UofL’s fully online programs were acknowledged among some of the top education programs for online students in 2021 across the following categories: 

• Online bachelor’s
• Online bachelor’s psychology
• Online graduate criminal justice
• Online graduate education
• Online graduate engineering 

UofL’s online bachelor’s ranking rose nearly 40 spots between the 2020 and 2021 reports. UofL also is ranked as a Best Online Program for Veterans across all the same categories.

“Online learning is an extremely important area of growth for the University of Louisville,” said Gale Rhodes, vice provost and executive director of the Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning. “We continually strive to offer programs that deliver flexible education at the standard of quality UofL is known for while also meeting the needs of learners today, who often are juggling careers, families and other priorities while pursuing an education. This recognition by U.S. News & World Report is a testament to our commitment to bring market-driven online education opportunities to students.”

In pursuit of extending education opportunities to the Greater Louisville area and beyond, UofL launched 14 new online programs in 2020 including a managerial analytics certificate, a healthcare administration master’s, interdisciplinary early childhood education programs, engineering programs in areas like artificial intelligence in medicine and materials and energy sciences, as well as a business administration bachelor’s degree.

Online programs are targeted toward the non-traditional students, including adult learners, working professionals, military and degree completer students – as well as anyone looking to earn a college credential through flexible, high-quality online education.

They include Khaldoun Almousily, Classical and Modern Languages in the College of Arts & Sciences; Kathryn Harman,  Health and Sport Sciences, College of łÉÈËֱȄ and Human Development; Ahmed Shalaby, Bioengineering, J.B. Speed School of Engineering; John Finch, Early Childhood and Elementary łÉÈËֱȄ, CEHD; and Emily Schnarr, Management, College of Business.

“The best part of my position right now is seeing our University of Louisville students become teachers. And I know when that transition happens,” Finch said. “I tell them early on that when you come into this course, this classroom, I don’t want you thinking and being a University of Louisville student. You are to be a teacher.  You are to think like a teacher, act like a teacher. You’re a teacher.  And that’s the way I’m going to treat you, that’s the way I want you to think, look and act. So when I see that transition, it’s absolutely phenomenal.” 

Shalaby, who teaches a class called managing big data in medicine, said the subject matter is complex and therefore needs to be simplified more. 

“I break down the information into smallest, smaller pieces that make easy for students easier to understand it,” Shalaby said. 

Harman agrees with the method of simplification for her course, which covers a lot of information about muscle function and how muscles create movements at joints. 

“I can’t just talk about it. I have to show them,” she said, adding that it’s important to give students a different way to look at course materials. 

Almousily’s approach to teaching is to add context to prepare students to be global citizens. 

“I want them to say I’m glad the class is over, I’m going to go practice what I learned,” he said. “The first thing we do in teaching is engaging. If a student is not engaged in the class I don’t think they’re going to learn anything. I want them to be the center of attention, the center of the class.”

“I tell my students … they’re the ones that keep me coming back and doing what I do,” Finch adds. 

Check out our Faculty Favorites in their own words: 

“The demand for online learning options continues to grow across all areas of study and fields and more adult students gravitate toward online learning methods than ever before,” said Gale Rhodes, vice provost and executive director of the Delphi Center. “We want to be at the forefront of meeting the demand for flexible and affordable learning for all professionals.”

UofL’s Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning, which provides programming and other resources to faculty members that encourage excellence in teaching and foster student learning, started working with academic units in 2001 to offer online programs. Criminal Justice, Public Administration and Human Resource łÉÈËֱȄ were the first online programs offered at UofL.

With the addition of the five new degrees, UofL now offers 29 online programs. This is the first time so many have been added at once. This expansion will broaden access to education for students who are not able to come to campus and want to earn a degree from UofL.

“We envision more accelerated growth as online learning becomes a strategic goal for UofL and its colleges and academic units,” Rhodes said. “We want to be strategic in aligning our online programs with the growth and needs across industries, not only here in Kentucky but also across the U.S. and even abroad.”

All programs can be viewed .

At a glance mid-construction, the Belknap Academic Classroom Building very much looks the part it was meant to play – contemporary, state-of-the-art, spacious.

