National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition

The Toolbox

The Toolbox is a professional development electronic newsletter that offers innovative, learner-centered strategies for improving teaching and learning for college students. It is published bimonthly, and subscriptions are free.

Current Issue

Volume 19, Issue 5
Using the First-Year Seminar in Response to Crises: Lessons Learned from COVID, Protests for Racial Justice, and the 2020 Election
In a disruptive world, the first-year seminar can serve as a place to help students learn to think critically, engage in civil dialogue, and manage unexpected events. In issue 19.5 of The Toolbox we share strategies and techniques that faculty can use to help students in these areas.

The Toolbox Collection

The Toolbox Collection is a five-volume series that gives vital topics from previous issues of The Toolbox an added focus, while providing context for 2019 and beyond.

The Toolbox Collection, Vol. 4: Digital Learning
With the global COVID-19 pandemic forcing educators to transition to online instruction, this compendium of past issues focuses on connecting and communicating with students, assignments and assessment, and resources for the online classroom.

About the Editor

Brad Garner

Brad Garner is the director of faculty enrichment in the Center for Learning and Innovation at Indiana Wesleyan University. He has been actively involved for several years in directing and teaching the first-year seminar on his campus. Currently, Garner leads faculty enrichment at IWU’s National and Global campus. Before moving into higher education, his career was focused on program and faculty development in K-12 public school settings, where he worked as a classroom teacher, school psychologist, and administrator. Garner is a frequent presenter at conferences and workshops and has authored several publications, including Teaching in the First-Year Seminar (2012). His most recent research activity has focused on the use of digital technology to promote learning. Brad is the co-host of "The Digital to Learn Podcast" and does a weekly talk show called "Facebook Fridays."

Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.