Teaching for Today: Balancing Agility and Sustainability in the Classroom

Teaching for Today: Balancing Agility and Sustainability in the Classroom

October 30, 2025 · 42 min · Season 2 · Episode 10

About this episode

Lindsay and Ashley discuss balancing agility and sustainability in education while focusing on student motivation.

In this episode of Agile Ed , Lindsay and Ashley unpack what it means to balance agility and sustainability in course design while keeping student motivation at the center. From guitars and Duolingo streaks to flipped classrooms and collaborative exams, they explore how timing, autonomy, and friction shape durable learning. Together, they reflect on an instructor who co-created a “no-tech” classroom contract with students—and what that says about agency, motivation, and trust in higher education. Along the way, debate mandatory attendance and ask: what happens when students help define the rules? It’s a conversation about learning when you want to learn, teaching with flexibility instead of fatigue, and rediscovering the human side of higher ed—where, as Dave Cormier reminds us, the community is the curriculum. Attributions Dave Cormier – “The Community is the Curriculum” Rethinking Student Attendance Policies for Deeper Engagement and Learning – TiHE episode with Danny Oppenheimer & Simon Cullen Assign2 – Digital assessment platform enabling paper-based but digitized grading H5P – For interactive, asynchronous learning activities

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