Southern New Hampshire University

Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) developed an LMS-based faculty development program to help address equity gaps in student success and persistence, particularly for Black, African American and Hispanic online learners. Delivered in D2L Brightspace™, the six-week ADJ-390: Mastering Effective Online Teaching Strategies at SNHU course equipped adjunct faculty with evidence-based practices for creating more inclusive, supportive and engaging online learning environments. By focusing on high-impact teaching practices in announcements, discussions and feedback, SNHU designed a scalable intervention that faculty could apply immediately in their live courses. Across multiple pilots, the initiative showed strong faculty engagement, a greater use of Brightspace tools and improved student outcomes, especially among historically underserved learners.

Challenge

Adressing Equity Gaps at Scale

Southern New Hampshire University identified a gap in student success and persistence outcomes between white learners and students of color, particularly Black, African American and Hispanic students. For an institution committed to equitable, learner-centric education, that disparity represented a direct challenge to its mission. 

SNHU recognized that these gaps did not exist in isolation. They reflected broader systemic inequities that disproportionately affected learners from historically marginalized communities. When students of color experience lower persistence or completion rates, the effects extend beyond the classroom to negatively impact workforce readiness, economic mobility and intergenerational opportunity. 

The challenge was especially complex because of the scale and diversity of SNHU’s online learner population. With more than 200,000 online learners across a wide range of geographic, cultural and socioeconomic contexts, the university depends heavily on adjunct faculty to deliver consistent, high-quality learning experiences. While those instructors are often deeply committed practitioners, they may have limited access to institutional data, structured support or professional development focused on inclusive teaching and learner engagement. 

To make meaningful progress, SNHU needed a solution that could influence daily teaching practice across thousands of online courses while preserving academic quality, flexibility and access. The university saw an opportunity to support faculty more intentionally so they could better meet the needs of an increasingly diverse learner population. 

Solution

Building Equitable Teaching Practices 

To address this challenge, SNHU designed and delivered a cross-functional faculty development initiative centered on equitable online teaching practices. Led by the Faculty Training and Development team in collaboration with Academic Analytics, Academic Programs and Strategic Operations, the initiative was grounded in institutional data, aligned to academic priorities and built for scale across a large adjunct faculty population. 

Funded through a Gates Foundation grant, SNHU launched a six-week optional CEU-bearing professional development course for adjunct faculty teaching online. The training was initially targeted to instructors teaching courses with the largest-observed outcome gaps between white students and Black, African American and Hispanic students, allowing the university to focus first where the intervention could have the greatest impact. After strong early engagement, the course was expanded to all adjunct faculty. 

The course, ADJ-390: Mastering Effective Online Teaching Strategies at SNHU, was delivered entirely within D2L Brightspace [image 1].  

To immerse faculty in the learner experience, SNHU intentionally delivered the course within D2L Brightspace, using authentic workflows and interactive learning activities that mirrored the environments faculty create for students. By experiencing the LMS from the learner perspective, instructors gained deeper insight into how announcements, deadlines, discussions and feedback shape student engagement and belonging. 

Designed to run alongside active teaching schedules, the six-week course followed a practical two-week cadence across three modules: one week focused on learning and implementation, followed by a week of reflection. This structure enabled faculty to immediately apply new strategies in live courses, observe student responses in real time and refine their practices through reflection [image 2].

The curriculum focused on three high-impact areas tied to student engagement and belonging in online environments: announcements, discussion facilitation and feedback practices. Faculty practiced writing more inclusive and psychologically safe announcements, designing discussion prompts that promote belonging and meaningful interaction, and delivering personalized, forward-facing feedback to support growth and persistence [image 3]. 

D2L Brightspace supported the entire experience through consistent course design, facilitated discussions, reflection workflows and interactive learning activities while also modeling practices faculty could immediately adopt in their own teaching.

“I loved this training course. The material was invaluable to me as an instructor and helped me understand ways to say the same things to my students but in a more approachable, empathetic and supportive way. It changed me as an instructor and is already showing in my students’ success.” 

– faculty, SNHU  

Result

Improving Faculty Practice and Student Outcomes 

The ADJ-390 initiative delivered measurable impact for both faculty and students. Across two pilot offerings, 203 adjunct faculty completed the six-week training, including 90 in Pilot One and 113 in Pilot Two. Participation and persistence remained high across both offerings, demonstrating that sustained facilitated professional development could be delivered successfully within Brightspace while faculty were actively teaching. 

“Because faculty moved through the course in Brightspace while they were actively teaching, they could apply new strategies in real time,” said Abby Tincher, faculty training and development facilitator at SNHU. “Seeing 96% faculty satisfaction, along with stronger use of announcements, discussions features like @mentions and personalized feedback, showed that the learning felt relevant right away and translated into practice.” 

Qualitative reflections suggested that many participants continued refining and applying these practices beyond the course itself. 

“I thought the pace and overall timing was perfect. It did give a sense of what students’ experience. But most of all, it dealt with real situations teachers face every day—simulated discussion responses, reflective essays. All very well done.” 

– faculty, SNHU 

Most importantly, the initiative showed a measurable connection to student success and persistence. In Pilot One, students taught by trained faculty outperformed those taught by untrained faculty across key metrics, including submission rates (+3.5%), course success rates (+5.3%), persistence rates (+5.7%) and reduced DFW outcomes (-4.7%). 

The deeper equity-focused findings were especially meaningful. “The most meaningful results were among Black or African American and Hispanic students, who made up about a quarter of each pilot cohort,” said Emma Lynch, senior director, faculty training and development at SNHU. “Students taught by trained faculty saw a 5.9% increase in course success and a 5% increase in persistence, which is exactly the kind of progress this initiative was designed to support.” 

These results point to progress where the initiative was designed to matter most: reducing disparate outcomes for historically underserved learners. 

“This course deepened my understanding that equity-minded teaching isn’t about applying generic diversity strategies—it’s about fundamentally rethinking how assessment and feedback can either perpetuate marginalization or actively dismantle barriers.” 

– faculty, SNHU 

Together, these outcomes show how Brightspace can support more than course delivery. At SNHU, it became the platform for a scalable, data-informed faculty development model that strengthened teaching practice and advanced more equitable student success.