In a perfect academic world, every college course would be reviewed and analyzed by its instructor, perhaps in conjunction with an instructional supervisor, upon completion of each semester to determine which techniques and strategies were most useful in helping students to learn course content. Those activities and strategies that were successful would be retained and perhaps enhanced, while those that were not would be modified or replaced with other learning strategies. In this learning-centered environment, the reflective instructor would use student course evaluations, feedback from a supervisor, and introspection to analyze the effectiveness of each course just taught, and make changes according to the findings. Every college course would be continuously adjusted in an attempt to make it function more and more effectively as a system for creating optimal student learning. However, such reflective analysis and continuous course improvement does not always take place in current academic environments. (Contains 2 figures.)