Gen AI at CITL

The Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning (CITL) is hosting generative artificial intelligence (AI) events at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Throughout the AI series at CITL faculty and staff will have the opportunity to participate in hands-on workshops, guest talks, and conversations on how GenAI impacts the future of education and beyond.  Make sure you subscribe to the AI newsletter to stay informed about all things Generative AI.

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

  • Customizing AI Tools for Consistency

    11:30 am - 1:00 pm

    This workshop teaches participants to design AI interactions for consistent, predictable outcomes by leveraging structured prompt patterns, reusable templates, and custom settings. Attendees will learn to standardize tone, voice, and structure, experiment with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to ground responses in relevant documents.

Friday, February 27, 2026

  • Engaging with Multimodal GenAI

    10:30 am - 12:00 pm

    This workshop offers guided activities and demonstrations to explore multimodal AI tools. Participants will engage in hands-on exercises using text-to-image, text-to-audio, and text-to-video systems, integrating outputs into their own projects.

  • 'Because I Told You So' Doesn't Work: Critical AI Literacy in the Classroom

    1:00 - 2:00 pm
    Armory room 172 and online via Zoom

    In this session, presenters will make an argument for teaching students about the limitations of GenAI tools rather than simply telling them not to use it. They will provide examples of how to integrate critical AI literacy into a variety of classes, including training on AI course policies, reflecting on ethical quandaries, and exercises using large language models.

Thursday, March 5, 2026

  • AI Literacy in Language Teaching and Learning (Panel Discussion)

    2:00 - 3:00 pm
    Lucy Ellis Lounge in LCLB and online via Zoom

    The panelists will talk about building AI Literacy for language teachers, both by sharing tools that can support educators and by recognizing the ways AI poses new challenges for teachers. They will also share examples for approaching AI Literacy for learners, including helping students better understand how AI use can impact their language learning, for better or worse.

Friday, March 27, 2026

  • Spring into AI Series: The AI Student Voices Roundtable (Panel Discussion)

    2:00 - 3:00 pm
    Armory room 172 and online via Zoom

    An informative roundtable conversation about the use of Gen AI in students' educational journeys, personal lives, and career preparations. Several students from the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center (BNAACC) will share how they use Gen AI as learning tool, remain aware of AI's cultural impacts in society, and build AI skills for career preparations.

Friday, April 3, 2026

  • Amazing Grades for Free: Investigating AI’s Capability to Solve Course Assignments

    1:00 - 2:00 pm
    Armory room 172 and online via Zoom

    In this talk, we will report on our effort to test this hypothesis: is it possible to "excel" in a course without absolutely any knowledge? We show that, while there is variability across courses and assignment types, large language models are indeed often able to achieve a strong grade in a course without any meaningful help from human users or course material.