Randy Pausch
Pausch delivered his "Last Lecture", titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", at CMU on September 18, 2007. He gave an abridged version of his speech on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in October 2007. The talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical "final talk", with a topic such as "what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?" Before speaking, Pausch received a long standing ovation from a large crowd of over 400 colleagues and students. When he motioned them to sit down, saying, "Make me earn it", someone in the audience shouted back, "You did!"
J. Luke Wood
In 2017, Wood taught a nationally broadcast course titled “Black Minds Matter: A Focus on Black Boys and Men in Education.” The course was streamed to a registered audience of 10,000 learners who participated as individuals and at 260 live broadcast and replay sites across the nation. Each session included commentary from Wood and featured guest speakers such as Shaun R. Harper, Ilyasah Shabazz, Patrisse Cullors, Jerlando F. L. Jackson, S. Lee Merritt, and Frank Harris III. A review of each week of the course was released in HuffPost According to the public syllabus, the course was “Black Minds Matter is a public course designed to increase the national consciousness about issues facing Black boys and men in education. The course draws parallels between issues faced by Black males in society and the ways that Black minds are engaged in the classroom.” The course was panned by conservatives as a propaganda for the Black Lives Matter movement and resulted in Wood being listed as one of 15 “Teachers vs. Preachers” professors for conservative students to avoid. Wood indicated that the course was offered as a response to the shooting of Alfred Olango by police officers in El Cajon California, near San Diego.