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Project Objective 

Aaron Klass and Lisa Cooper partnered to improve components for FYXP 2200. FYXP 2200 is a 1-credit, First-Year Exploration seminar titled "Design Thinking Seminar: Using Design Thinking to Create Your Brand and Share Your Story." The pair met weekly to discuss learning objectives, how Lisa might assess learning, and instructional strategies she might use to engage students. Aaron and Lisa also brainstormed and redesigned the culminating final project - a website project that integrated key takeaways from the course. This project offered students an opportunity to showcase their development and learning throughout the class and in their first semester at CU. 

Project Benefits for Students

Since this assessment is a , future FYXP 2200 students will use this website as a resource from the beginning of the course to understand the course. Exposure to former students' sites will offer new students an opportunity to engage with course content from day one, provide feedback, and contribute to the course content from the start of the semester.

Project Assessment

This high-impact, high-interest project was intentionally designed to closely align with the course’s learning outcomes. Since this was the first time using this assessment, Lisa and future instructors will continue evaluating its effectiveness. 

Project Challenges

This project presented multiple challenges and opportunities to redesign FYXP 2200. The course content was outdated, and students did not understand the concept of design thinking. Together, Aaron and Lisa repackaged the content to provide concrete examples of how this framework could apply to students' academic lives. This approach helped students become more engaged with each other and the course content. And finally, creating a culminating final project that aligned with learning objectives provided student motivation to create buy-in and enthusiasm to complete the task.

Project Leads:

• Aaron Klass, Student as Pedagogical Consultant, CTL
• , (former) Academic Coach, University Exploration and Advising Center

Aaron Klass	Lisa Cooper

Project Objective

When Elizabeth Franz applied to the Students as Partners program, she had a desire to create an optimal learning environment for her Mediation Skills students in PACS 4150, ensuring they were both heard and seen. She recognized that to achieve this goal, she needed to meet students where they were. Elizabeth felt it was important to solicit feedback from other students so the content felt culturally familiar and relevant. 

In fall 2025, Elizabeth was paired with Aaron Klass. Throughout the semester, the pair realized how much they had in common, both professionally and personally. Aaron’s passion for playwriting, acting, and teaching, combined with Elizabeth’s expertise in mediation, provided an interdisciplinary partnership that benefited the pair. They also realized that there are many intersections between teaching acting and mediation skills. They also share the experience of being small business owners and understand the hustle of always looking for opportunities to do more with what they have.

Through this partnership, Elizabeth was able to create an optimal learning environment with Aaron by rewriting roleplay activity scripts to create a real-life scenario dialogue. They also worked on creating LARP, or live action role-playing, cards to provide students with opportunities to ‘get into character.’ Aaron also extended his acting skills into Elizabeth’s classroom by performing a mediation role-play. This activity prompted Elizabeth to add improv and role-playing activities to her curriculum. 

The benefits of this partnership extended beyond the semester. Elizabeth and Aaron secured funding to hire an acting coach for Aaron’s class. The pair also plans to record professional role plays for Elizabeth’s class. They are planning for a cross-over roleplay assignment for Acting 1 (Aaron’s class) and Mediation (Elizabeth’s class) for next semester. And, like true entrepreneurs, they are planning for future interdisciplinary collaborations. 

Project Benefits for Students

The mediation students now have expert playwright-written roleplays that they can use for as long as the class continues. Elizabeth and Aaron are also finalizing their non-disposable assignment for their acting and mediating students to collaborate on the mediation roleplays.

Project Assessment

Aaron and Elizabeth will observe their students and get their feedback to see if what they created for them is beneficial.

Project Challenges

Mediating conflict is difficult. Teaching students the skills and methods of mediation is even more challenging. Role-playing and real-life scenarios are difficult for students to re-enact, as students are confronted with vulnerability and a skill set they are not used to exploring. So, presenting an authentic opportunity to role-play and hone their skills can be challenging for this course.

Project Leads:

• Aaron Klass, Student as Pedagogical Consultant, CTL
• Elizabeth Franz, Instructor, Peace, Conflict, and Security Program

Aaron Klass	Elisabeth Franz

Project Objective

Partners Anna Hoisington and Cheri Felix collaborated on the re-design of an impactful assignment for the Strategic Thinking in Advertising & Public Relations course. Due to the importance of the learning objectives, we felt that this was a good place to focus. We took a complex, multi-faceted, high stakes assignment and redesigned it to be smaller scaffolding assignments. Breaking the assignment into smaller pieces allows for deeper instructional time, increased opportunities for feedback, and lower consequence grading. This will also allow for a second creative brief to be assigned with the intention that the students having already experienced profound learning, will then have the confidence to execute more quickly with more independence.

Project Benefits for Students

The scaffolding approach should deepen students' proficiency, which they will carry into other courses that utilize the components of the Creative Brief. Perhaps of greater importance, we believe students will gain more confidence and will feel supported, which will likely positively affect learning outcomes and course experiences. We also believe this will enhance the grading load for the instructor, which benefits students. Grading takes time away from ideation, planning, and creative thinking for a class. Lastly, this project has illuminated and created a template for possibilities with other assignments and courses.

Project Assessment

Anna and I will continue collaborating. We will review each component and implementation. We will also compare the quality of work from previous semesters. Last, we might consider surveying students about their perceptions of proficiency and growth.

Project Challenges

None. Even though Anna is living in Spain, it was easy to have a planned weekly call. Anna said, "This is the best partnership I've had". We collaborated well and were both inspired by each other. I felt that Anna was very patient with me as I figured out what it was that I wanted to work on for the project. For me, as faculty, it was useful to have a sounding board. Anna is a good listener and also has the confidence to offer her ideas and thoughts. Going forward, this project will inform my teaching, 

Project Leads:

• Anna Hoisington, Student as Pedagogical Consultant, CTL
• Cheri Felix, Assistant Teaching Professor, Advertising, Public Relations, and Design, CMDI

Anna Hoisington	Cheri Felix

Project Objective

Aris Wertin and Dean Bacalzo developed a questionnaire to gather students' perspectives on educator traits that help them learn in the classroom environment at Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder. The pair took teacher traits from existing research and adjusted them as they discussed how students might interpret those traits. Using the data collected, Aris and Dean are in the preliminary stages of discussing a more formal departmental evaluation process to solicit student perspectives on educator efficacy. 

Project Benefits for Students

Future students will benefit from this project with improved teaching methods and student-educator relationships. Feedback from classroom observations is intended to inspire and motivate educators to continue to improve and reflect on their personal behaviors and teaching experiences.

Project Assessment

The pair met their goals of creating a questionnaire and using the instrument to collect 155 responses from Environmental Design (ENVD) students and a mix of other majors on the Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder campus. Aris and Dean are currently analyzing and interpreting the data. Through this process, they established a starting point regarding the student perspective of teacher traits and are discussing the next revision of the questionnaire to remove some ambiguity regarding educator traits and examples. They also have a strong launch point for creating a survey that is intended to supplement FCQ data and collect additional metrics.

Project Challenges

The primary challenge was finding a time to meet in person since both partners were busy with teaching and taking classes. Aris was also in his final semester. They were able to find a compromise to meet via Zoom on Wednesdays and on Sundays as necessary. They both worked well with each other, and both listened well to each other’s ideas and perspectives, so there weren’t any issues with interpersonal dynamics.

Project Leads:

• Aris Wertin, Student as Pedagogical Consultant, CTL
• Dean Bacalzo, Assistant Teaching Professor, Environmental Design, CMDI

Aris Wertin	Dean Bacalzo