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Center for Teaching Innovation

Teaching with Technology Workshops

Below, you will find workshops that address teaching with technology, including generative A.I. and learning technologies such as Canvas, FeedbackFruits, and Poll Everywhere.

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

Responding to Generative AI

August Workshops

Learning Without AI: Designing Assignments and Course Policies

  • When: Monday, August 18, 2025, from 3:00–4:15 p.m., in person. Register for Learning Without AI: Designing Assignments and Course Policies. This workshop is also offered on 8/13 (Zoom) and 9/2 (in person) and covers the same content.
  • Description: This workshop is for faculty concerned about students bypassing the learning process by relying on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools. We will discuss course policies, syllabus language, and assessment strategies that incentivize students to embrace their learning, and provide practical examples that you can consider or modify for your courses. Join us and connect with your peers while we explore how you can outline expectations for your students and create assignments that encourage learning in the face of AI. 

Enhance Student Learning with Personalized Support and Activities with Your Own Generative AI Course Assistant

  • When: Register for Wednesday, August 20, 2025, from 12:00–1 p.m., on Zoom.
  • Description: Interested in trying out GenAI in your course to support student learning?
    This workshop is designed to help you create an AI assistant that is tailored to
    your course materials and learning objectives with the following features:
    • Personalized: A tailored AI chatbot assistant (looks like ChatGPT) that
      helps students based on your course materials and objectives
    • Trustworthy: The AI assistant provides source links to your course
      materials in each response and shows students where they can learn more
    • Controllable: Instructors control how the AI responds to students: e.g.,
      prevent it from giving away homework solutions, encourage critical thinking
    • Transparent: Instructors see every student conversation (anonymized)
      and a dashboard summarizing weekly usage and insights from all
      conversations (common questions, misconceptions, etc.)
    • Activities: Instructors can create any type of AI-led activity to encourage
      critical thinking: e.g., Reading Reflection, Debate, Role Play, Quiz Me,
    • Predict-Observe-Explain, Exam Tutoring, and more
    • Private: No course materials or student data are used to train AI models
  • Workshop Goal:
    In this workshop, you will create your own AI Course Assistant using HiTA and customize it for your course materials. The HITA platform has been used by nearly 5,000 students in the past two years, including in several Cornell courses.
  • Workshop Leader:  Rene Kizilcec (kizilcec@cornell.edu)
    Rene  is an Associate Professor of Information Science at Cornell and Director of the Future of Learning Lab. His research focus is on AI in education and learning. He has been using HiTA in his Learning Analytics (INFO 4100) course. He also serves as chief scientist of HiTA.

Human-Centered GenAI for Teaching and Learning

  • When: Thursday, August 21, 2025, from 11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m., in person. Register for Human-Centered GenAI for Teaching and Learning. This workshop is also offered on 8/14 (Zoom) and 9/11 (in person) and covers the same content.
  • Description: We invite instructors across disciplines to join us for a workshop session on using Generative AI (GenAI) in their courses. In this session, we will share guidelines and inspirations for developing assignments that incorporate GenAI, and explore what students need to know about responsible and effective GenAI use. We'll also cover key design principles that support successful GenAI integration in course assignments, sharing a framework for thoughtful, human-centered implementation. Participants will have the opportunity to work through practical use case examples and draft their own AI-enhanced activities, taking advantage of Cornell-specific AI resources, tools, and capabilities currently available to faculty and students.

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September Workshops

Learning Without AI: Designing Assignments and Course Policies

  • When: Tuesday, September 2, 2025, from 2:30–3:45 p.m., in person. Register for Learning Without AI: Designing Assignments and Course Policies. This workshop is also offered on 8/13 (Zoom) and 8/18 (in person) and covers the same content.
  • Description: This workshop is for faculty concerned about students bypassing the learning process by relying on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools. We will discuss course policies, syllabus language, and assessment strategies that incentivize students to embrace their learning, and provide practical examples that you can consider or modify for your courses. Join us and connect with your peers while we explore how you can outline expectations for your students and create assignments that encourage learning in the face of AI.

Human-Centered GenAI for Teaching and Learning

  • When: Thursday, September 11, 2025, from 1:30–2:45 p.m., in person. Register for Human-Centered GenAI for Teaching and Learning. This workshop is also offered on 8/14 (Zoom) and 8/21 (in person) and covers the same content.
  • Description: We invite instructors across disciplines to join us for a workshop session on using Generative AI (GenAI) in their courses. In this session, we will share guidelines and inspirations for developing assignments that incorporate GenAI, and explore what students need to know about responsible and effective GenAI use. We'll also cover key design principles that support successful GenAI integration in course assignments, sharing a framework for thoughtful, human-centered implementation. Participants will have the opportunity to work through practical use case examples and draft their own AI-enhanced activities, taking advantage of Cornell-specific AI resources, tools, and capabilities currently available to faculty and students. 

