Lumen Circles Program Descriptions and Schedule
Fellowships offer an extended professional development experience with opportunities to learn and apply new skills with support from a community of peers.
The Advanced Generative AI for Teaching and Learning fellowship explores the transformative power of using AI from a wide range of perspectives – from prompt engineering, to creating with images, audio, and video, to creating custom chatbots and analyzing data for your course. Throughout the fellowship, you will learn how AI tools can help you make learning more engaging, save time on administrative and other tasks, as well as help students prepare for their future AI use in the workplace. This Circle is for faculty who have been using Gen AI in their teaching materials, with students, and want to deepen their Gen AI use and practice.
Upcoming Fellowship Start Dates:
- February 4, 2026
- February 18, 2026
- March 4, 2026
- June 3, 2026 (summer session)
*Circles for non-teaching faculty are offered periodically throughout the year.
Learn more about Advanced Generative AI for Teaching and Learning
The Fostering Belonging for Student Success Circle is about creating environments where all students feel they belong and can thrive personally and academically. We do this by building skills around evidence-based teaching practices that help us teach inclusively and effectively. By engaging in a community of practice, you will share ideas with others in your Circle and bring your learning into the classroom to ensure students feel they belong in your class.
Upcoming Fellowship Start Dates:
- February 4, 2026
- February 18, 2026
- March 4, 2026
- June 3, 2026 (summer session)
*Circles for non-teaching faculty are offered periodically throughout the year.
Learn more about Belonging and Inclusive Teaching Fundamentals.
Lumen Circle’s Course Design for Student Success fellowship encourages educators to use innovative, evidence-based strategies to create courses where each student feels included and empowered. The Circle curriculum examines the advantages of backward design and universal principles that ensures a learning landscape where faculty listen carefully and respond constructively to students, and students take ownership of their learning and content mastery.
Appropriate for: Teaching and Non-Teaching Faculty, Instructional Designers, and anyone interested in Course Design
Upcoming Fellowship Start Dates:
- February 4, 2026 (8 week)
- February 18, 2026 (8 week)
- March 4, 2026 (8 week)
- May 11, 2026 (4 week)
- June 3, 2026 (4 week)
This circle delves deeply into Lumen Circles’ evidence-based teaching framework and how it supports 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.
Upcoming Fellowship Start Dates:
- February 4, 2026
- February 18, 2026
- March 4, 2026
- June 3, 2026 (summer session)
*Circles for non-teaching faculty are offered periodically throughout the year.
Wanting to use Generative AI appropriately with students? 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, provide students with valuable feedback, all while learning about and following evidence-based teaching practices. This Circle is for faculty who are new to teaching with Generative AI.
Upcoming Fellowship Start Dates:
- February 4, 2026
- February 18, 2026
- March 4, 2026
- June 3, 2026 (summer session)
*Circles for non-teaching faculty are offered periodically throughout the year.
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 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.
Upcoming Fellowship Start Dates:
- February 4, 2026
- February 18, 2026
- March 4, 2026
- June 3, 2026 (summer session)
*Circles for non-teaching faculty are offered periodically throughout the year.
This circle provides opportunities to explore strategies and tools 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 to support students’ success.
Upcoming Fellowship Start Dates:
- February 4, 2026
- February 18, 2026
- March 4, 2026
- June 3, 2026 (summer session)
*Circles for non-teaching faculty are offered periodically throughout the year.
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. Learn to use and create openly-licensed content in concert with students.
Upcoming Fellowship Start Dates:
- February 4, 2026
- February 18, 2026
- March 4, 2026
- June 3, 2026 (summer session)
*Circles for non-teaching faculty are offered periodically throughout the year.
What’s Included in Every Fellowship
Cost Per Fellowship: $750
- 9-week virtual community of practice to connect and develop professionally with faculty peers
- Weekly activities to explore, apply, and reflect on effective teaching practices (1-2 hours/week)
- Build on your strengths and develop skills to expand your teaching repertory
- Set goals and track progress expanding your teaching practice profile
- Work asynchronously in a virtual platform (website) to fit your own schedule
- Earn Lumen Circles Fellowship 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
Lumen Circles FAQs
Do you have a question we don’t answer here? Contact us or send a note to circles@lumenlearning.com.
Lumen Circles’ evidence-based teaching framework uses a methodology and process originally adapted from research published in Taking College Teaching Seriously: Pedagogy Matters by Gail Mellow, Diana Woolis, Marisa Klages-Bombich and Susan Restler. This work presents an evidence-based framework for increasing student success by improving teaching effectiveness. This model is based on six years of research, development, application, and analysis. 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.
Most Lumen Circles participants – or “faculty fellows” – come to us through institutional relationships. A campus lead expresses interest, and we provide tools to help them raise awareness and identify faculty members who want to participate in a Lumen Circles fellowship experience. For more information on institutional partnerships, please reach out to our team at circles@lumenlearning.com
Individual faculty members may also reserve seats for upcoming circles by completing the form on this page.
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.