CASL Newsletter - January 2026

Center for Advancing Student Learning (CASL)

UWM's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) has been renamed to the Center for Advancing Student Learning (CASL). This name change reflects a strategic move towards enhancing student success through a focus on advancing learning, and emerged from a year of data gathering, peer benchmarking, and strategic planning. CASL also brings the functions of CETL together with UWM Online and Continuing Education units under one umbrella. The creation of a student-facing learning resource focus will be developed this Spring in partnership with Student Affairs.

The renaming and subsequent combination of units are intended to address shared staffing needs, eliminate duplicative efforts, and enhance efficiency and opportunities to support students, instructors, employers, and community members effectively. The overall aim of these changes is to create a seamless, consistent, and high-quality learning experience for students across their entire life cycle with UWM, as well as provide centralized, one-stop support for faculty and instructors.

Implementation begins this Spring semester with the first step of updating communication channels, with full integration expected by Fall 2026. To align with the new name, our website has moved to a new address (uwm.edu/advancing-learning/). Please update any existing links you maintain to point to our new URL. For now, the email remains the same, but stay tuned for more updates as we move through this change and advance learning together!

We are delighted to announce the launch of a FREE, year-long professional development and certification opportunity for 90 faculty or instructional staff beginning February 9 and running through the end of the year. Interested participants choose learning pathways featuring in‑person, online, or nursing‑specific evidence-based strategies shown to boost student retention, strengthen belonging, and close achievement gaps. Upon completion, instructors earn ACUE’s nationally recognized Certification in Effective College Instruction.

Interested instructors must sign up by January 25 to join one of this year’s three cohorts.

Higher Education Regional Alliance’s (HERA) is working to increase microcredentials in our region through funding made available from a Congressionally Designated Spending (CDS) award. Any instructors interested in developing new microcedentials are welcome to apply by January 30, 2026.

Get back into the groove of the semester with these helpful just-in-time resources including the Canvas Quick Start Guide with information on Canvas Basics and Course Setup as well as information on starting the semester right in Canvas.

Need refresher training videos on Canvas? Be sure to check out the library of short vides on using Canvas including gradebook, discussions, using Zoom, and more.

We are pleased to announce a significant enhancement to select Canvas courses: the automatic inclusion of a Common Syllabus Module. This module, titled "Student Resources and Policies," is designed to benefit both students and faculty by providing a centralized location for essential, current, and required information such as university policy statements, important dates, and student resources. Review this resource to learn more about the module roll out and/or how to add it to your course.

Explore the future of teaching with AI! David Delgado will guide us through the latest AI innovations and their impact on education, helping you understand what’s new, what’s next, and what matters for instructors. We’ll then bring the conversation into the classroom, exploring actionable strategies to utilize the newest tools to help integrate AI into your next course.

To aid in ensuring digital accessibility in Canvas and in course materials, we invite you to utilize the Accessibility and Universal Design Checklist or the self-paced Digital Accessibility Training Modules.

For in-person workshops, we invite you to attend the in-depth monthly Spring Accessibility Workshops:

Every semester, our Thank an Instructor program collects notes from students and alumni. We congratulate Jeffrey Polak on receiving several this past Fall. He is truly making waves and touching the hearts of his students by going above and beyond. Below is one of his student notes.

“

I just wanted to say thank you so much. I was terrified to take physics and had pretty much accepted before classes even started that I would end up retaking it in the spring. But within the first ten minutes of class, I felt more confident and capable than I ever have in a course. I could immediately tell how much you care about your students and how well you understand that many of us are here because it’s a requirement, not an elective we chose for fun. I really appreciated the way you taught the material, using real-life examples, visuals, and clear explanations that helped everything make sense. Your tips on how to study, the helpful resources you provided, and the way your practice problems actually aligned with what we needed to know for the tests made such a difference. The coursework felt appropriate and manageable, and I wasn't overwhelmed by the amount of homework. Thank you again for being such a supportive, understanding, and genuinely great teacher. It made a class I dreaded into one I felt confident in.

”