Presentations & Publications

February 10, 2026

James Lang, a professor of the practice at the University of Notre Dame’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence, said professors who prohibit the use of personal devices in the classroom have admirable intentions. But he thinks at this point it is impossible to fully eliminate the devices from that space. He said students will be more engaged if professors allocate more class time to hands-on activities.

December 16, 2025

“If you continue to ask students to create presentations and write essays—and you don’t teach the component skills—you shouldn’t wonder that students will seek help from an AI tool that will complete the work for them,” writes Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence. “If you don’t want them to default to AI, the classroom has to become the laboratory for practicing the skills that you care about: reading, writing, problem solving, thinking, and creating.”

September 03, 2025

“Think about your expectations when you sit down in a lecture hall to hear a talk or watch a performance,” writes Kristi Rudenga, director of Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence. “Even if you like the topic, you settle into your seat assuming that you don’t need to be completely attentive and can tune out with little consequence when your interest wanes. Your students bring those same expectations to lecture halls. To disrupt that passive dynamic requires intentional action on the part of the faculty member.”

August 19, 2025

“The biggest perennial challenge of classroom teaching—getting the attention of a bunch of nonexperts—is vital for public-facing writing, too,” writes Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence. “The same techniques that help students learn in your classroom can also help you to reach and ‘teach’ nonacademic readers.”

July 21, 2025

“As faculty members, we can’t control the accuracy of media coverage of our research,” writes Kristi Rudenga, director of Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence. “But we can teach our students how to read and understand scientific literature, so that when they talk about science—in their coursework or on social media—they do so correctly.”

July 10, 2025

“Expanding your readership usually means expanding yourself as a writer, and that includes playing with both structure and evidence,” writes Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence. “You don’t have to write experimental novels about your scholarship or abandon traditional forms of evidence in your discipline. Just approach the work of writing as you approach your teaching: with a willingness to experiment, learn, and grow in the service of your learners.”

May 16, 2025

“In writing nonfiction, you are creating learning experiences for readers,” writes Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence. “You can get better at it by following a simple principle: Write like you teach.”

January 31, 2025

“A visitor is coming to your classroom to watch you teach, and you’re worried,” write Jim Lang and Kristi Rudenga of Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence. “Maybe your teaching is being evaluated for tenure or promotion. Or maybe you have been asked to teach a class as part of a job interview.” Lang and Rudenga offer four strategies to “broadcast your teaching excellence” in just such a scenario.

January 07, 2025

“There’s no telling what will work for you, so take every piece of writing advice you read with a grain of salt, mine included,” writes Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence, who has a new book, Write Like You Teach, due out this May. “But I share my experience with rituals in service of offering a simple productivity tip that might eliminate whatever barrier is preventing you from writing in this moment.”