Annual AI Orientation

Better Together! Personal Experiences, Empathy, and Boundaries in the Classroom

Location: Ballantine Hall Room 008

Facilitators: Kevin Mudavadi and Selim Yavuz

Implementing healthy boundaries and bringing your authentic self into the classroom can be challenging for instructors, but changes are being made to counter this narrative. This interactive workshop will inform graduate student assistant instructors about their identities' influences on student perceptions, how to implement healthy boundaries, and how to cultivate empathy and community in the classroom through engaging in group activities and self-reflection. Instructors will leave this workshop with resources to create a healthy classroom environment and practical tools to prevent burnout.

After completing this workshop, instructors will be able to:

• Identify ways to implement healthy boundaries as an instructor.
• Develop concrete skills for maintaining leadership while demonstrating empathy.
• Increase awareness of cultural differences and their effects on a classroom environment.
• Use various pedagogical tools to enhance awareness of self and student identities.

From Overwhelmed to Organized: An Inclusive First Week Workshop

Location: Ballantine Hall Room 003

Facilitators: Milo Hicks and Ryan Schaben

The first week of teaching a class can be overwhelming, no matter how much experience you have. Do you wish you had more time to learn and strategize about how to start the semester off right? If so, then this workshop is for you. You’ll have the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with fellow instructors on your plans for the first week, with a focus on integrating inclusive practices into your teaching, no matter your instructional role. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to identify inclusive practices you can employ in your specific instructional role, discuss how to apply these in your first week of teaching, and collaborate with your peers to develop an actionable plan for your first week and beyond. This workshop will involve small group discussion and peer-supported work time, so come prepared to talk and collaborate. Participants will leave with practical strategies and tools they can use during their first week of teaching and beyond.

After completing this workshop, instructors will be able to:

• Identify inclusive practices you can employ in your specific instructional role
• Discuss strategies for applying inclusive practices in your first week of teaching
• Collaborate with your peers to develop an actionable plan for your first week and beyond

Cultivating an Inclusive, Empathetic Classroom while Maintaining Boundaries as a New Instructor

Location: Ballantine Hall Room 006

Facilitators: Ren Maloney and Madeleine Gonin

As new instructors, the idea of leading a classroom for the first time can be intimidating, but at the end of this workshop, you will leave with actionable steps for creating an inclusive classroom. Our goal is to promote a growth mindset for our students so they understand that through continuous practice they can be successful in our classes. In this session, you will have the opportunity to walk through some classroom situations from the perspectives of a current graduate student instructor at IU, Ren Maloney, and the Assistant Director of Inclusive Teaching at the Center for Innovative Teaching & Learning, Dr. Madeleine Gonin. We will provide campus resources, classroom case examples, and advice for succeeding in your first year of teaching! You’ve got this!

Getting Started with Canvas

Location: Ballantine Hall Room 110

Facilitators: Eric Brinkman

Canvas is the Learning Management System (LMS) used by Indiana University. If you have never build a Canvas course or have questions about how to create or facilitate one, please join us for this session on getting started with IU’s Canvas LMS. We will go over the purpose of Canvas (for example, implementing the evidence-based strategy of adding transparency) and its uses, including an introduction to:

• What is Canvas?
• What is SpeedGrader and how do I grade assignments?
• What does the IU Canvas LMS allow you to do?
• What are the 3 things you need to do before you publish a Canvas page?
• We will also have time for a Q&A.

So come join us with your questions, and we’ll go over how to get you started on your teaching journey using IU's Canvas LMS! This workshop is for those who have never taught with Canvas before. Participants should bring their own laptops to interact with Canvas.

From Passive to Active: Transforming Learning with PlayPosit and Top Hat

Location: Ballantine Hall Room 008

Facilitators: Megan DeMoss

In this dynamic workshop, we’ll explore how to shift from traditional passive learning experiences to engaging, active interactions using two powerful educational tools: PlayPosit and Top Hat. Starting with YouTube and/or Kaltura videos, instructors can use PlayPosit to embed questions in the video to check students’ understanding as they watch and learn. Top Hat is commonly used by instructors during class to engage all students by asking them questions to check if students are learning. This session will equip you with practical strategies to enhance student participation and comprehension using one or both tools.