The nearly 170,000-square-foot building, on pace to open by the fall semester, is dedicated entirely to student success as evidenced through its active learning classrooms. The classrooms, for example, will include movable furniture, white boards for student use and interactive Mersive Solstice pods for wireless connection to classroom displays.

The building also has many informal meeting spaces for group work and projects outside of class time, a Student Success Center and labs for physics, biology, chemistry and anthropology.

Think: less lecture hall, more student/teacher engagement.

According to Gale Rhodes, executive director of the Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning, traditional, faculty-centered teaching methods are not always optimal for student learning.

“Innovation in higher education is essential and traditional. Research on learning and in brain science has demonstrated that interactive, student-centered teaching methods position students for greater success,” she said.

There is ample evidence to support this approach and that research stretches back throughout the past 30 years. Active learning research traces its roots to the Studio Course model at Rensselar Polytechnic Institute, which was incorporated into the curriculum in 1994. NC State Physics Professor Robert Beichner also pioneered the Scale-Up classroom in the mid-1990s, which focused on student interactivity, or “upside down pedagogies.”

One of the most cited studies is Scott Freeman’s 2014 paper that analyzed 263 active learning studies. Freeman and his colleagues found that students’ probability of failure was significantly less with active learning.

However, translation to practice has been slow, according to Rhodes, due in part to faculty’s and students’ notions of what effective teaching and learning is.

“In the past, there has been a lack of support for faculty to innovate. That’s what this building will do,” she said.

There are plenty of universities and colleges that have active learning classrooms, but very few have entire classroom buildings dedicated to active learning.

“We will be one of a small group of universities in the country to have a large classroom building entirely dedicated to active learning classrooms. The University of Minnesota built one of the first buildings in 2010, and only a handful have opened since,” Rhodes said, adding that experts predict ALCs will be mainstream by 2020.

In preparation for the fall 2018 opening of the BACB, UofL’s Teaching Innovation Learning Lab has been supporting and training faculty for this approach.

“(The TILL) provides an opportunity to experiment in a state-of-the-art learning space while having the benefit of technological and instruction support, and it is equipped with identical technology that will be found in the new building,” Rhodes said.

Learning spaces represent improved understanding of pedagogy

Jeff Hieb, assistant professor of Engineering Fundamentals in the Speed School, said he will spend time in the new building observing how other faculty are using these classrooms. Still, he doesn’t consider the BACB’s focus to be on new teaching methods as much as it is on new learning spaces.

“The reason we need a building with new types of learning spaces is that they represent our improved understanding of the role technology, space and pedagogy can play in student learning and student success,” Hieb said. “The spaces improve student interaction, allow faculty to have high quality interactions with small groups of students, and the technology is designed to promote collaboration, which is a skill students need to develop.”

In addition to improving interaction and collaboration, Rhodes said the building will also serve as an effective recruitment and retention tool for the University of Louisville.

“This state-of-the-art building will attract first- and second-year students and top faculty to UofL, retain them, and best meet their advising and support needs,” she said. “It represents the new future of teaching, allowing our university to meet educational needs in ways we never have before.”

Speakers included Melissa Shuter, conference program chair and executive director of Business Operations; Toni Ganzel, dean of the School of Medicine and interim executive dean for Health Sciences; Dawne Gee, WAVE 3 News anchor and host; and Maryanne Honeycutt Elliott, an instructor in the Delphi Center. Participants were also treated to intermittent mindfulness exercises led by Karen Newton, and a mindfulness workshop, led by Katrina Kaufman, both from UofL Health Promotions.

Toni Ganzel

Toni Ganzel talked about her career path, which led to her becoming the first female dean of the School of Medicine in its 180-year existence. She grew up in an Air Force family, which taught her how to be adaptable. When she was young, she wanted to be Wonder Woman, complete with red boots. When she realized Wonder Woman was fictional, she wanted to be a flight attendant, also complete with red boots.

In seventh grade, however, Ganzel started to become interested in science.

“I didn’t want to go to med school, but I did well on my MCAT so I thought ‘what the heck?’” she said.

Eventually, Ganzel also received her MBA as she thought it would help her better serve patients and the medical field in general. 

When Ganzel was approached to take on the then-interim dean role in 2012, her response was “Who, me?” She said her response would be much different now. “Why not me?” she said.

Ganzel said the sweet spot of leadership is when passion, goals and skillset meet opportunity and timing. She also noted her optimism about the future of UofL.

