Expanding the NEST is an initiative designed and supported by the CETL team for all
Kennesaw State University Educators. NEST stands for Nurturing Environments through
Scholarly Teaching.
Environments include, but are not limited to, physical classrooms, online spaces,
office suites, and events.
In addition to providing one-on-one consulting services in any of this work, CETL
is offering workshops and events throughout the semester focused on different practices
found within the menu of options to cultivate student success.
This resource was created by CETL to support faculty as they cultivate student success at KSU. We suggest 25 easy to use, evidence-based practices that can make a big impact in each of the three categories below, selected from KSU student responses to the National Survey of Student Engagement, plus one final invitation to take a deep dive. You are always welcome to attend
one of our events to learn more or contact CETL for one-on-one consultations in any of this work.
Menu of 25 Faculty Practices for Cultivating Student Success
Build rapport through icebreakers, small group activities, collaborative thinking,
tone, etc.
If shared, learn and use students’ preferred names, pronunciations, and pronouns.
Develop or co-create guidelines or community agreements for interaction during class.
Revisit them with students when needed and revise as appropriate.
Establish challenging but attainable expectations and frequently communicate your
belief that all students can succeed.
Avoid generalizations that may exclude students (e.g., “when you go home for break,” “if you have a child someday,” “just walk over to my office,” “it only costs $xxx”). These phrases make implicit assumptions about students’ physical ability, family structure, social identities, linguistic preferences, citizenship status, or economic means.
Encourage or require students to visit office hours early in the term. Use that time to ask about students’ interests and experiences with course material.
Take a training on cultivating community from a KSU center or division (such as, KSU’s Division of Organizational Effectiveness, Leadership and Institutional Development; CETL)
Use KSU’s uHoo Learning Analytics to monitor students’ progress so you can take evidence-based actions to support them.
Communicate expectations early by meeting KSU syllabus requirements and using this
empirically validated rubric to center learning in your syllabus and syllabus related materials.
Review your course to align learning outcomes, assessments, and instructional strategies.
Increase transparency of expectations by TILTing an assignment. Earn a KSU micro-credential.
Assess students’ prior knowledge and skills to align instruction with strengths and needs and embrace variation. For instance, invite students to identify skills from different domains they could use in your course.
When content coverage is in tension with student learning needs, prioritize the latter
(e.g., adjust pace, reduce information on slides, make course materials available,
share essential study skill tips).
Highlight a variety of contributors and perspectives in your discipline (through authors
you assign, research you highlight, guests you invite, etc.), and/or discuss historical
reasons for limited access to the field and current efforts to change it.
Include student-generated content (e.g., projects and presentations, including exemplars
from previous courses, with permission).
Use Midterm Grades. Ensure your grading scheme reflects substantive student work by midterm.
Support at-risk students by using KSU resources like EAB Navigate Early Alert or Progress Report, Behavioral Response Team reporting tool, and/or other tools for connecting students to advisors or coaches
for academic support.
Recognize that many students have legitimate reasons to occasionally be absent, turn
in work late, leave class early, and design course policies that accommodate those
contingencies.
Be intentional about all aspects of collaborative learning, from group formation and composition to duration, roles, process vs. deliverables,
cohesiveness, individual vs. group accountability, providing feedback, and opportunities
for reflection.
Create intentional and frequent opportunities for students to offer feedback on their learning experience and to suggest ideas for improvement.
Give students opportunities for reflection on how their own cultural identities relate
to the content.
Cultivate students’ sense of agency by promoting a growth mindset and metacognition. For instance, allow for productive trial and error (e.g., through low-stakes practice
quizzes or drafts).
Emphasize that risk, struggle, and failure are important parts of the learning process.
Avoid talking about learning styles, a concept not supported by empirical evidence
that does not reflect how people learn. Learn more about the science of learning and earn CETL microcredentials.
Deep Dive: Take a deep dive. Identify one aspect of your course to focus on and contact CETL
for support, and make an informed decision for improvement (e.g., identifying the
need, collecting data, designing interventions, creating a SoTL study for eventual publication, involving students as partners in this work).
Using the Resource:
CETL acknowledges this is not an all-inclusive list. The suggested practices are intended
as a menu, and we do not expect faculty to implement all 25 practices. On the other
hand, many of us already use some of these practices. This document may serve to validate
beneficial practices around cultivating student success that you are already using,
while also offering new suggestions. You can further explore inclusive teaching through
conversations with colleagues, consultations with CETL, or relevant teaching and learning
scholarship.
You are welcome to print this resource out, but it is most beneficial in the electronic format to access the links embedded throughout.
The 'Introduction to Expanding the NEST' souvenir provides educational development for Kennesaw State University educators and staff who regularly work with students regarding the Expanding the NEST initiative. The learning materials identify a menu of easy-to-use practices that increase student success, focusing on three areas: student-faculty interaction, effective teaching practices, and supportive environments.
The 'Implementing NEST Practices for Student Success' micro-credential confirms faculty and staff who teach have examined in depth “Expanding the NEST” practices that cultivate student success. The core principles of student success depend on the quality and meaningfulness of student-faculty interaction, effective teaching practices, and supportive environments.
If you would like to be recognized as NEST Champion, Innovator, or Advocate, the submission
period for recognition for the spring semester will be open March 23, 2026 - April
24, 2026. You will indicate the practices you engaged in for the Spring 2026 semester. More information on eligibility and helpful checklists can be found below.
CETL recognizes and celebrates faculty and staff at KSU who have made significant efforts to engage in evidence-based practices known to promote student success.
Each semester, we will recognize three categories of KSU educators and non-teaching
staff who have demonstrated strong commitments to cultivating student success: Champions,
Innovators, and Advocates. We will celebrate this recognition at our annual Celebration of Teaching Day event (occurs at the end of every fall semester).
To be eligible for each category, KSU educators and staff must identify the number
of Expanding the NEST practices they have engaged in during the semester.
