What kind of place is school to learn? A comparative perspective from students on the question. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences: The Interdisciplinarity of the Learning Sciences.
Weinstein, Y., Sumeracki, M., & Caviglioli, O. (2018). Understanding how we learn: A visual guide. Routledge.
College students are mastering the art of “doing school” – but far too few are actually learning (Geddes et al., 2018; Stevens & Ramey, 2020; Weinstein et al., 2018). The widespread use of artificial intelligence tools among students complicates the learning process by blurring the line between genuine understanding and task completion (Gawande et al., 2020; Jie & Kamrozzaman, 2024). It is incumbent on faculty to design learning experiences that prevent students from mistaking a passing grade for a genuine education.
This hourglass paradigm, created by Western Kentucky University education faculty, outlines key stages of effective learning and aligns with current understanding of how the brain processes and retains information (Mahan & Stein, 2014). It functions as a conceptual guide, helping students contextualize instructional content within a broader framework of cognitive engagement. The hourglass shape represents the complexity and intellectual rigor inherent in genuine learning – an endeavor that far exceeds the passive acts of listening, reading, and rote repetition. Many students, shaped by their P–12 educational experiences, have developed habits that emphasize completing tasks over engaging deeply with the learning process. In high school, success often comes from passive methods like re-reading notes or even something as simple as listening attentively in class (Gurung & Dunlosky, 2023). These habits often persist into college, where students may misplace effort on checking boxes rather than meaningful engagement with the content. While this approach may yield favorable academic outcomes in the short term, it infrequently results in deep understanding.
Figure 1 – The Reading and Learning Hourglass Note. This figure was created by the authors.
Top Half of the Hourglass
The top half represents what students are expected to do when first exposed to novel material – either in lecture or when reading.
Step #1 – Establish a Purpose
This requires students orient themselves toward finding specific information. What specific information are they expected to discern while listening or reading? What are they supposed to do with the information they find? Purpose establishes reason for attention – a key component in encoding the visual/auditory stimuli (Dubinsky & Hamid, 2024). Good teaching provides purpose and directs attention to the most important information.
Practical Application for Instructors
Clearly communicate the purpose of each lecture, reading, or activity. Assign reading surgically – not whole chapters at once. Frame lessons with guiding questions or objectives that help students focus their attention and recognize what they are expected to learn and apply.
As students encounter information meeting the established purpose, they deliberately document (extract) the evidence. This, too, is an important part of the encoding process. It focuses attention, moving students from a passive state during which the mind is prone to wander to an active state of responsibility requiring productivity.
Practical Application for Instructors
Assign students a specific task during lectures or readings (e.g., identifying key arguments, examples, or terms) and require them to record and reflect on these findings. This encourages active engagement and accountability during knowledge acquisition.
Step #3 – Make Sense
Sense and meaning are both necessary for long-term learning, but they are different constructs. Sense means that something is readily comprehensible and consistently applied (Sousa, 2011). After students have extracted the evidence, do they comprehend the material? This is a stopping point if the answer is “No.” They should either revert to the material to try to make sense of it or ask questions of the instructor/classmates (or even generative AI, as permitted) to ensure comprehension.
Practical Application for Instructors
Pause periodically to ask comprehension questions or pose simple checks for understanding. Encourage students to identify confusing parts and model how to work through confusion by thinking aloud or unpacking difficult concepts together.
Step #4 – Form Meaning
Meaning is about connections and relevancy. Once the information has been extracted and is comprehensible, the next step is determining how it connects to other information. To what other concepts is it related in the subject/discipline? How does it connect to something the student knows personally? Formation of meaning and sense making are both crucial steps in the process of consolidation – the second step in the formation of long-term memory/learning.
Practical Application for Instructors
Help students connect new content to prior knowledge by explicitly referencing past lessons or real-world examples. Use prompts such as “How does this relate to what we learned last week?” or “Where have you seen this concept applied outside of class?”
Bottom Half of the Hourglass
With the passage of time comes opportunity to study the information. Studying requires consolidation, retrieval, and active production. If students are simply re-reading information or listening again to recorded lectures, they are still in the top half of the hourglass and are not yet studying – they are simply revisiting the knowledge event. Sometimes review is necessary to ensure sense and meaning. However, students need to understand that unless they are producing something new through active retrieval, they are not studying.
Step #5 – Integrate Knowledge
After students have read multiple assignments and listened to numerous lectures, the resulting notes must be integrated into a cohesive body of knowledge. Students must synthesize this information rather than treating each reading or lecture as a discrete element – a process that supports deeper consolidation over time (Squire et al., 2015).
Practical Application for Instructors
Design cumulative tasks that require students to synthesize information into thematic essays, comparative analyses, or concept maps. Encourage students to revisit and reorganize their notes periodically to build coherence across topics.
Step #6 – Reproduce Knowledge
The best way to study to facilitate long-term learning requires active retrieval (Karpicke, 2012; Sosa et al., 2018). This process strengthens neural connections by repeatedly firing related pathways, leading to long-term potentiation – essentially, learning. Crucially, retrieval typically involves unaided recall; the value lies in the act of retrieval itself, not the product it creates. Reflection and verbal production counts as retrieval even though the product is intangible.
Practical Application for Instructors
Design assignments that require students to produce something from memory (e.g., timed short-answer questions, practice exams, or unprompted written explanations). Encourage use of retrieval-based study tools and de-emphasize passive review.
Step #7 – Share Knowledge
Students often do not know when to stop studying. Many are surprised when asked when studying should stop – the answer feels obvious: “When the test is on my desk!” In reality, studying ends when one can teach the material to someone else. As the final step of the process, the reproduction of knowledge should be so comprehensive and fluent that the students can teach the material to a peer or another individual unfamiliar with the subject matter.
