2026-2027 Learning Design Fellows Announced

Elizabethtown College’s Teaching and Learning Design Studio has announced its Learning Design Fellows for the 2026-2027 academic year.

The Learning and Design Studio supports the efforts of faculty to improve teaching methods on campus. Fellows are given coaching and support to develop projects with the goal of having their finalized projects used by other faculty on campus. Next year’s fellows are Leda Werner and Dr. Fanny Lawren.

“We were impressed by both of their applications,” Dr. Katie Caprino, director of the Teaching and Learning Design Studio, said. “Both of these projects have the potential to lead to more instructor knowledge, which can, in turn, lead to student success.”

Werner serves as director of the Momentum Program and as a First Year Seminar (FYS) instructor. Her project focuses on creating learning modules designed to better assist newly adjusting students with honing their time management, studying and self-advocacy skills.

“So often what we have time for in the classroom is to say ‘Hey you’re struggling with time management. Here’s a bunch of strategies that could work for you,’” Werner said. “And then it’s up to the student later on to go and figure out, ‘Of all those options my instructor just gave me which one works for me?’”

The inspiration for Werner’s project came from repeated concerns she heard coming from Momentum students, who as first-generation college students are stepping into and readjusting to an environment that can be very unfamiliar to them.

“The ones that always come to the surface are time management, study skills and self-advocacy,” Werner said. “First-generation students specifically have a barrier to asking for help because they feel like that will expose them as they don’t actually have what it takes to succeed here.”

After researching what her modules should look like over the summer, Werner intends to pilot them in her FYS (Journey into Your First Year) and perhaps a few others in the fall before sharing it with more FYS instructors.

“When students come to college, they are often having to manage their time, study, and advocate in ways they did not always have to do before,” Caprino said. “Leda’s project will be quite helpful for our faculty as they support our students.”

Lawren, Assistant Professor of Marketing, will focus on developing a framework for professors to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their curriculum, including assignment templates, workshops and an AI tutor program. Her guidelines will also address mitigating some of the pitfalls of AI use such as AI “hallucinations.”

“AI is a tool, not the destination,” Lawren said. “By centralizing our research efforts, we reduce the burden on our faculty and ensure they have the resources to focus on deep disciplinary learning.”

Professor use of AI at Etown is mixed. Some, like Lawren, have begun introducing AI into lesson plans, but many have not.

“I want to have something that’s already proven to be good so that the other instructors do not have to build things from scratch,” Lawren said. “It’s not like you have to follow this standard; it’s more like I have all this set up already.  It’s easier to modify it from there.”

Lawren has already begun developing some of these guidelines as the School of Business has pushed AI integration.

“My goal is to develop the guidelines so that the teacher can pass it to the student,” Lawren said.

Once complete, her project will be introduced first into the School of Business and then to the rest of the college should it prove successful.

“Fanny’s project addresses an area of great interest at Elizabethtown and higher education broadly—AI,” Caprino said.