Professional Development Session: From Objects to Partners: Reimagining Curriculum Review through a SoTL Lens
November 18, 2026, 4 pm (CST)
by Kristen Moore, PhD. and Stephen Weiss, CPA.
Current work in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) emphasizes partnership with students as a high impact practice that can reshape curriculum design and review, especially in online and hybrid environments. Instead of treating students primarily as sources of survey data, partnership models invite them to co-formulate questions about learning, interpret evidence, and redesign assignments, policies, and syllabus language. This session introduces SoTL as systematic, context sensitive inquiry into student learning that is informed by prior scholarship and made public, then focuses on what changes when students and colleagues are invited into that inquiry as partners rather than recipients in distance learning contexts.
To make this concrete, the session highlights two simple online activities that instructors can adapt in their own courses. A feedback partnership map helps faculty move beyond sole reliance on end of course surveys by identifying alternative, dialogic ways to invite students into ongoing conversations about assignments, criteria, and learning experiences in virtual spaces. A mini-partnership studio shows how students can act as co-designers of an assignment or rubric in a shared digital space, suggesting revisions, surfacing bottlenecks, and helping articulate SoTL questions about the impact of the redesign on learning at a distance. Generative tools may appear as optional aids for organizing feedback or exploring alternative wording, but they are not the center of the work. The emphasis is on collaborative SoTL practices that deepen learning, enhance belonging, and build sustainable cultures of shared inquiry about teaching online.
Session Outcomes
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Describe how a SoTL lens reframes curriculum review in online and hybrid courses as collaborative inquiry into student learning rather than a private maintenance task.
- Explain key features of student faculty partnership in SoTL and identify at least two ways to involve students more directly in reviewing distance learning assignments or policies.
- Adapt a feedback partnership map and a mini-partnership studio activity for use in their own online or hybrid courses to generate richer evidence about student learning and experience at a distance.
Speakers
Dr. Kristen Moore is a learner-focused professor with over 20 years of instructional experience. She holds a PhD from Saint Louis University, a MAHR from Ottawa University, an ESL teaching certificate from Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) and an M.Ed. from Colorado State University. She enjoys engaging learners in multiple learning modalities focusing on organizational behavior, leadership, H.R., and research. She has a passion for international education and learning through travel and cultural exchange. Mentoring is another important area of research and practice for Dr. Moore. She lives in Kansas City and enjoys time with friends and family.
Dr. Stephen M. Weiss, CPA, is an Associate Professor of Accounting at Ottawa University, specializing in online graduate and undergraduate instruction in advanced, intermediate, managerial, and cost accounting. He designs data‑driven, CPA‑aligned curricula that integrate real‑world cases, generative AI, and learning analytics to improve student engagement and outcomes. Stephen’s scholarship and practice focus on accounting education, assessment design, and effective use of educational technology in asynchronous and hybrid environments. He regularly mentors faculty on AI‑enhanced teaching workflows, course redesign, and scalable feedback strategies in learning management systems.