Faculty Examples of Digitally Enabled Teaching in Gateway STEM Courses

In 2025, Every Learner Everywhere published a selection of examples from the Transform Learning instructional example library showing how faculty use digitally enabled, evidence-based teaching practices (DE-EBTs) in gateway STEM courses. In addition to definitions and research for faculty who wish to learn more about adding DE-EBTs to their courses, a key feature of Transform Learning is an instructional examples library that highlights activities contributed directly from instructors.

One value of the examples library is that users hear directly from peers who have designed exercises, projects, assignments, and assessments. Faculty contribute short narratives describing how they blend digital tools into specific course contexts in ways that support evidence-based teaching. The narratives typically also describe how they have learned from using those activities over time and improved them. Visitors to Transform Learning can browse the library or sort by subject, type of activity, or which evidence-based practice they want to incorporate.

Since that earlier article featuring initial submissions to the examples library, many more instructors have contributed classroom activities that show DE-EBTs in action, and featured here is a selection of those recent contributions. They include creative uses of learning management systems, polling tools, online forms, courseware, spreadsheets, virtual labs, and generative AI platforms to support student success.

Most interestingly, they show how thoughtful uses of digital learning technologies can make an evidence-based practice easier to sustain or to extend to more learners. In other words, they illustrate the alignment between selecting a digital tool and instructional purpose.

Daily warmup questions that activate prior knowledge

A few submissions on Transform Learning are about using quick polling technology to assess prior knowledge and incorporate formative assessment. For example, Karen Supan, Professor of Engineering at Norwich University in Vermont, begins class with a short quiz using Microsoft Forms. Students access the form on their personal devices by using a QR code and answer a few multiple-choice questions about the previous class session.

Supan then immediately uses the results from those form submissions to see where students understand the material and where the class needs clarification before moving forward. The routine takes about five minutes and gives every student a way to respond, including students who may not volunteer answers in a large group discussion. The digital tool makes the routine easier to sustain by gathering responses and producing summary graphs, and it lets Supan focus class time on the questions students missed most often.

Low-stakes LMS activity that builds early connection

Jill Vettrus, a mathematics instructor at Southeast Technical College in South Dakota, asks students in the first week of her classes to select a favorite quote and to upload it as a document to the LMS along with a few sentences explaining why the quote matters to them. Vettrus models the activity by sharing several of her own favorite quotes with students. After students upload their quotes, she gives each of them a personal response.

This example illustrates how a simple activity in a digital tool can foster a sense of belonging by giving students a low-stakes way to share more about themselves. It also has the benefit of sorting out any trouble students have submitting a document in the LMS before they are working on a graded assignment.

Using the LMS to support revision toward mastery

Jennifer Byall, a math instructor at Southeast Technical College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, uses practical application labs in her mathematical reasoning courses to help students apply math skills to real-life situations. After students complete the graded assignments, they have the opportunity to keep resubmitting until they earn 100 percent.

The digital enablement part of this practice is that the ongoing revision effort is supported by a conversation carried out through comments in the LMS, email, and messaging tools. Byall gives students specific feedback on what they need to complete or explain more fully. For example, she asks students to explain why an answer makes sense and what it means in the context of the problem. That shifts the revision from correcting a number to explaining the reasoning behind it.

This example promotes self-regulated learning by using digital tools to make feedback more direct and less time consuming. LMS comments attach the guidance to a specific assignment, automatic email notifications bring the feedback to students’ attention, and private replies give students a less-public place to ask questions.

Spreadsheet comparisons that make compound interest visible

Eric Gaze, Director of the Quantitative Reasoning Program and Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at Bowdoin College, uses an electronic spreadsheet activity to help students compare different retirement savings timelines. He presents a scenario in which three siblings invest the same annual amount during different periods of their lives, and students work in groups to develop a spreadsheet that models which sibling has the most money at retirement.

This example of active learning and peer collaboration gives students a practical way to apply the exponential functions underlying compound interest. Once students build the model, they can change the annual percentage return and test how different assumptions affect the result.

End-of-unit review to spur reflection

April Crenshaw, Associate Professor and Interim Mathematics Department Head at Chattanooga State Community College, uses a short end-of-unit wrapup routine in a precalculus algebra course. As homework in advance of this class meeting, students read a narrative summary of the unit created on a generative AI platform using course materials. Students then bring one short note to class about a concept that feels clearer and an example that helps it make sense. They share that with a partner and then participate in a recap discussion with the whole class, in which Crenshaw asks them to name the concept, restate the rule in their own words, and connect it to a practical situation.

In this example, the generative AI tool helps the instructor turn existing course materials into a concise review artifact they can use in a lesson dedicated to metacognition and instructional transparency. Students have the raw material they need to practice reflecting on and discussing a unit, and the instructor can reinforce how individual elements of a course tie together and support the course objectives.

Peer learning for faculty

The instructional examples library on Transform Learning gives faculty a way to share and learn from one another about digitally enabled, evidence-based teaching in the context of actual interactions with students. Submissions describe warmup questions, LMS workflows, providing feedback on student work, and facilitating discussions. Each example shows how thoughtful educators pair a specific teaching practice with a digital tool, and each includes enough detail for another instructor to adapt the idea to a different course context. As the library grows, users also benefit from seeing multiple variations on how the same technology, such as polling tools or spreadsheets, is used creatively in different scenarios.