Expanding the NEST

Expanding the NEST is an initiative designed and supported by the CETL team for all Kennesaw State University Educators. NEST stands for Nurturing Environments through Scholarly Teaching. Environments include, but are not limited to, physical classrooms, online spaces, office suites, and events.

More information on engagement indicators can be found on the NSSE website

The resource document offered here was created by CETL to support faculty as they cultivate student success at KSU. We developed this resource to connect with data from KSU Student Responses to the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). With this data, CETL identified practices to support in the three highlighted areas extracted from our NSSE report: Student-Faculty Interaction, Effective Teaching Practices, and Supportive Environments.

Using the Resource

CETL acknowledges this is not an all-inclusive list. The suggested practices are intended as a menu, and we do not expect faculty to implement all 25 practices. On the other hand, many of us already use some of these practices. This document may serve to validate beneficial practices around cultivating student success that you are already using, while also offering new suggestions. You can further explore inclusive teaching through conversations with colleagues, consultations with CETL, or relevant teaching and learning scholarship (e.g., CETL's Inclusive Teaching Practices).

You are welcome to print this resource out, but it is most beneficial in the electronic format to access the links embedded throughout. 

preview of expanding the nest document

Recognition

Click the button below to complete the Expanding the Nest questionnaire. Please include the practices you engaged in for the Fall 2024 and Summer 2024 semesters. More information on eligibility and helpful checklists can be found below.

NOTE: Optional fields (e.g. ARD, FPA fields), which appear for full-time faculty, are not required. 

Expanding the NEST Questionnaire

CETL recognizes and celebrates faculty and staff at KSU who have made significant efforts to engage in evidence-based practices known to promote student success.  

Each semester, we will recognize three categories of KSU educators and non-teaching staff who have demonstrated strong commitments to cultivating student success: Champions, Innovators, and Advocates. We will celebrate this recognition at our annual Celebration of Teaching Day event (occurs at the end of every fall semester). 

To be eligible for each category, KSU educators and staff must identify the number of Expanding the NEST practices they have engaged in during the semester.

  • Eligibility
    Faculty/Educators*
    Non-Teaching Staff
  • Champion
    25 NEST Practices
    8 NEST Practices
  • Innovator
    15 NEST Practices
    5 NEST Practices
  • Advocates
    6 NEST Practices
    3 NEST Practices

*At least one practice engaged by KSU educators must include an institutional initiative.  These initiatives are reflected in practices #7, 8, 16, 17, and 18.

If you would like to be recognized as NEST Champion, Innovator, or Advocate, the submission period for recognition for the fall semester is open October 1, 2024 - October 21, 2024.  

We encourage you to review the Expanding the NEST resources and make a plan for engaging in the menu of practices.

Nest Champion Checklist Teaching

expanding the nest checklist teaching

Nest Champion Checklist Non-Teaching

expanding the nest checklist non teaching

Events

In addition to providing one-on-one consulting services in any of this work, CETL is offering workshops and events throughout the semester focused on different practices found within the menu of options to cultivate student success.

  • light bulb filled with fairy lights being held in hands

    August 19 - Building Rapport: Faculty-Student Interactions that Improve Connection

    Laura Howard, Senior Teaching and Learning Consultant, is hosting workshop where participants will collaborate to define rapport in faculty-student interactions; explore scholarship on how these interactions can improve connection; and identify specific strategies for building rapport to try in their own classrooms. Discussion topics will include opportunities to build connections and demonstrate care for students, while encouraging meaningful interactions with and among students. Strategies for building rapport will include linguistic choices, effective communication, and evidence-based “faculty persistence” interventions.

    This workshop connects with the following practice:

    • #1 Build rapport through icebreakers, small group activities, collaborative thinking, tone, etc.
    Register in OwlTrain
    • hand holding a camera lens where the area in the lens is in focus and the rest is blurry. Scene is of water on the horizon.

      November 6 - Designing Your Syllabus to Focus on Learning

      CETL Faculty Fellow Misty Grayer is hosting a workshop which will cover strategies for creating a learning-focused syllabus that sets the tone for your course, establishes clear learning objectives, and focuses on student needs and learning.

      This workshop connects with the following practice:

      • #9 Design your syllabus to focus on learning rather than content with this empirically validated rubric.
      Register in OwlTrain
      • picture of a person shadowed with the sun behind them doing a yoga position

        November 7 - Flexible Policies: Rethinking Course Policies for Student Success

        Laura Howard, Senior Teaching and Learning Consultant, is hosting a workshop where participants are invited to reflect on and explore how flexible course policies that anticipate student needs can serve as a foundation for success in the classroom and beyond. Additionally, participants will consider ways to implement some of the effective teaching practices presented in the workshop and how these might shape their course policies going forward.

        This workshop connects with the following practice:

        • #19 Recognize that many students have legitimate reasons to occasionally be absent, turn in work
          late, leave class early, and design course policies that accommodate those contingencies.
        Register in OwlTrain
        • headshot of Jim Lang

          November 20 - Celebration of Teaching Day

          CETL is hosting our inaugural Celebration of Teaching Day. At this event, faculty will be recognized for engaging in practices found in the Expanding the NEST resource as well as other student success practices. 

          James Lang, author of Small Teaching and Distracted, will provide the keynote for the event highlighting small actions faculty can commit to towards student success. 

          Registration Coming Soon

           

          ©