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Center for Teaching Innovation

Events for Faculty & Instructors

CTI offers a range of programming to support faculty and graduate students, and help enhance teaching and learning at Cornell. Click the links below to jump to a section featuring our current programming in the following areas:  

All of our events are also listed on our Event Calendar and the Cornell Events Calendar, where you can view by month and filter by those relevant to your interests or teaching needs.

Special Teaching Topics

The Art of Teaching Series: The Art of the Lab

Part of CTI’s “The Art of Teaching” series, “The Art of the Lab” will highlight effective approaches Cornell faculty are taking to create dynamic learning experiences for students in lab courses at Cornell. Hear about experiences in teaching laboratory courses from faculty panelists Shivaun Archer, Teaching Professor in charge of the Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Instructional Laboratories, Biomedical Engineering; Sunny Jung, Professor, Biological and Environmental Engineering; and Cristina Schlesier, Lecturer, Physics. Open to Cornell faculty, staff, postdocs and graduate students.

Big Red Teaching Days

Big Red Teaching Days (BRTD) is a week-long program that provides faculty a collegial opportunity to informally observe and learn about how their peers approach teaching and learning across a range of courses and learning environments. Faculty can participate by hosting, which means voluntarily opening their classroom to a colleague or two, and by visiting peers’ classrooms. The goal of BRTD is simply a deepening of conversations about good teaching across our community and an opportunity to experience the innovation that occurs in classrooms at Cornell. Learn more about the program.

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New Faculty

New Faculty Teaching Academy 

The New Faculty Teaching Academy offers a series of programs to accelerate new faculty teaching success during their first few years at Cornell.

  • The New Faculty Teaching Academy will be back in Fall 2026! Check back this summer for more information. In the meantime, we encourage you to explore our resources for new faculty. 

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Assessing Student Learning

More events coming soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to check out our resources on assessing student learning. 

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Creative Technology Lab

Introduction to Podcasting

Podcasting is becoming an increasingly popular alternative assignment type as well as a way to communicate to a wider audience. This workshop is a two-part introduction to Podcasting. Part one will cover the basics of planning and recording a podcast. Part two will cover ways to edit a podcast. The goal is not to be an extensive introduction to how to design a podcasting assignment. Rather, it is meant to give instructors an idea of the steps and considerations that you, or your students, will need to take when creating a podcast. This workshop is a two-part series, although participants are free to attend just one, depending on their needs. If you plan on attending both, please register for both.

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Engaging Students

The Art of Teaching Series: The Art of the Lab

Part of CTI’s “The Art of Teaching” series, “The Art of the Lab” will highlight effective approaches Cornell faculty are taking to create dynamic learning experiences for students in lab courses at Cornell. Hear about experiences in teaching laboratory courses from faculty panelists Shivaun Archer, Teaching Professor in charge of the Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Instructional Laboratories, Biomedical Engineering; Sunny Jung, Professor, Biological and Environmental Engineering; and Cristina Schlesier, Lecturer, Physics. Open to Cornell faculty, staff, postdocs and graduate students.

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Inclusion & Accessibility

More events coming soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to check out our resources on inclusion and accessibility. 

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Generative AI

Bovay Seminar Series: GenAI for Teaching and Learning Community of Practice

We are inviting instructors across disciplines to come together as a community of practice to build expertise around teaching in the age of Generative AI. These monthly lunches will provide a great opportunity to learn more about GenAI as it applies to multiple disciplines, hear what other instructors have tried, ask questions and share ideas, and learn about the interests of those thinking about, teaching with (or against), and researching GenAI at Cornell. Refreshments will be provided. 

In this seminar, Jan Burzlaff, Post Doctoral Fellow in the Jewish Studies Program, will give a talk titled Teaching With AI: What the Classroom Reveals When Machines Join Us. As AI tools become increasingly present in higher education, this session takes a different approach: What happens when we deliberately teach with AI while also teaching about it? Drawing on ongoing classroom experiences from his course centered on LLMs and video testimony, Burzlaff reflects on how AI reshapes interpretation, engagement, and responsibility in learning. The session explores AI as both an object of inquiry and a pedagogical stress test—a reflection of what teaching depends on, and what kinds of human work remain essential when machines sound fluent and confident in the classroom.

This series is co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching Innovation and Sue G. and Harry E. Bovay Program in the History and Ethics of Professional Engineering.

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Learning Technologies

Canvas

More events coming soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to check out our resources on Canvas.

Ally (Accessibility Tool)

More events coming soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to check out our resources on Ally. 

