Connections are Everything: How Relationships Drive Student Success

Keynote Presentation: Dr. Peter Felten

The classroom – whether physical, virtual, or hybrid – can be a place where students thrive if we design for learning and connection. With the rise of generative AI, human interactions are even more important for motivation, trust, well-being, and meaning-making. In this interactive session we will explore research on how intentional academic interactions offer flexible, scalable, and humane approaches to ensuring that all students experience welcome and care, become inspired to learn, and explore big questions about meaning and purpose. We also will consider how meaningful professional relationships contribute to faculty and staff well-being.

Professor Peter Felten is a professor of History, Executive Director of the Center for Engaged Learning, and Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning at Elon University. He has published seven books about undergraduate education, including Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020) co-authored with Leo M. Lambert, and  Connections are Everything: A College Student’s Guide to Relationship-Rich Education (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023) co-authored by Isis Artze-Vega, Leo Lambert, and Oscar Miranda Tapia – with an open access online version free to all readers. His next book, The SoTL Guide: [Re]Orienting the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, is co-authored by Nancy Chick and Katarina Mårtensson, and will be published in October 2025. He is on the advisory board of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and is a fellow of the Gardner Institute.