Social-emotional learning (SEL) is a framework for teaching that holds that developing social and emotional competencies is an essential part of human development. SEL adopts five competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2020). Traditionally, SEL is used in K–12 settings; we see the need for its expansion to the higher education curriculum. With an influx of online and hybrid learning, maintaining a SEL instructional framework is essential in higher education. To address this need, we incorporate SEL into our online learning management system (LMS) courses. Instructors can develop engaging modules and activities within the LMS that promote self-reflection and interpersonal relationships both among students and between students and professors. Our SEL framework, like supplemental modules in our hybrid and online courses, focuses on the whole student beyond the content of a course.