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

  • When: Wednesday, September 17, 2025, from 12:00–1:00 p.m., in person. Register for Bovay Seminar Series: GenAI for Teaching and Learning Community of Practice.
  • Description: 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. We welcome you to sign up and attend the first session scheduled for Wednesday, September 17, 12pm–1pm. At this meeting, we want to better understand the instructors’ needs and schedules to set the dates for the monthly series and gather topics of interest. Refreshments will be provided. This series is co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching Innovation and the Sue G. and Harry E. Bovay Program in the History and Ethics of Professional Engineering.

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Learning Technologies Workshops

August Workshops

Getting Started with Poll Everywhere

  • When: Wednesday, August 13, 2025, from 3:00–4:00 p.m., on Zoom. Register for Getting Started with Poll Everywhere.
  • Description: 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.

Why Is My Canvas Ally Score So Low?

  • When: Friday, August 15, 2025, from 10:00–11:00 a.m., on Zoom. Register for Why Is My Canvas Ally Score So Low?

  • Description: Are you wondering why your Canvas Ally score is still so low? Join our workshop to uncover the most common accessibility issues in course materials. You'll learn how Ally identifies barriers — such as formatting problems that affect access, engagement, and compatibility with assistive technologies — and discover simple, effective strategies to improve your scores and move closer to a barrier-free learning environment. Find similar workshops and learn more about Any Student, Any Classroom: Removing Barriers to Learning.

Getting Started in Canvas

  • When: Monday, August 18, 2025, from 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., on Zoom. Register for Getting Started in Canvas.
  • Description: Explore ways to use Canvas to facilitate student learning. This workshop will address how to create and share announcements, post a syllabus, add and organize content in ways that help students succeed, and publish your course.

Getting Started with Online Peer Reviews

  • When: Tuesday, August 19, 2025, from 10:00–11:00 a.m., on Zoom. Register for Getting Started with Online Peer Reviews.
  • Description: 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 FeedbackFruits representatives.

Getting Started with Perusall

  • When: Tuesday, August 19, 2025, from 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., on Zoom. Register for Getting Started with Perusall.
  • Description: During this workshop, we will cover how to get a course up and running with the Perusall Social Learning Platform. Topics will include course creation, LMS integration, content usage and integration, basic assignment creation and an overview of foundational settings. Questions will be addressed as we move through the workshop, and a recording will be made available to folks who cannot attend. Co-hosted by Perusall. 

Getting Started with Poll Everywhere

  • When: Tuesday, August 19, 2025, from 3:00–4:00 p.m., on Zoom. Register for Getting Started with Poll Everywhere.
  • Description: 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.

Why Is My Canvas Ally Score So Low?

  • When: Wednesday, August 20, 2025, from 10:00–11:00 a.m., on Zoom. Register for Why Is My Canvas Ally Score So Low?

  • Description: Are you wondering why your Canvas Ally score is still so low? Join our workshop to uncover the most common accessibility issues in course materials. You'll learn how Ally identifies barriers — such as formatting problems that affect access, engagement, and compatibility with assistive technologies — and discover simple, effective strategies to improve your scores and move closer to a barrier-free learning environment. Find similar workshops and learn more about Any Student, Any Classroom: Removing Barriers to Learning.

Getting Started with iClicker

  • When: Wednesday, August 20, 2025, from 3:00–4:30 p.m., on Zoom. Register for Getting Started with iClicker.
  • Description: 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. 

What's New in Learning Technologies

Perusall Advanced Workshop

  • When: Tuesday, August 26, 2025, from 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., on Zoom. Register for Perusall Advanced Workshop.
  • Description: During this workshop, we will take a deeper look at Perusall, covering topics such as Peer Assessment assignment creation, advanced setting configurations, AI usage (in regards to both users and Perusall) and advanced grouping configuration. Questions will be addressed as we move through the workshop, and a recording will be made available to folks who cannot attend.

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September Workshops

Introduction to Grading in Canvas

  • When: Monday, September 15, 2025, from 2:00–3:00 p.m., on Zoom. Register for Introduction to Grading in Canvas.
  • Description: Want to make sure you can display grades to students throughout the semester? Come learn the basics of preparing your Gradebook and using the SpeedGrader. Set yourself up for smoother grade management and clear communications of grading to students.

