On Episode 606, I welcome Karen Costa, faculty development facilitator, adjunct professor, and author of 99 Tips for Creating Simple and Sustainable Educational Videos, to Teaching in Higher Ed. We explore her newest work, An Educator’s Guide to ADHD, and the ways educators can rethink persistent deficit-based narratives around ADHD. She helps us explore further by using metaphors that shape our understanding of attention and learning, challenge both the "burden" and "superpower" myths about students with ADHD, and advocate instead for a more humanizing, strengths-based perspective.

Resources from the episode:

• An Educator's Guide to ADHD: Designing and Teaching for Student Success, by Karen Costa
• 99 Tips for Creating Simple and Sustainable Educational Videos: A Guide for Online Teachers and Flipped Classes, by Karen Costa
• Episode 577: Teaching and Learning When Things Go Wrong in the Classroom with Jessamyn Neuhaus
• Snafu Edu: Teaching and Learning When Things Go Wrong in the College Classroom, by Jessamyn Neuhaus
• Episode 578: Learning to Teach, Design, and Rest from Nature with Karen Costa
• Community of Inquiry Checklist, from Karen Costa
• Belmont University
• The Canary Code, by Ludmila Praslova
• Blackbird - The Harvard Opportunes
• AP 100 Photos of 2025 The Defined the Year
• Hard Core Literature

Episode topics:

• Rethinking ADHD: Strengths and Struggles
• Challenging Deficit-Based Narratives
• The Superpower Trap: Rejecting Simplistic Metaphors
• High Support, High Structure, High Challenge Framework
• Flexible Structure: Adapting Expectations for Students
• Uncovering Ableism in Traditional Pedagogy
• Rethinking Attention: Beyond "Paying Attention"
• The Open Windows Metaphor for ADHD
• Barriers in Traditional and Online Learning Environments
• The Power of Externalizing for Neurodiverse Learners
• Systemic Challenges: The Flawed Accommodations Model

Discussion questions:

1. Karen Costa discusses the "deficit-based narratives" around ADHD. What are some common misconceptions about students with ADHD, and how can educators avoid unintentionally reinforcing them?
2. The episode brings up the problematic notion of seeing ADHD as a "superpower." Why does Karen Costa warn against this metaphor, and how might this framing be just as problematic as deficit-based thinking?
3. Karen Costa introduces the idea of a “house with windows thrown wide open” as a metaphor for the ADHD brain. How does this illustration help reframe our understanding of ADHD's strengths and challenges?
4. What ableist practices in traditional pedagogy and classroom environments did the episode highlight? Can you think of additional teaching habits that might unintentionally exclude or disadvantage ADHD learners?
5. The discussion mentioned the concept of “high support, high structure, high challenge” in teaching. What steps can educators take to incorporate all three for students with ADHD?
6. How does “externalizing everything” (such as using checklists, calendars, and notes) benefit ADHD learners, and how could these strategies help all students?
7. How can faculty presence and structure in online courses support students with ADHD, and what are some practical ways to make online learning more accessible?

Related Episodes

I emailed Karen to thank her for coming back on the show and told her that when I listened back, I felt like we were hanging out together. I imagined we might be gardening together, or maybe drinking some tea? If you want to feel like you’re also sitting with Karen, here are some great conversations to help you with that feeling:

• Episode 384: Supporting ADHD Learners
• Episode 488: Climate Action Pedagogy
• Episode 505: How Role Clarity and Boundaries Can Help Us Thrive
• Episode 578: Learning to Teach, Design, and Rest From Nature
• Episode 606: An Educator’s Guide to ADHD

Recommended

Karen posted on LinkedIn some great recommendations as follow up to a webinar she gave. Here are her ideas:

1. Checklists: A lot of courses will have a weekly to-do list, but I prefer a term-long checklist. I create these for my students in G-Docs.
2. Calendars: As we've discussed, the calendars in our LMSs well and truly stink! Sorry not sorry. I make a simple, printable calendar for my students, again, in our old friend G-Docs.
3. 🤓 Emojis! 🤓 I put an emoji at the start and end of the subject of every email I send to my students to call it out in their inbox.
4. Reminders: Set up automated announcements reminding students of important due dates. You can likely set and forget at the start of the term.
5. Bonus Discussions: If you don't have the access to create your own forums in the DB, no biggie. Create pinned posts with links to current events or other articles of interest and encourage students to respond. For example, I'm sharing a recent study on the negative impacts of short-form video in my courses that has a lot of students engaging.
6. Affirm ADHDers: I see very high rates of ADHD disclosure in my online courses, typically in the first week introduction courses. I'm blessed in that I get to say, "Hey, your professor has ADHD too, and I'm excited to learn with you." But if you're not an ADHDer, you could say something like, "I'm learning a lot lately about the strengths and challenges of ADHD, and I'm excited to support you and learn with you in this course."
7. Flexible Structure: You likely have a lot of power over how you handle late assignment submissions in your course. Figure out a system that keeps students on track while still allowing for life to happen. Teach like a tree!

Now I’m so curious to know if she uses the same emoji every time (I’m guessing so), or if it depends on how she’s feeling that day, or what curiosity she’s trying to evoke. Again, guessing she’s consistent, since she’s wanting them to stand out in their inbox.

Quotable Words

Karen Costa also always has such good advice about teaching in online formats. Here’s what she shared about that in Episode 606:

The best thing we can do to make the course real as an instructor, is to be present in that online course.

Next Week’s Episode

On the upcoming episode of Teaching in Higher Ed, I welcome Josh Brake to the show… to talk about all sorts of things, including metaphors and AI.

Read

My book: The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide, provides approaches to help you turn your intentions into action. I also write an advice column for EdSurge: Toward Better Teaching: Office Hours With Bonni Stachowiak

Listen

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Disclosures

Affiliate income disclosure: Books that are recommended on the podcast link to the Teaching in Higher Ed bookstore on Bookshop.org. All affiliate income gets donated to the LibroMobile Arts Cooperative (LMAC), established in 2016 by Sara Rafael Garcia.”

Notice: Portions of these weekly updates are produced using CastMagic.io, which uses AI to produce a draft of the transcript, identify key quotes, highlight themes, etc.