Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning

This retreat creates space for faculty across campus to connect, reflect, and learn from one another as we explore a simple question: What feels harder about teaching today than it did five years ago? Together, we will identify common challenges, share experiences, and begin a year-long conversation about the opportunities and realities shaping teaching and learning today

Get up to speed quickly on the basics of making PDF documents accessible for all while meeting state and federal accessibility standards. For hands-on participation, you will need Adobe Acrobat Pro (not Acrobat Reader). U of I, UIS, and UIC faculty and staff can obtain Acrobat Pro free from the U of I Webstore: https://webstore.illinois.edu/shop/product.aspx?zpid=7227

Get up to speed quickly on making your Microsoft Word documents accessible for everyone while meeting state and federal accessibility standards. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll start with a brief overview of common accessibility challenges in Word and then jump right into practice.

This lively workshop explores the “Well-Delivered” pillar of the Teaching Excellence at Illinois framework. Co-taught by award-winning faculty the session focuses on the research behind engaged learning and how small additions to a lecture can increase student success. Participants will work in small groups to explore impactful strategies. Bring a friend!

Learn how to improve the accessibility of your Moodle course by working hands-on with the new FACT Accessibility Checker developed by ATLAS.

Most teachers get evaluated by their students at the end of the course. But by then, it is too late to make changes that will make a difference for your current students. Come to this workshop to learn how to design, implement, and interpret Informal Early Feedback (IEF) to improve the class experience for everyone.

Get up to speed on using the Pope Tech Canvas Accessibility Guide to make Canvas pages more accessible for everyone! In this hands-on workshop, we’ll start with an overview of the Pope Tech Canvas Accessibility Guide, how it functions, what the various errors, alerts, structural elements, and features mean, and how to fix these issues on a Canvas page.

One book, eight friends, and infinite possibilities! This chapter of the CITL Faculty Book Club will meet online or in person… your choice! A Practical Guide to Teaching Neurodivergent College Students by Jennifer L. Pusateri is a practical handbook designed for higher education faculty and educational developers who are ready to embrace neuroinclusive instruction...

This workshop explores the “Inclusive and Ethical” pillar of the Teaching Excellence at Illinois framework. Participants will examine strategies for creating equitable, respectful, and inclusive learning environments that support all students.

Documents must be proactively accessible for all students. This hands-on workshop will cover what to look for and several tools to help you find and fix issues. You’ll learn how to scan multiple document types for accessibility issues and remediate them.

Since the last time we discussed the AI related copyright lawsuits, a few more cases have been decided by district courts. We will conduct an overview on these recent developments, and see if we can identify some trends.

Learn the accessibility requirements for making your Canvas courses accessible. This hands-on workshop will cover using the Canvas editor to create navigable pages, writing effective alt text description for images, charts, and graphs, ensuring readable color contrast, creating accessible tables and links, and using Canvas accessibility tools to fix common issues.

This presentation examines encountering evidence and making a historical claim, and how that research process has shaped the classroom. Using the research on Ericka Huggins as a case study, the presentation explores how historians follow evidence across different kinds of sources, navigate gaps and contradictions, and determines what can responsibly be claimed.

This hands-on workshop covers what makes digital math accessible for all learners, including major accessible math formats, accessible math tools, structuring workflows to deliver accessible math, and how digital math interacts with platforms like Canvas, Jupyter Notebook, MS Office documents, and webpages. See full description for free software requirements.

This workshop explores the “Reflective and Evolving” pillar of the Teaching Excellence at Illinois framework. Participants will engage in practices that support continuous improvement, self-assessment, and professional growth in teaching.

Get up to speed quickly on making your PowerPoint presentations accessible for everyone while meeting state and federal accessibility standards. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll begin with a brief overview of common accessibility challenges in PowerPoint and then dive straight into practical solutions.

One book, eight friends, and infinite possibilities! This chapter of the CITL Faculty Book Club will meet online or in person… your choice! A Practical Guide to Teaching Neurodivergent College Students by Jennifer L. Pusateri is a practical handbook designed for higher education faculty and educational developers who are ready to embrace neuroinclusive instruction...