This workshop is for those who have taught with Canvas before and are wanting to learn about new tools.

Engaging and Equitable Designs for the Vast Landscape of STEM Labs

Location: Ballantine Hall Room 008

Facilitators: Samantha Heiman and Quang-Anh Ngo (Alex) Tran

STEM encompasses a vast array of disciplines and diverse groups of students choose to participate in STEM. Irrespective of the department or specific research focus, it is imperative that all STEM lab instructors possess the ability to effectively impart fundamental concepts, demonstrate proper laboratory protocols, facilitate successful experimentation or data analysis, and foster a sense of inclusion and belonging for students in the classroom.

In this workshop, we will cover real-life scenarios and useful techniques that will provide the participants with tools for (1) supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM fields, (2) engaging students in the classroom, and (3) planning activities for a STEM class.

At the end of this workshop, attendees will:

1. Be able to define the breadth of STEM as a field, while recognizing and valuing the interdisciplinary nature within STEM.
2. Create course materials that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM fields and STEM participation.
3. Propose an engagement or time management strategy that instructors will be able to use in their classroom.

Saying Things about Stuff: How to Lead an Effective Analysis-based Discussion

Location: Ballantine Hall Room 144

Facilitators: Sarah Loy and Rich Allberry

Students can be keen observers of a text in front of them, but getting them to analyze that text—to make interpretive claims about what they observe—can be difficult. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to select course-appropriate texts and effectively employ strategies of leading students through analytical class discussions. Participants will develop techniques for facilitating students’ summary and analysis–extrapolating from the details of a text to arrive at interpretation–on sample media in their classrooms. Participants will then work in groups to brainstorm course/discipline-appropriate texts and methods of analysis.

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Identify the types of texts available for students to analyze in both assignments and classroom discussion in their particular course/discipline
• Delineate the steps, or moves, of summary and analysis that their course/discipline does, and apply those steps/moves to texts to create a disciplinarily situated claim
• Identify strategies for teaching analysis and evaluating students’ comprehension of analysis in their course/discipline

Enhancing Classroom Engagement: Strategies for Active Learning

Location: Ballantine Hall Room 005

Facilitators: Xian Wang and Shahzarin Khan

Instructors need support and resources to apply active learning strategies in their classes. By the end of the workshop, the participants can understand the importance of active learning and be able to apply at least one active learning strategy in their class. We will use peer-based activities such as role-play and discussion to help participants implement these strategies in their own courses.

After completing this workshop, instructors will be able to:

• Describe the basics and importance of active learning.
• Identify practical examples of applying active learning in different disciplines and across different learning levels online and in person.
• Develop active learning strategies for their own classes.

Generative AI Strategies in the Classroom

Location: Ballantine Hall Room 006

Facilitators: Eric Brinkman

Are you wondering about how to incorporate generative AI into your teaching? Maybe you’ve heard some of the buzz about generative AI, but maybe you’re also worried about student academic misconduct in your course. Research shows that the best way to prevent students from misusing AI is to demonstrate for them how you would like them to use generative AI instead. Surveys have also indicated that U.S. students, often mistrustful of generative AI, are falling behind in AI use.

During this presentation we will discuss how to incorporate AI into your teaching, including an introduction to:

• writing an AI Policy statement
• Incorporating AI into in-class activities
• Using AI as a Tutoring support
• Increasing student productivity
• We will also have time for a Q&A

So come join us with your questions, and we’ll go over how to get you started on or further develop how you can incorporate generative AI into your teaching. Participants should bring their own laptops to interact and work with online generative AI resources.

Characteristics of Great Research-based Assignments

Location: Ballantine Hall Room 143

Facilitators: Meggan Press

What makes a successful research-based assignment? Is it a strong thesis? Perfect citations? Scholarly sources? Titular colonocity? In this workshop, led by Meggan Press from IU Libraries Teaching and Learning Department, we will work together to create a shared understanding of the most important characteristics of a successful research-based assignment. Drawing on participants' experience as students, we will begin by identifying common confusions, pitfalls, and roadblocks. Then, using anonymized assignment samples from various subject disciplines as our material, we will build an assignment design rubric for research assignments which participants can use to guide their research-based assignments going forward.