Content
Century Club is a learning community that supports high-enrollment courses. Supported by the Teaching Council, Century Club offers resources to help improve the learning and teaching experiences in large classes. All instructors and interested parties are welcome to attend and participate.
Century Club meets three times a semester on Zoom, with each meeting focusing on a different topic related to common challenges that large enrollments can present instructors and students alike. Some meetings have guest speakers or panelists, often consisting of some of the great instructors here at UNL. Meeting times and dates are varied to accommodate different audiences.
Here's the Fall 2026 semester at a glance. If you'd like a Zoom link or calendar invite, please email Yulia Levchenko (ylevchenko2@unl.edu) or Travis Knapp (tknapp5@unl.edu)
- Tuesday, September 15 at 12:30 p.m.: Boosting Engagement in High-Enrollment Courses
- Tuesday, October 20 at 2:00 p.m.: Building Community in High-Enrollment Online Courses
- Wednesday, November 11 at 2:00 p.m.: Managing Anxiety in High-Enrollment Courses
In addition to the At Scale Teaching Resource, Century Club also maintains a Canvas course with additional resources and recordings of past meetings. If you do not already have access to the Canvas course, please email Travis Knapp (tknapp5@unl.edu) or Yulia Levchenko (ylevchenko2@unl.edu).
Fall 2026 Details
This three-part workshop series provides practical, evidence-based strategies for increasing engagement, building community, and supporting student well-being in high-enrollment courses. Participants will leave with adaptable tools they can immediately apply to create more inclusive and effective learning experiences.
Boosting Engagement in High-Enrollment Courses
Tuesday, September 15, 12:30 pm | https://unl.zoom.us/j/99152759615
Teaching high-enrollment (HE) courses offers opportunities for rich learning experiences, but it also presents challenges in fostering meaningful student engagement.
The first Century Club session of the Fall 2026 semester is designed for instructors seeking practical, evidence-based strategies to increase participation, motivation, and learning in HE courses. Matt Waite, Professor of Practice at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, will share strategies that have worked in his classes and offer suggestions for how to implement them.
Participants will then discuss creating engaging learning environments through active learning, inclusive teaching practices, technology, and scalable methods for assessing student learning and providing feedback.
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to identify factors that influence engagement in HE courses and develop an action plan to increase engagement in the course in their field. Participants will leave with practical tools and adaptable strategies to create more engaging, inclusive, and effective learning experiences.
Building Community in Online High Enrollment Courses
Tuesday, October 20, 2:00 pm | https://unl.zoom.us/j/91428543864
The second Century Club session of the Fall 2026 semester turns its attention to developing an inclusive learning community. Elina Ibrayeva, Associate Professor of Practice in Management, will speak on building community in online high-enrollment courses through designing personalized activities and content.
In her session, Dr. Ibrayeva will address how faculty teaching large classes often have to rely on automated publisher created content such as McGrawHill smartbooks, mini simulations, and self-assessments in their teaching. Publisher created content provides advantages of standardization and uniformity, use of technology, scalability, and ease of measurement. Innovative teaching, however, may suggest that instructors should also develop their own assignments that make teaching creative, engaging, and personally relevant to students, even in large classes.
This session introduces three practices that make student learning more personalized and meaningful (journaling), creates faculty presence as well as a sense of belonging to the others in the class (small group zoom meetings) and to the school alumni (video interviews with alums).
Managing Anxiety in High Enrollment Courses
Wednesday, November 11, 2:00 pm | https://unl.zoom.us/j/93904092396
In high-enrollment courses, large classroom sizes, fast-paced instruction, and limited opportunities for personal interactions can contribute to increased anxiety in students. Anxiety can negatively affect academic performance and slow down their academic progress.
This Century Club workshop will offer practical, evidence-informed strategies for recognizing and addressing anxiety in large classroom settings while maintaining high academic standards.Multiple presenters, including representatives from CAPS (Counseling and Psychological Services), will lead participants in examining common sources of anxiety experienced by students in HEcourses, explore how course design can impact student well-being, and discuss inclusive teaching approaches that promote psychological safety and reduce unnecessary stress.
This session will identify actionable strategies that instructors will be able to immediately apply in their own courses, including responding to students experiencing anxiety and connecting them with appropriate campus resources.