Cornell University faculty will share classroom approaches to belonging, motivation and inclusive course design at a Sept. 30 teaching symposium in Ithaca. The Center for Teaching Innovation's annual “What Works” event will be held for Cornell faculty, teaching staff and postdoctoral scholars to attend.
The symposium runs from 1:30 to 4 p.m. in the second-floor Multipurpose Room of the Computing and Communications Center. This year's title is “What Works: Belonging, Motivation and Agency for Meaningful Learning.”
Four faculty presentations will examine how instructors can build classroom community, give students more agency in learning and design courses for people with varied needs. Facilitated discussions between the presentations will give attendees a chance to exchange their own teaching strategies and challenges.
Marianella Casasola, a professor and senior associate dean for undergraduate affairs in the College of Human Ecology, will open at 1:30 p.m. with a session on community and belonging. At 2 p.m., Sara Warner, an associate professor of performing and media arts, will discuss motivation and agency.
The 3 p.m. session on inclusive design features Alexandra Coso Strong, an engineering professor and director of the Duffield Engineering Education Research Institute, and Landon Schnabel, an associate professor of sociology. Organizers did not list a separate registration deadline in the announcement.
Coso Strong said course design can help support students with different learning needs. Organizers said the discussions are meant to give instructors space to talk about methods that worked, approaches that did not and how they adjusted.
The event will also recognize Cornell's Spring 2026 Canvas Course Spotlight honorees. That program uses student survey feedback to identify course designs students found especially helpful to their learning.
Melina Ivanchikova, a Center for Teaching Innovation associate director, said instructors are weighing familiar questions about inclusion and student motivation alongside disruptions from artificial intelligence. The symposium is designed as a conversation among educators, not a presentation of a new university teaching requirement.
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