Lumen Circles
Lumen Circles are faculty professional development experiences that use virtual learning communities to connect faculty members with peers and help them hone their expertise as student-centered teachers.
Grounded in evidence-based teaching practices and self-reflection, Lumen Circles work well for any faculty member, in any discipline, and at any stage of career.
Fellowship Program Descriptions
Fellowship Program Descriptions
This Circle introduces the practice of prompt engineering. Participants will learn advanced techniques for prompting first-generation models like OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5, as well as emerging techniques for prompting second-generation models like OpenAI’s o1, and how to use these in the service of teaching and learning. Participants will also learn how to create a chatbot that can answer students’ questions about their syllabus and other course-specific information using OpenAI’s Custom GPTs.
*Circles for non-teaching faculty are offered periodically throughout the year.
This circle invites faculty to explore evidence-based teaching practices that support student engagement and success by shaping the learning environment to recognize and build on all students’ diverse experiences and strengths. Faculty fellows will practice inclusive teaching strategies and reflect on their impact. Through learning by doing and experience-sharing, faculty develop their teaching capabilities with techniques that engage students and help them to feel seen, respected, and included as capable partners in the learning process.
Lumen Circles’ Course Design for Student Success fellowship encourages educators to use innovative, evidence-based strategies in order to create courses where each student feels included and empowered. This insightful program examines the advantages of backward design as well as universal principles which provide a learning landscape that is equitable for all learners by allowing them an equal chance at success through listening carefully and responding constructively.
Appropriate for: Teaching and Non-Teaching Faculty, Instructional Designers, and anyone interested in Course Design
This circle delves deeply into Lumen Circles’ evidence-based teaching framework and how faculty members can build a body of evidence in their classes around how teaching and learning activities support student success. Faculty fellows will practice evidence-based teaching strategies and reflect on their impact. Through learning by doing and experience-sharing, faculty will explore backward design, learning outcome alignment, differentiated instruction, assessment design, and other evidence-based practices that contribute to improving learning and teaching effectiveness.
This circle invites faculty to explore generative AI in the context of evidence-based teaching practices. Throughout the fellowship, educators will learn how AI tools can help them personalize learning, enhance engagement, and provide students with valuable feedback, all while learning about and following evidence-based teaching practices. This circle will help instructors learn how to utilize generative AI to create dynamic and effective learning experiences for their students.
Designed for faculty who are newer to teaching online, this circle focuses expressly on the online modality and provides opportunities to explore and apply best practices for teaching online that align with Lumen Circles’ evidence-based teaching framework. Faculty fellows will practice highly effective teaching strategies for the online modality and reflect on their impact. Through learning by doing and experience-sharing, faculty develop their teaching capabilities with techniques that engage students in the online setting and support their success.
This circle provides opportunities to explore strategies to engage students more actively in the learning process, whether educators are teaching face-to-face, online, and/or hybrid classes. Faculty fellows will practice active learning strategies aligned with Lumen Circles’ evidence-based teaching framework and reflect on their impact. Through learning by doing and experience-sharing, they will also enrich their understanding of effective student engagement techniques and how to make learning interactive and applied to support students’ success.
This circle invites fellows to explore how to apply evidence-based teaching strategies in the context of using OER and OER-enabled pedagogy. Through learning by doing and experience-sharing, faculty develop their teaching capabilities with techniques that use the principles of open education to engage students and strengthen their success as they use openly-licensed content in their classes.
What’s Included in Every Fellowship
What’s Included in Every Fellowship
Cost Per Fellowship: $750
- 9-week virtual community of practice engaging with faculty peers
- Weekly activities to explore, apply, and reflect on effective teaching practices (~2 hours/week)
- Individualized coaching focused on your goals for teaching effectiveness
- Build on your strengths and develop skills to expand your teaching repertory
- Access to resource-rich Lumen Circles Platform and evidence-based teaching framework
- Asynchronous program to fit busy schedules
- Earn a Lumen Circles Certificate in Effective Teaching Practice
- For institutional and departmental implementations: Track and report on the alignment between institutional objectives and faculty progress using effective teaching practices
How Do Lumen Circles Work?
Set goals. Identify how you want to develop your teaching practice and pedagogical profile.