Practical Application for Instructors
Create opportunities for students to teach each other. Incorporate peer instruction, study partnerships, or group teaching assignments where students must explain key ideas to classmates or create short instructional videos.
In a time when grades are often mistaken for understanding and AI tools tempt students to outsource cognitive effort, we must reclaim the purpose of education. The hourglass paradigm reframes learning as an active, metacognitive process – one that challenges students to move beyond passive habits and toward lasting intellectual growth. By designing instruction that aligns with how the brain learns best, we as faculty can help students learn how to learn and not just how to pass. This is not just a pedagogical preference; it is a professional obligation.
Dr. Daniel Super is a Clinical Associate Professor in the School of Teacher Education and director of the Barbara and Kelly Burch Institute for Transformative Practices in Higher Education at Western Kentucky University.
Dr. Jeremy Logsdon is an Assistant Professor in the School of Teacher Education and director of the Center for Literacy at Western Kentucky University.
References
Dubinsky, J. M., & Hamid, A. A. (2024). The neuroscience of active learning and direct instruction. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 163, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105737
Gawande, V., Al Badi, H., & Al Makharoumi, K. (2020). An empirical study on emerging trends in artificial intelligence and its impact on higher education. International Journal of Computer Applications, 175(12), 43-47.
Geddes, B. C., Cannon, H. M., & Cannon, J. N. (2018, March). Addressing the crisis in higher education: An experiential analysis. In Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning: Proceedings of the Annual ABSEL conference (Vol. 45). Association for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning. https://journals.tdl.org/absel/index.php/absel/article/view/3188/3106
Gurung, R. A. R., & Dunlosky, J. (2023). Study like a champ. American Psychological Association.
Jie, A. L. X., & Kamrozzaman, N. A. (2024). The challenges of higher education students face in using artificial intelligence (AI) against their learning experiences. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 12(10), 362-387. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2024.1210025
Karpicke, J. D. (2012). Retrieval-based learning: Active retrieval promotes meaningful learning. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(3), 157–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412443552
Mahan, J. D., & Stein, D. S. (2014). Teaching adults – Best practices that leverage the emerging understanding of the neurobiology of learning. Current problems in pediatric and adolescent health care, 44(6), 141-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cppeds.2014.01.003
Sosa, P. M., Gonçalves, R., & Carpes, F. P. (2018). Active memory reactivation improves learning. Advances in Physiology Education, 42(2), 256–260. https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00077.2017
Sousa, D. A. (2011). How the brain learns. Corwin.
Stevens, R., & Ramey, K. (2020, January). What kind of place is school to learn? A comparative perspective from students on the question. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences: The Interdisciplinarity of the Learning Sciences.
Weinstein, Y., Sumeracki, M., & Caviglioli, O. (2018). Understanding how we learn: A visual guide. Routledge.
In my classroom, students increasingly ask for relevant content. Students want to know how what they are learning in school relates to the world beyond the classroom. They want to be engaged in their learning.
In fact, the 2025-2026 Education Insights Report vividly proves that students need and want engaging learning experiences. And it’s not just students who see engagement as important. Engagement is broadly recognized as a key driver of learning and success, with 93 percent of educators agreeing that student engagement is a critical metric for understanding overall achievement. What is more, 99 percent of superintendents believe student engagement is one of the top predictors of success at school.
Creating highly engaging lesson plans that will immerse today’s tech-savvy students in learning can be a challenge, but here are two easy-to-find resources that I can turn to turbo-charge the engagement quotient of my lessons:
Virtual field trips Virtual field trips empower educators to introduce students to amazing places, new people and ideas, and remarkable experiences–without ever leaving the classroom. There are so many virtual field trips out there, but I always love the ones that Discovery Education creates with partners.
I also love the virtual tours of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Together as a class or individually, students can dive into self-guided, room-by-room tours of several exhibits and areas within the museum from a desktop or smart device. This virtual field trip does include special collections and research areas, like ancient Egypt or the deep ocean. This makes it fun and easy for teachers like me to pick and choose which tour is most relevant to a lesson.
Immersive learning resources Immersive learning content offers another way to take students to new places and connect the wider world, and universe, to the classroom. Immersive learning can be easily woven into the curriculum to enhance and provide context.
One immersive learning solution I really like is TimePod Adventures from Verizon. It features free time-traveling episodes designed to engage students in places like Mars and prehistoric Earth. Now accessible directly through a web browser on a laptop, Chromebook, or mobile device, students need only internet access and audio output to begin the journey. Guided by an AI-powered assistant and featuring grade-band specific lesson plans, these missions across time and space encourage students to take control, explore incredible environments, and solve complex challenges.
Immersive learning content can be overwhelming at first, but professional development resources are available to help educators build confidence while earning microcredentials. These resources let educators quickly dive into new and innovative techniques and teaching strategies that help increase student engagement.
Taken together, engaging learning opportunities are ones that show students how classrooms learnings directly connect to their real lives. With resources like virtual field trips and immersive learning content, students can dive into school topics in ways that are fun, fresh, and sometimes otherworldly.
Leia J. DePalo, Northport-East Northport Union Free School District
Leia J. (LJ) DePalo is an Elementary STEM and Future Forward Teacher (FFT) in the Northport-East Northport School District with over 20 years of experience in education. LJ holds a Master of Science in Literacy and permanent New York State teaching certifications in Elementary Education, Speech, and Computer Science. A dedicated innovator, she collaborates with teachers to design technology-infused lessons, leads professional development, and choreographs award-winning school musicals. In recognition of her creativity and impact, DePalo was named a 2025 Innovator Grant recipient.
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