Get up to speed quickly on the basics of making PDF documents accessible for all while meeting state and federal accessibility standards. For hands-on participation, you will need Adobe Acrobat Pro (not Acrobat Reader). U of I, UIS, and UIC faculty and staff can obtain Acrobat Pro free from the U of I Webstore: https://webstore.illinois.edu/shop/product.aspx?zpid=7227

This workshop brings together educators across campus to celebrate teaching, share effective practices, and build community. Participants will engage in storytelling, collaborative reflection, and peer learning to inspire continued growth and innovation in teaching.

Examines how course structures create executive-function demands and introduces scaffolding strategies that reduce cognitive load without sacrificing rigor.

This presentation will introduce NautilIA, an interactive generative-AI roleplay game build through Google AI Studio designed to support French language learning through immersive, voice-based interaction. The presentation will first showcase the platform and its main features, then discuss how NautilIA was integrated into a French as a Foreign Language course.

Get up to speed quickly on making your Microsoft Word documents accessible for everyone while meeting state and federal accessibility standards. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll start with a brief overview of common accessibility challenges in Word and then jump right into practice.

This workshop explores the role of peer observation in supporting well-delivered teaching. Participants will examine strategies for observing instructional practices, providing constructive feedback, and engaging in reflective dialogue to strengthen teaching effectiveness.

Get up to speed quickly on the basics of making PDF documents accessible for all while meeting state and federal accessibility standards. For hands-on participation, you will need Adobe Acrobat Pro (not Acrobat Reader). U of I, UIS, and UIC faculty and staff can obtain Acrobat Pro free from the U of I Webstore: https://webstore.illinois.edu/shop/product.aspx?zpid=7227

CITL's Master Course in Online Teaching (MCOT) is a deep dive into online teaching strategies that extends what was presented during previous teaching academies. Prior participation in an instructional development series is not required but professional experience with university level instruction is strongly encouraged.

The three esteemed panelists will deliver lightning-round presentations centered around the topic of "AI and Sustainability." The three presentations will be followed by a moderated Q & A. The topics will include, but not be limited to: sustainable farming with AI; AI/data centers and water consumption; planetary boundaries and use of AI, environmental economics, and more.

Sometimes the world arrives in the classroom before we do, and it can shape how students engage, participate, and make sense of their learning. This workshop invites faculty to explore how current events influence classroom dynamics.

Dr. Cromley will present on two studies comparing writing with Word vs. ChatGPT. Data were collected on during-reading and during-writing processes, essay scores, and learning posttests. The results of these studies will be presented and examined with a critical eye.

CITL's Master Course in Online Teaching (MCOT) is a deep dive into online teaching strategies that extends what was presented during previous teaching academies. Prior participation in an instructional development series is not required but professional experience with university level instruction is strongly encouraged.

Get up to speed on using the Pope Tech Canvas Accessibility Guide to make Canvas pages more accessible for everyone! In this hands-on workshop, we’ll start with an overview of the Pope Tech Canvas Accessibility Guide, how it functions, what the various errors, alerts, structural elements, and features mean, and how to fix these issues on a Canvas page.

Learn the accessibility requirements for making your Canvas courses accessible. This hands-on workshop will cover using the Canvas editor to create navigable pages, writing effective alt text description for images, charts, and graphs, ensuring readable color contrast, creating accessible tables and links, and using Canvas accessibility tools to fix common issues.

This workshop explores how we can help students make thoughtful and responsible choices about its use. Together, we will consider questions of ethics, transparency, authorship, sustainability, and the role of human judgment in an increasingly AI-enabled world.

This hands-on workshop covers what makes digital math accessible for all learners, including major accessible math formats, accessible math tools, structuring workflows to deliver accessible math, and how digital math interacts with platforms like Canvas, Jupyter Notebook, MS Office documents, and webpages. See full description for free software requirements.

CITL's Master Course in Online Teaching (MCOT) is a deep dive into online teaching strategies that extends what was presented during previous teaching academies. Prior participation in an instructional development series is not required but professional experience with university level instruction is strongly encouraged.

Özüm Arzık Erzurumlu leads a conversation on integrating coaching skills into everyday teaching practice, drawing on her work as an ICF-certified professional coach and her research on coaching frameworks in interpreter education. A set of practical tools are introduced for participants to apply to different teaching contexts.

Addresses ambiguity in group work and equips faculty with strategies for clarifying expectations, structuring collaboration, and offering flexible participation options.

