Improving Critical Courses Using Digital Learning & Evidence-based Pedagogy

Higher education’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has ignited the need to improve student success in high-priority courses and to improve equity for Black, Latino, Indigenous, poverty-affected, and first-generation learners. The 2020 spring and summer terms catalyzed a continuous improvement strategy that required educators to leverage flexible learning environments, including hyflex, hybrid, fully online, and classroom-based digital teaching and learning environments, that will extend well into the post-pandemic future. Department chairs (as both faculty and academic leaders), deans, provosts, and other academic administrators are helping to lead this continuous improvement strategy. These academic administrators are overseeing and supporting the development of high-quality teaching and learning environments that can seamlessly switch back and forth between in-person and online education.

This guide features numerous links to resources academic administrators can draw from to effectively support a continuously improved teaching and learning environment that is sustainable for years to come.