Introduction to Podcasting

  • When: Tuesday, September 16, 2025, and Tuesday, September 23, 2025, from 2:00–3:00 p.m., in person. Register for Introduction to Podcasting
  • Description: 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.
  • Note: 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.

October Workshops

What Works: Creating Engaging Learning Experiences

  • When: Wednesday, October 1, 2025, from 1:00–4:00 p.m., in person. Register for What Works: Creating Engaging Learning Experiences.
  • Description: Join the Center for Teaching Innovation for an afternoon of inspiration, celebration, and connection at What Works: Creating Engaging Learning Experiences. The schedule features:
    • Cornell instructors presenting engaging activities they use in their classes. Presenters include:
      • Eriko Akamatsu, Asian Studies, College of Arts & Sciences
      • Jan Burzlaff, Jewish Studies, College of Arts & Sciences
      • Rhonda Gilmore, Human Centered Design, College of Human Ecology
      • Natasha Holmes, Physics, College of Arts & Sciences
    • A celebration of excellence, honoring faculty recognized by the Canvas Course Spotlight, which highlights standout Canvas course design based on student nominations and feedback.
    • Posters exploring real-world engaging activities utilized at Cornell and practical strategies for implementing similar activities.
    • Informal opportunities to engage with colleagues from across the disciplines about learning and teaching.
    • Whether you're looking to spark new ideas, connect with colleagues, or celebrate teaching innovation, this event offers a rich opportunity to engage with the Cornell teaching community.

Getting Started with Online Peer Reviews

  • When: Wednesday, October 8, 2025, from 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., on Zoom. Register for Getting Started with Online Peer Reviews.
  • Description: 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 FeedbackFruits representatives.

Innovative Teaching with 3D Scanning: A Creative Toolkit for Faculty

  • When: Thursday, October 16, 2025, from 3:00–4:00 p.m., in person. Register for Innovative Teaching with 3D Scanning: A Creative Toolkit for Faculty.
  • Description: Discover how everyday tools like your smartphone or tablet can open up new dimensions in teaching. This hands-on session introduces faculty to the art of 3D scanning — turning real-world objects into digital models that can enrich lectures, assignments, and student projects. Whether you're in the sciences, arts, or humanities, learn how to creatively integrate 3D content into your curriculum to increase engagement and offer students new ways to explore, analyze, and create. No prior experience with 3D tools required — just bring your curiosity and your mobile device.

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 The following workshops were held within the last academic semester and may be offered again in the future. 

Recent Generative A.I. Workshops

Human-Centered GenAI for Teaching and Learning

  • When: Thursday, August 14, 2025, from 11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m., on Zoom.
  • Description: We invite instructors across disciplines to join us for a workshop session on using Generative AI (GenAI) in their courses. In this session, we will share guidelines and inspirations for developing assignments that incorporate GenAI, and explore what students need to know about responsible and effective GenAI use. We'll also cover key design principles that support successful GenAI integration in course assignments, sharing a framework for thoughtful, human-centered implementation. Participants will have the opportunity to work through practical use case examples and draft their own AI-enhanced activities, taking advantage of Cornell-specific AI resources, tools, and capabilities currently available to faculty and students. 

Learning Without AI: Designing Assignments and Course Policies

  • When: Wednesday, August 13, 2025, from 1:00–2 p.m., on Zoom.
  • Description: This workshop is for faculty concerned about students bypassing the learning process by relying on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools. We will discuss course policies, syllabus language, and assessment strategies that incentivize students to embrace their learning, and provide practical examples that you can consider or modify for your courses. Join us and connect with your peers while we explore how you can outline expectations for your students and create assignments that encourage learning in the face of AI.

Bovay Seminar Series: Generative AI for Teaching and Learning Community of Practice

  • When: Wednesday, May 14, 2025, from 12:00-1:00 p.m., in person.
  • Description: We invite 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 an opportunity to learn more about GAI as it applies to multiple disciplines, hear what other instructors have tried, ask questions and share ideas. We’ll learn about the interests of those thinking about, teaching with (or against), and researching GAI at Cornell. At this seventh meeting, we hope to continue discussing instructors’ needs and share experiences. Refreshments will be provided.
    • This series is co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching Innovation and the Sue G. and Harry E. Bovay Program in the History and Ethics of Professional Engineering.

