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Collaboration with National Education Equity Lab to Create Pathways to Notre Dame

2025-05-07T12:32:00-04:00

Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., knows what it’s like to have more than your chances of being admitted on your mind when applying to college.

“When I was accepted to Notre Dame, tuition was much lower, but still out of reach for my family,” he said during his inauguration as the University’s 18th president last September. “My mom, the head of a single-parent household, knowing that it was my dream to attend Notre Dame, refinanced our house and took out loans to send me here. Decades later, it’s just not realistic to expect people to do what my mom did.”

Even with extraordinary financial aid, Fr. Dowd noted, rising costs have deterred far too many talented young people drawn to the University’s mission from pursuing a Notre Dame education. That’s why during his inaugural address, he announced the University’s move to make financial aid loan-free and admissions need-blind for all undergraduate students.

Now, in the spirit of this commitment, a group of campus units led by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning (ODL) are building another kind of pathway to the University for students who might not otherwise envision themselves as candidates to attend. It is an initiative made possible through a collaboration with the National Education Equity Lab, which partners with top universities to deliver actual college credit-bearing courses and supports to scholars in low-income high school classrooms across the nation.

Working with the Ed Equity Lab, Notre Dame will offer a course titled Responsible and Ethical AI to approximately 250 students at Title I and Title I-eligible high schools—those with large populations of students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds—on a pilot basis in fall 2025. There is no cost to the students to take the course, and they will earn college credits and a transcript from Notre Dame upon finishing it.

High schoolers who successfully complete this or any other Ed Equity Lab course can typically apply their credits to the pursuit of a degree at any college or university at which they are accepted and subsequently enroll. In addition to contributing to the general college readiness of all students who take its AI course, Notre Dame’s participation in the program is expected to inspire a number of harder-to-reach students with immense talent to apply to the University.

“Our collaboration with the Ed Equity Lab is very much in keeping with Fr. Dowd’s call that we should build bridges for deserving students, regardless of their socioeconomic background, to be able to attend Notre Dame,” said Ron Metoyer, vice president and associate provost for teaching and learning. “I’m grateful to the many individuals on campus who have teamed up to turn a great idea into what promises to be a meaningful educational experience.”

Designed and developed by learning professionals in the ODL with faculty in Notre Dame’s Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society, the Responsible and Ethical AI course will be considered a University elective and delivered entirely online.

“As AI continues to have a profound impact on the workforce, the environment, and public trust in media, it is imperative we give students the opportunity to thoughtfully examine its societal implications as early as possible,” said Nitesh Chawla, Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and the Lucy Family Institute’s founding director. “Introducing college-level coursework to interested high school students and engaging them in these thoughtful conversations can benefit not only their futures, but all of ours.”

Valya Kuskova, a professor of the practice and associate director of the Lucy Family Institute, will serve as the course’s instructor. In addition, current undergraduates in the Lucy Family Institute’s iTREDS (Interdisciplinary Training and Research in Ethical Data Science) Scholars Program will work with the high school students weekly as teaching fellows while a high school teacher will support scholars directly in the classroom.

The list of Notre Dame campus contributors doesn’t stop with the Lucy Family Institute and the ODL. The Office of the Registrar, Academic Advising, the Office of Pre-College Programs, and Undergraduate Admissions have all played essential roles in the pilot process. So, too, has the Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI), which will partner with the Lucy Family Institute and the ODL to evaluate the impact of the course.

“A project of this scope truly requires that we think and work together as an institution,” said Sonia Howell, director of the ODL. “That collaboration will continue both in the delivery of the course itself and as we in the ODL work with the IEI to explore expanding the list of high schools the Ed Equity Lab serves. The goal there is to create pathways for more high-achieving students in under-resourced Catholic schools in particular to attend Notre Dame and other leading colleges and universities.”

Through this pilot, Notre Dame joins Howard University, Brown University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Stanford University, Wesleyan University, Cornell University, Georgetown University, Arizona State University, and others as part of the Ed Equity Lab consortium.

“We are thrilled that Notre Dame will be joining our consortium of top colleges and universities offering college courses to scholars from low-income communities across the country,” said Ed Equity Lab founder and CEO Leslie Cornfeld. “We are especially inspired by Notre Dame’s deep commitment to expanding college access. They aren’t just saying the right things, they’re rolling up their sleeves and moving to action to enable the American Dream.”

Originally published by ND Learning at learning.nd.edu on May 05, 2025.

Acclaimed teaching scholar James Lang joins Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center

2023-10-27T08:20:00-04:00

James M. Lang, the author of several popular books on teaching, including “Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It” and “Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning,” has joined the faculty of the University of Notre Dame through September of next year.

Lang’s appointment as a visiting professor of the practice is through the Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence, a component of Notre Dame Learning, which serves as the hub of learning excellence and innovation at the University. He will spend approximately one week per month on campus and one week per month working remotely with faculty.

A Notre Dame graduate and former professor of English and director of the D’Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption University, Lang stepped down from full-time academic work in 2021 to focus on his writing and teaching. He has consulted with the United Nations on a multiyear project to develop teaching materials in ethics and integrity for high school and college faculty, and he writes a monthly column for The Chronicle of Higher Education.

During Lang’s time at Notre Dame, Notre Dame Learning will offer regular opportunities for faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and others to interact with him and learn from his decades of experience researching student learning.

“For those of us who care deeply about the education students receive in our classes, Jim’s name is synonymous with inspired teaching,” said Ron Metoyer, Notre Dame’s vice president and associate provost for teaching and learning, who leads the work of Notre Dame Learning. “We are excited to be able to welcome him back to campus on an ongoing basis for the next year.”

“My undergraduate learning experiences at the University of Notre Dame were so transformative that I have continued to reflect and write about them to this day,” Lang said. “I have been admiring the innovative work of the Kaneb Center since it was founded, so I am thrilled to partner with Kristi Rudenga and her team this year. The weeks I will spend at the center will offer me an opportunity to contribute new questions and ideas to the exciting conversations already happening on teaching and learning on campus.”

Upcoming events with Lang include:

Re-Framing Final Assignments for This Semester and Beyond
1-2 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, on Zoom

Lang and Rudenga, the director of the Kaneb Center, will present and discuss three pathways to creating or re-creating final assignments in light of the specific needs of students and the changing conditions in which courses are being taught (e.g., amid the growing presence of artificial intelligence). This online webinar is free and open to instructors and teachers both from Notre Dame and elsewhere, but registration is required.

Conversations Around Big Questions: Assessment in the Age of AI
9-10:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 10, in Meeting Room 2 South W210, Duncan Student Center

This event is designed for members of the Notre Dame teaching community to discuss what AI in practice means for instructors in classrooms, departments and at the University. There will be time to network with colleagues, a short overview of a current unanswered question or innovation in AI, and discussion prompts to consider together. Lang will lead the conversation with the Kaneb Center’s Alex Ambrose, Kathy Quardokus Fisher and Amanda Leary. Notre Dame faculty, postdocs and graduate students can register to attend through the Notre Dame Learning website.

Faculty Seminar — Writing Like A Teacher: Expanding the Audiences for Your Academic Research
Spring 2024

Translating the good teaching practices that support learning in the classroom to the writing strategies that engage readers and help them learn from academic research, Lang will work with Notre Dame faculty interested in reaching audiences beyond their disciplinary peers. The faculty seminar will meet once per month from January through May. To ensure participants receive plentiful feedback on their work, enrollment will be limited. See the application for more details.

Future events with Lang will be posted at learning.nd.edu/jim-lang.

Originally published by Notre Dame Learning at learning.nd.edu on Oct. 26.