“We’re at an inflection point,” she said. “Bright days are ahead.”

Dawne Gee

Dawne Gee, who identified as a “proud UofL alum” during her presentation, discussed the challenges she has overcome since fighting a cancer diagnosis in 2014 and experiencing a stroke on Nov. 25, 2016, noting she can stand for about 26 minutes at a time and is still recovering. She said being mindful of her attitude is what has helped her most through these struggles.

“Attitude is like your underwear. You get up, you pick what you’re going to wear and if you don’t like it, you change it. You either put on a pair that is comfy or you put on a pair that rides you all day,” she joked. “Happiness is a choice. The only difference between a good day and a bad day is attitude.”

Gee encouraged attendees to go on a “mental health diet,” in which they go seven consecutive days saying nothing but good things. She admits she starts this diet over all the time.

“If I was still in that place I was in when I had the stroke, when I couldn’t walk 
 I wrapped myself in depression like a coat,” Gee said, holding back tears. “One day I made a decision to stop. Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right. But you have to claim your ‘I am.’ And I am whole.”

Gee also discussed her career at WAVE, which she joined in 1994. At first, she was told she would never be on TV, but she persisted.

“They didn’t know me. I applied to WAVE nine times,” she said. “Every time I hear someone saying ‘you’re not going to do it,’ I just cut that chatter out. We have to decide for ourselves what we can do.”

Gee also warned attendees to be aware of what others may be going through.

“I guarantee someone in this room – someone at your table – is going through a battle you know nothing about,” she said. “If someone snaps at you, cut them a break. You don’t know what they’re going through.”

Finally, Gee told participants to take care of themselves and “be in the moment you’re in because it won’t come again.”

Maryanne Honeycutt Elliott

Maryanne Honeycutt Elliott guided participants through the DiSC assessments they were tasked with taking prior to the conference. DiSC scores profiles based on a series of questions and ranks them based on potential strengths and weaknesses in Dominance (results-oriented, decisive, independent), Influence (enthusiastic, talkers), Steadiness (stable, agreeable, helpful) and Conscientious (detailed, orderly, persistent).

“We can flex into any style, we just tend to come back to the comfortable domain,” Elliott explained. “DiSC is designed to grow self-awareness. Part of leadership is knowing yourself well. Self-awareness is the key to working effectively with others. Great teams are comprised of people all over the DiSC chart.”

Videos/statistics

The conference also included videos and slides created to make attendees think about perceptions, reality and leadership attributes.

For example, women speak about 20,000 words a day, or about 13,000 more words than men. In 2015, women made, on average, 80 cents to the dollar. The women’s labor force participation rate is projected to be 57 percent by 2020.  

Commercials shown included Pantene’s “Not Sorry Shine Strong;” Always’ “Like a Girl;” and Dove’s “You’re More Beautiful Than You Think.”

Also, Drew Dudley’s “Leading with Lollipops” TEDx talk was shown and is embedded below.

The 6th annual Pathways Women’s Leadership Conference is scheduled for May 18, 2018. 

Longerbeam joined UofL as associate professor in Counseling and Human Development this fall. She brought with her a deep commitment to students and an interest in using research around culture to encourage student success.

For the past six years, Longerbeam has been working with Dr. Alicia ChĂĄvez of the University of New Mexico to explore the topic of teaching and learning across cultural strengths. The pair has published two books and numerous articles on the subject, and they will deliver the closing keynote presentation at the annual Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher łÉÈËֱȄ conference in Louisville on November 13.

“In higher education we’ve done a lot of work about students, but we have not often turned the lens back on ourselves. When we do that, what we discover is our own cultural origins influence how we teach and how students experience us,” said Longerbeam.

An interactive workshop exclusively for UofL faculty and staff will be held on November 14 from 2-4 p.m. The workshop, will introduce a model of cultural frameworks in teaching and learning with many applications across disciplines.

Longerbeam and ChĂĄvez will share examples from their work to demonstrate how developing a greater understanding of cultural values, beliefs, assumptions and behaviors can impact student success.

“Our program helps faculty meet students in their own cultural norms,” Longerbeam explained. “It is more rewarding for us as faculty when we can reach students and support them in their success.”

Interested faculty can learn more about the workshop and register at the