Virtual Welcome Back Symposium 2026: Practical Strategies to Enhance Student Engagement and Learning

Term: Summer 2026

Date: August 21st, 2026

Time: 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Location: Online Only

Instructors: Hannah Harris, Michael Enz, & Ivonne Wallace Fuentes

Presented By: Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)

Description:

Join your campus colleagues for the Virtual Welcome Back Symposium 2025! The symposium will be held online, Friday, August 21, 2026, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. 

The event, hosted by CETL, offers attendees the opportunity to explore strategies, tools, and resources that Virginia Tech faculty find effective in supporting student learning. Faculty presenters represent diverse disciplinary backgrounds and a wide range of teaching experience. Sessions will highlight practical ideas and approaches that can be readily integrated across a variety of course contexts. In addition, Bonni Stachowiak, host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, will kick off the event by exploring small, evidence-based moves faculty can make at the start of the semester (and sustain throughout the class) to shift student engagement from the transactional to the transformative.