Build skills. Virtual, workshop-style learning opportunities expand your teaching repertory, help you work smarter through teaching “hacks,” and deepen your understanding of evidence-based practices.
Teach and reflect. Apply what you’re learning, consider how it’s working for your students and where to improve.
Share via virtual learning circles. Connect with peers, exchange feedback, and collect new ideas through expertly-facilitated learning circles. Our user-friendly platform makes it simple to connect and collaborate.
Recognize growth and progress. Track progress towards goals and see your teaching evolve as you incorporate new practices with students.
Pick the Offering that Works for You
We offer Lumen Circles experiences with different areas of focus, levels of depth, and duration.
- Lumen Circle Fellowships: Build skills in targeted areas, apply what you’re learning, and collaborate within a virtual learning circle
- Learn more about which fellowship is right for you in a Lumen Circles: What to Expect Webinar.
What’s Your Role?
Your connection with students is paramount to their success, but knowing how to reach them can be challenging. Lumen Circles provide opportunities to expand your teaching repertory in areas you want to grow. You can join colleagues to learn, share ideas, compare experiences, and be part of a thriving community focused on evidence-based teaching for today’s students.
Lumen Circles complement your center’s resources and priorities. Some centers offer a full menu of programs but struggle to generate meaningful evaluation data. Others cater to new faculty, but they sometimes overlook faculty who are later in their careers. Still others struggle to meet the needs of part-time faculty or graduate students. We can tailor offerings to fit the faculty members you want to reach with skill-building and professional growth focused on teaching practices that impact student success. We also offer flexible options around pricing and scale.
Recognizing student success is a result of faculty success, Lumen Circles can help you provide a broader foundation of faculty support to transform teaching and learning with a focus on evidence-based instructional practices. We can also help you track alignment and measure progress towards institutional and faculty goals for improving teaching practice.
Lumen Circles FAQs
Do you have a question we don’t answer here? Contact us or send a note to info@lumenlearning.com.
Lumen Circles’ evidence-based teaching framework uses a methodology and process originally adapted from research published inTaking College Teaching Seriously: Pedagogy Matters by Gail Mellow, Diana Woolis, Marisa Klages-Bombich and Susan Restler. In work funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lumen expanded the framework to add a “Belonging” theme that fully incorporates practices associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion into the Lumen Circles model. The framework identifies practices that increase student success, according to research evidence. Lumen Circles’ methodology guides faculty members through a process to recognize, explore and apply these effective practices in their teaching. It helps them become more aware and purposeful about making pedagogical choices that support student success.
Primary principles include:
- Self-reflection: Faculty fellows examine their own teaching practices to become more aware of pedagogical choices and their impact on student success.
- Appreciative Inquiry: This inquiry method invites educators to recognize and celebrate their strengths and what’s working in their teaching practice, and then using this as a foundation for self-directed growth and improvement.
- Evidence-based Instructional Principles: To help faculty make the learning environment more student-centered, we encourage them to explore and try out specific practices aligned in four distinct dimensions of teaching practice: Supportive, Challenging, Organized, and Varied.
- Pedagogical Analytics: As fellows progress through the Lumen Circles experience, we measure changes in faculty teaching patterns, progress towards their teaching goals, and how this aligns with institutional goals and changes in student outcomes.
We construct virtual learning circles with careful attention to the goals and context of faculty members participating in Lumen Circles fellowships. Learning circles always align with the theme of the fellowship to connect faculty with peers working to expand their teaching practice in similar directions. As a rule, learning circles include faculty from multiple institutions teaching in related disciplines, such as STEM or social sciences. We may make exceptions to this rule in order to support specific institutional objectives, such as learning circles to connect faculty with peers from their own institution.
We coordinate start and end dates for Lumen Circles fellowships and other professional development programs to align with the academic calendar and windows when the experience will be most productive for participating faculty members. Staggered start dates generally coincide with the start of term for spring (winter), summer, and fall. Depending on interest, faculty availability, and demand, we can add additional fellowship terms as needed.
Note the Lumen Circles experience does require that faculty are actively teaching during a majority of their fellowship term because reflective practice is most beneficial when there are immediate opportunities to consider teaching choices, evaluate what’s working and try out new pedagogical directions.