Spring 2022 Professional Learning Community
Promoting Student Success in High-Enrollment Courses
This year, CTAL’s Professional Learning Community (PLC) will focus on identifying strategies instructors can use to support student learning in large, foundational courses. Some questions we will address include:
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- How do I create a welcoming and inclusive learning community in a large course?
- How can low stakes assessments be used to provide meaningful feedback to both the instructor and the student early in the course?
- How can instructors promote better study habits in their course?
This group will reflect on course design and implementation practices that support durable student learning skills. Additional questions/topics will be determined by the PLC participants.
Goals for this PLC
- To engage in a collective inquiry around potential challenges that impact first-year and second-year students’ success in large, foundational courses
- To learn from each other’s experience, and from selected resources, possible course design or teaching strategies that can be implemented to help all students be successful learners
Dates and location of meetings
PLC meetings will run for 8 consecutive weeks from March 1st – April 30th (except for Spring break). Meetings are an hour long and will be held primarily by Zoom. The days and times of the meetings will be determined based on participants availability.
Expectations of Participants
Participants will:
- Attend a minimum of 6 of the 8 meetings
- Prepare for the meeting discussion by reviewing any shared content (~30 min commitment)
- Share with the group at the last meeting, at least 1 strategy that will be implemented in their future teaching and potential ways to assess it’s impact
Compensation and Recognition
Participants will receive:
- A formal letter documenting their participation which may be included in a dossier for seeking promotion and tenure
- And a professional development stipend of $1500 (S-contract).

Questions about this PLC?
Contact: Dr. Stacie Larkin