FeedbackFruits (Peer Review)

Getting Started with Online Peer Reviews

The workshop will begin by introducing examples of how student peer review and group member evaluation activities can be implemented in teaching. Then, we’ll pass it over to our FeedbackFruits representatives to demonstrate how to set up these activities using the FeedbackFruits tools. We will then discuss the best practices and available resources to help make these peer learning activities effective for student learning. Participants will be able to ask questions and discuss use cases with CTI facilitators and the vendor.

iClicker (Polling)

More events coming soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to check out our resources on iClicker.

Perusall (Social Annotation)

More events coming soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to check out our resources on Perusall. 

Poll Everywhere (Polling)

More events coming soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to check out our resources on Poll Everywhere. 

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Recent Events

Bovay Seminar Series: GenAI for Teaching and Learning Community of Practice

We are inviting instructors across disciplines to come together as a community of practice to build expertise around teaching in the age of Generative AI. These monthly lunches will provide a great opportunity to learn more about GenAI as it applies to multiple disciplines, hear what other instructors have tried, ask questions and share ideas, and learn about the interests of those thinking about, teaching with (or against), and researching GenAI at Cornell. Refreshments will be provided. 

In this seminar, Kate Navickas (Director of the Cornell Writing Centers and Senior Lecturer at the John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines) will share a first-year writing class curriculum focused on “AI & Writing” developed and taught over the course of six semesters. Dr. Kate Navickas will describe assignment trajectory, pedagogical strategies for fostering authentic student writing, and student writing (from their IRB-approved study) that illustrates students’ evolving sense of accountability and their reflections on their writing identities.

This series is co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching Innovation and Sue G. and Harry E. Bovay Program in the History and Ethics of Professional Engineering.

  • This event was held Wednesday, February 4, 2026, from 12:00–1:00 p.m., in person.

Demonstrating Learning through Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling allows story creators and their audiences to transform and engage through the power of narrative. They are also becoming an increasingly popular alternative assignment type. This 90-minute workshop is an introduction to designing and assessing Digital Storytelling assignments. Whether you’d like to explore providing students with options for making and demonstrating knowledge or want to help students communicate complex ideas in meaningful and creative ways, understanding how to assess these assignments is an important part of the process.

  • This event was held Monday, February 2, 2026, from 2:00-3:30 p.m., virtual.

Teaching about Climate Change: Art, Action, and Reflection

  • How might you engage the humanities, climate change, and community in your teaching? Join colleagues experienced and new to explore the challenges and opportunities of teaching about climate change across disciplines. In the second half of the session, we will explore a selection of works of art related to landscape, environment, and sustainability in the Herbert F. Johnson Museum collections and brainstorm possibilities for teaching with the collection. Guest panelists include: Anna Margaret Davidson (Lecturer and Senior Research Associate, Natural Resources and the Environment), Caroline Levine (David and Kathleen Ryan Professor of Humanities, Literatures in English), and Kelly Presutti (Assistant Professor, History of Art and Visual Studies).
  • This event was held on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, from 1:00-3:30 p.m., in person.

Getting Started with Poll Everywhere

  • Learn how to use Poll Everywhere, Cornell’s polling tool that is available for free to all instructors, support staff, and students. This workshop will offer demonstrations of the main features, including how to create and launch polls and how to connect Poll Everywhere to your Canvas courses, as well as hands-on activities.
  • This event was held on Tuesday, January 13, 2026, from 3:00-4:00 p.m., in person.
  • This event was held on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, from 3:00-4:00 p.m., in person.

Build a Better Canvas Course: Applying Tips from the Canvas Course Spotlight

  • Put student feedback into practice at this hands-on, intermediate-level workshop. We will explore key course design tips gathered from the Canvas Course Spotlight program and give you dedicated time to apply them directly to your own course. Bring your laptop and a course to work on and make high-impact changes that enhance the student learning experience.
  • This event was held on Friday, January 16, 2026, from 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., in person.

Getting Started with iClicker

  • Learn how to use iClicker, a classroom polling tool that is available for all Cornell instructors, support staff, and students. This workshop will offer demonstrations of iClicker's main features, including how to set up the iClicker instructor software and launch polls. The workshop will also cover how to connect iClicker to Canvas courses alongside hands-on activities. For more information about this workshop, visit Getting Started with iClicker.
  • This event was held on Wednesday, January 14, 2026, from 3:00-4:30 p.m., in person. 

Learning Without AI: Designing Assignments and Course Policies

  • For faculty concerned about students bypassing the learning process by relying on Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) tools.
  • This event was held on Wednesday, January 14, 2026, from 1:00-2:00 p.m., virtual.

Human-Centered GenAI for Teaching and Learning

  • Guidelines and inspirations for developing assignments that incorporate GenAI, and explore what students need to know about responsible and effective GenAI use.
  • This event was held on Thursday, January 15, 2026, from 1:00–2:15 p.m., virtual.