Bovay Seminar Series: Generative AI for Teaching and Learning Community of Practice

  • When: Wednesday, February 12, 2025, from 12:00-1:00 p.m., in person.
  • Description: We invite 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 an opportunity to learn more about GAI as it applies to multiple disciplines, hear what other instructors have tried, ask questions and share ideas. We’ll learn about the interests of those thinking about, teaching with (or against), and researching GAI at Cornell. At this fourth meeting, we hope to continue discussing instructors’ needs and share experiences. Refreshments will be provided.
    • This series is co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching Innovation and the Sue G. and Harry E. Bovay Program in the History and Ethics of Professional Engineering.

Recent Learning Technology Workshops

Teaching Digital Storytelling

  • When: This 5-week program is hybrid with the first two meetings happening in person, and the others via Zoom:
    • Friday, May 30, from 1:00–2:30 p.m., in person. Location: Computing & Communications Center (CCC), Room 123
    • Friday, June 6, 13, 20, from 1:00–2:30 p.m., on Zoom.
    • Friday, June 27, from 1:00–2:30 p.m., in person. Location: Computing & Communications Center (CCC), Room 123

  • Description: Digital storytelling allows story creators and their audiences to engage through the power of narrative. This 5-week program is an opportunity to create a story and design an assignment for fun, to help students communicate complex ideas in meaningful and creative ways, or to explore providing students with options for demonstrating knowledge.

    Although the main focus of this program will be creating a personal narrative, course trailer, or assignment example as a short podcast or video, other forms and storytelling approaches will be discussed and welcomed.

    • In this institute, you will:
      • Make a digital story and experience the creative process
      • Design a digital storytelling assignment
      • Clarify and understand the support you can offer regarding access to resources
      • Make a plan for fair assessment and grading 

Introduction to Podcasting: Part Two

  • When: Friday, April 4, 2025, from 10:00–11:30 a.m., in person.

  • Description: 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.

    While this workshop is a two-part series, participants are free to attend just one, depending on their needs. If you plan on attending both, please register for both. 

Introduction to Podcasting: Part One

  • When: Friday, March 28, 2025, from 10:00–11:30 a.m., in person.
  • Description: 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.
  • While this workshop is a two-part series, participants are free to attend just one, depending on their needs. If you plan on attending both, please register for both. Part two will be held on Friday, April 4, 2025, from 10:00–11:30 a.m., in person. 

Exploring Digital Immersive Learning through Extended Reality (XR)

  • When: Tuesday, March 4, 2025, from 3:00–4:30 p.m., in person. 

  • Description: Join the Creative Technology Lab (CTL) and the Center for Teaching Innovation for a facilitated panel discussion and hands-on demonstrations of faculty projects that explore immersive learning experiences, including virtual, augmented, and mixed reality, in teaching. Faculty members will share what sparked their interest in an immersive learning approach and how their teaching has evolved along with their students’ learning experience. We encourage faculty members from all disciplines to attend and bring questions and ideas from their own area of expertise. 

    Panelists include James Spinazzola (Music, A&S), Denise Osborne (Romance Studies, A&S), Paulina Velázquez Solís (Art, AAP), and Ryan Tapping (Physics, A&S). Hands-on demonstrations will be available before and after the panel to help you learn more about ongoing projects. No experience with immersive tools is needed. Light refreshments will be provided. Doors open at 2:30pm. 

Introduction to Grading in Canvas

  • When: Wednesday, February 12, 2025, from 1:00–2:00 p.m., on Zoom.
  • Description: Want to make sure you can display grades to students throughout the semester? Come learn the basics of preparing your Gradebook and using the SpeedGrader. Set yourself up for smoother grade management and clear communication of grading to students. 

Best Practices for moving from Gradescope 1.1 to 1.3 for Instructors

  • When: Friday, January 17, 2025, from 1:00–2:00 p.m., on Zoom.
  • Description: During the summer of 2024, CTI upgraded the link between Gradescope and Canvas (often called an LTI) from LTI 1.1 to 1.3. The 1.3 integration links Gradescope to Canvas more closely and has increased security among other behind-the-scenes improvements. This workshop will focus on some best practices when using the new 1.3 LTI integration for those who have used Gradescope in the past and may be copying content or assignments from past semesters.

Demonstrating Learning through Digital Storytelling

  • When: Thursday, January 16, 2025, from 1:00–2:30 p.m., on Zoom.
  • Description: 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.

What's New in Learning Technologies

  • When: Thursday, January 9, 2025, from 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m., on Zoom.
  • Description: Attendees will learn about new learning technologies and updates to existing learning technologies.

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