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Rebecca Stein: Leading Excellence and Innovation in Teaching at Penn

Rebecca Stein at podium speaking to a room of people at a party.

07Jan’25

Feature Stories, Spotlights

January 7, 2025 by Erin Bartnett

When Rebecca Stein walks across campus and spots a student tour, she finds it hard to resist pulling the prospective students away to offer her advice: “All that really matters are the people.”  

After more than 27 years working with countless students, faculty, and staff at Penn, Rebecca Stein has decided to retire. She claims her work with “people, not ideas” has been her greatest impact. But a single-sentence summary of her career challenges that sole descriptor for Stein’s impact. Yes, Stein taught thousands of students at Penn, and worked with countless staff across the university, but she also created and led new online courses, conducted research that crystallized the value of active learning for all students, and ultimately shaped the future of Penn’s leadership in online learning—first, through the Online Learning Initiative (OLI), and then, here at the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Innovation (CETLI). Bruce Lenthall, the Executive Director of CETLI says, “To me, she embodies the ‘Innovation’ in CETLI’s name in the best way. For Rebecca, the pursuit of new ways of doing things is exciting, it is motivating. But she never wants to try something new only because it is new. It has to make a difference for our students or learners. She’s made a career out of being curious about how new ideas can improve the learning experience for people at Penn and beyond.”

“[Penn] is a wonderful place to teach because there are such resources for teaching. Not only are the students amazing, because they are, but every time I wanted to do something new in the classroom, there was some funding and extra staff support to make it happen.”   

Investing in Penn Students

Stein came to Penn as a trailing spouse, and was offered a three-year position teaching Statistics for Economics. She found the students in the course appreciated her teaching style, which provided students with ample structure, yet remained open for student feedback. When Stein received consistently high student reviews, she was encouraged to apply for a position redesigning the Microeconomics Principles course.  

By sheer numbers, it’s undeniable that Stein was invested in teaching students at Penn. For twenty years, she taught multiple sections of Microeconomics Principles, in some years teaching approximately half of all undergraduate students at Penn. “I just love Penn undergrad students,” Stein says. As a professor, advisor, and pre-major advisor, Stein worked with a wide range of students. “I like how hard they are willing to work and how hard they are willing to play. They come from all over the world, from across the USA and from so many different backgrounds. Their education will impact their family, their community, and the country. They will bring diversity to leadership in the United States and the world. I found it so rewarding to be part of their journey.”  

When Stein reflects on her career, she says she is grateful for the teaching opportunities she had at Penn specifically. “It is a wonderful place to teach because there are such resources for teaching,” she says. “Not only are the students amazing, because they are, but every time I wanted to do something new in the classroom, there was some funding and extra staff support to make it happen.”   

Expanding Penn’s Innovations in Learning 

That same openness and drive for improvement inspired her to become an early adopter for online learning at Penn. In partnership with Coursera, Penn began launching new online courses. Stein, who was recognized for her success teaching large classes, was invited to turn her economics course into a MOOC, which became a transformative experience for her students, but also for her career.  

Stein had been recording her lectures for students who might have to miss class every semester, but recording for the MOOC, she says, felt different. “I actually stood in the studio and recorded my class, and then I said, ‘You know what, I am never giving this lecture again.’”  

She wanted the in-person experience to be more interactive, and, with help from the Center for Teaching and Learning, committed to transforming the large lecture into a Structured Active In-Person Learning (SAIL) class. While making the transition, Stein conducted a study and determined that teaching the class in the SAIL format quantifiably benefited student learning, and especially improved learning outcomes for those with less college readiness.  

After she had developed the innovative MOOC and redesigned a critical Penn course to improve student learning across the board, Stein returned to one of her career refrains: What’s next? She could see that Penn was creating more online learning opportunities. After her own experience teaching online, first via Coursera and then for a summer Penn course, Stein recognized the impact of reaching students outside Penn, and wanted to be part of the transformation.  

Developing Penn’s Leadership and Teaching Excellence   

As the Director for the new Online Learning Initiative (OLI), Rebecca Stein became a leader in that transformation. “I am so grateful that Beth Winkelstein, now Deputy Provost, believed that I could contribute to bringing Penn online and gave me this opportunity.”  

“When we hired Rebecca Stein in 2016,” Winkelstein says, “there was an energy and excitement as then-Provost Vince Price saw the future in online education, but there was also a bit of caution as we navigated the full extent of how this could or should play out for Penn. What we did know for sure was that we wanted an innovative, entrepreneurial leader to lead what was then the Online Learning Initiative (and has since become CETLI). And, I wanted to make sure we had someone leading that unit that really understood what it meant to offer top-of-the-line courses and what is needed to be a great instructor. Maybe we were looking for a unicorn – but we definitely found the right leader in Rebecca Stein. She has led OLI and CETLI with an energy, adaptability, innovative spirit, and service approach and Penn is better for it.” 

The transition from the classroom to management was exciting and humbling for Stein. While running large lecture courses gave her a certain ease in presentations, and she had experience managing large teaching teams, she was eager to learn about how to be an impactful manager. Megan Carr, now the Senior Director of Digital Learning Strategies at CETLI, credits Stein with building Penn’s online learning leaders through “her focus on mentorship and doing her part to cultivate the incredible community of Penn.” Carr says Stein’s leadership style was invaluable for her own growth as a leader: “Since 2017, Rebecca has continuously supported me, but also challenged me when I needed it. She pushed me to become a better leader.” 

Jessica Morris, who worked with Stein at OLI and is now the Director of Instructional Design & Technology at CETLI, recalls that Stein came to the role with a “clear, strategic sense of what would scale online learning at Penn.” In particular, Stein developed a toolkit approach, which provided resources to help those interested in creating or growing online programs. “This toolkit approach,” Morris says, “has continued to create a useful structure for organizing our support of Digital Initiatives at CELTI and has enabled us to evolve our resources as the needs at Penn have changed.” 

When Stein started in the role in 2017, there were two online degrees. As of this year, there are 18 online degrees, and 1 out of every 10 students at Penn is enrolled in a fully online degree program. Carr says Stein’s impact has been both philosophical and strategic: “Rebecca has changed how we think about online learning at Penn, and in the process has helped central offices and Schools to prepare and adapt to this growing population of students who now make up 10% of Penn’s student population.” 

 “What really is the most thrilling for me at Penn is that online isn't the othered,” Stein says. “We don't have an online school. We don't have a world campus. It's the same faculty, the same governance. Some students come to campus and some students go to the computer.” 

People at Penn 

In November of 2023, OLI merged with the Center for Teaching and Learning to become the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Innovation (CETLI); Rebecca Stein and Bruce Lenthall became the Co-Executive Directors for the new center. In this role, Stein has continued to foster innovation, community, and learning for Penn people—students, learners, professors, lecturers, and staff. While people are a critical part of Penn for Stein, it’s evident that she has also been a critical person at Penn for so many. “As Penn’s online learning population has grown, in large part due to Rebecca’s work,” Morris says, “it has been essential to have a spokesperson like her to acknowledge and support this group of instructors, staff, students, and alumni who are active members of the Penn community.” 

Throughout her career, Stein has worked to improve, to seek out new ideas, and to create meaningful learning experiences for students and learners at Penn. Now, she’s excited to see what people at Penn do next. 

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