Get up to speed quickly on the basics of making PDF documents accessible for all while meeting state and federal accessibility standards. For hands-on participation, you will need Adobe Acrobat Pro (not Acrobat Reader). U of I, UIS, and UIC faculty and staff can obtain Acrobat Pro free from the U of I Webstore: https://webstore.illinois.edu/shop/product.aspx?zpid=7227

CITL's Master Course in Online Teaching (MCOT) is a deep dive into online teaching strategies that extends what was presented during previous teaching academies. Prior participation in an instructional development series is not required but professional experience with university level instruction is strongly encouraged.

This presentation provides an overview of how AI is influencing work, employment, HRM, and labor relations. It considers emerging opportunities and challenges for workers and organizations, with attention to changing job tasks, employment practices, workplace governance, and the evolving relationship between technology and work.

Get up to speed quickly on the basics of making PDF documents accessible for all while meeting state and federal accessibility standards. For hands-on participation, you will need Adobe Acrobat Pro (not Acrobat Reader). U of I, UIS, and UIC faculty and staff can obtain Acrobat Pro free from the U of I Webstore: https://webstore.illinois.edu/shop/product.aspx?zpid=7227

Get up to speed quickly on making your Microsoft Word documents accessible for everyone while meeting state and federal accessibility standards. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll start with a brief overview of common accessibility challenges in Word and then jump right into practice.

Get up to speed quickly on making your PowerPoint presentations accessible for everyone while meeting state and federal accessibility standards. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll begin with a brief overview of common accessibility challenges in PowerPoint and then dive straight into practical solutions.

Get up to speed on using the Pope Tech Canvas Accessibility Guide to make Canvas pages more accessible for everyone! In this hands-on workshop, we’ll start with an overview of the Pope Tech Canvas Accessibility Guide, how it functions, what the various errors, alerts, structural elements, and features mean, and how to fix these issues on a Canvas page.

This hands-on workshop covers what makes digital math accessible for all learners, including major accessible math formats, accessible math tools, structuring workflows to deliver accessible math, and how digital math interacts with platforms like Canvas, Jupyter Notebook, MS Office documents, and webpages. See full description for free software requirements.

In this presentation prof. Agate will share how the assignments in RST 460 are structured and the reasoning behind the design, and will also share some preliminary data about students’ experience with the AI integration into the event planning process: what they are finding useful, confusing, or surprising.

Learn the accessibility requirements for making your Canvas courses accessible. This hands-on workshop will cover using the Canvas editor to create navigable pages, writing effective alt text description for images, charts, and graphs, ensuring readable color contrast, creating accessible tables and links, and using Canvas accessibility tools to fix common issues.

In this case study, we will share how we have refined our model for bringing students from multiple disciplines together, breaking down silos between courses, and creating a productive give-and-take throughout the design process. We will discuss what students gain from working across disciplines and explain how we collaborate as faculty while maintaining distinct courses.

Get up to speed quickly on the basics of making PDF documents accessible for all while meeting state and federal accessibility standards. For hands-on participation, you will need Adobe Acrobat Pro (not Acrobat Reader). U of I, UIS, and UIC faculty and staff can obtain Acrobat Pro free from the U of I Webstore: https://webstore.illinois.edu/shop/product.aspx?zpid=7227

Get up to speed quickly on the basics of making PDF documents accessible for all while meeting state and federal accessibility standards. For hands-on participation, you will need Adobe Acrobat Pro (not Acrobat Reader). U of I, UIS, and UIC faculty and staff can obtain Acrobat Pro free from the U of I Webstore: https://webstore.illinois.edu/shop/product.aspx?zpid=7227

Get up to speed quickly on making your Microsoft Word documents accessible for everyone while meeting state and federal accessibility standards. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll start with a brief overview of common accessibility challenges in Word and then jump right into practice.

Get up to speed on using the Pope Tech Canvas Accessibility Guide to make Canvas pages more accessible for everyone! In this hands-on workshop, we’ll start with an overview of the Pope Tech Canvas Accessibility Guide, how it functions, what the various errors, alerts, structural elements, and features mean, and how to fix these issues on a Canvas page.

This workshop explores how faculty can help students evaluate evidence, navigate uncertainty, recognize misinformation, and develop the habits of inquiry and judgment needed to thrive in a rapidly changing information landscape.

As the year comes to a close, this retreat provides an opportunity to reconnect, reflect, and celebrate what we have learned together. Faculty will share ideas, experiences, and practices that emerged throughout the series, while exploring how new partnerships, insights, and conversations can continue to shape teaching and learning across campus in the years ahead.