Sliding Doors: Learning Opportunities Missed and Afforded by AI

The round-table discussions will feature faculty and students from a variety of disciplines to discuss their perception and experience of the impact of AI on teaching and learning. During the moderated discussion, the will respond to a series of prompts designed to have them their perspective on specific pedagogical issues such as the impact on learning objectives, active learning in the classroom, knowledge versus skill acquisition, the value of writing skills and critical thinking, non-native English speakers/international student learning and equity considerations, productivity versus creativity, workload and burnout, modeling ethical behaviour, and the environmental impacts of AI technology. The goal of the round-tables is to have students and instructors share their perspectives and concerns so that they might better understand one another’s excitement and misgivings.

Podcast: “The Myth of the AI First Draft with Leon Furze” (Episode 521 of Teaching in Higher Ed) https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/the-myth-of-the-ai-first-draft/

Article: "Microsoft, Google and Amazon turn to nuclear energy to fuel the AI boom" https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/generative-ai-and-nuclear-energy-1.7362127

Delivery Format: In-person Senate Chambers UC 1001 (Thunder Bay), OA 3041 (Orillia) or virtually by Zoom

Audience: Everyone is welcome

Click here to view the full Teaching and Learning Week Schedule

Faculty and teaching staff will learn how to create, share, and reuse a variety of interactive learning content for formative assessment. Participants will be provided with the tools to create and reuse H5P via the eCampusOntario H5P studio and with instructions on embedding H5P activities into their myCourselink/D2L courses. Content types such as drag and drop tasks, interactive videos, flashcards, and timelines (to name a few) will be presented. Visit the Teaching Commons website for more information about H5P.

This workshop is designed to build understanding of Indigenous protocols, working respectfully with Elders and Traditional Indigenous Knowledge Keepers(TIKK). With the principle of Two-Eyed Seeing, the session will provide participants with cultural awareness within a Western academic setting, Indigenous protocols, and honorarium scale. The Role of Elders and TIKK: Identity, responsibility, and engaging in effective, respectful, meaningful ways. Faculty will gain insight into creating relationships with Elders and Knowledge Keepers when inviting them to share traditional teachings in the classroom.

Context: Cultural Awareness and Wise Practice

Fit to the above categories and level: 3 Indigenizing Curriculum level: emerging

Format: Workshop and grab and go (both)

Faculty will gain insight into traditional protocols that support building meaningful relationships with Elders and TIKK. This can assist in aligning traditional teachings with course content to create meaningful lesson plans for students.

Audience: Instructional staff

Description: This workshop will take a deeper dive into some of the tools introduced in the essentials workshop and introduce course tools that promote collaboration, aid in grading and feedback, and monitor student progress.  Topics will include creating groups and associating them with the assignment and discussion tools; creating rubrics, grading students with rubrics, and exploring user progress to learn how students progress through and interact with online courses. 

It is recommended that participants have attended the mycourselink/D2L Essentials Skills Workshop or watched the recording of the Essentials Skills workshop before attending this workshop.

This workshop will be delivered through Zoom and will be recorded.  The Zoom join link will be provided to registrants before the event.

Audience: Instructional staff

Description: This workshop will take a deeper dive into some of the tools introduced in the essentials workshop and introduce course tools that promote collaboration, aid in grading and feedback, and monitor student progress.  Topics will include creating groups and associating them with the assignment and discussion tools; creating rubrics, grading students with rubrics, and exploring user progress to learn how students progress through and interact with online courses. 

It is recommended that participants have attended the mycourselink/D2L Essentials Skills Workshop or watched the recording of the Essentials Skills workshop before attending this workshop.

This workshop will be delivered through Zoom and will be recorded.  The Zoom join link will be provided to registrants before the event.

This session presents the rationale and strategies for building an “I love me file” or a “refuge file” of positive (self)reinforcement through the gathering and curating of positive feedback artifacts, reflection pieces, concrete examples of your successes in the classroom, with your students, in your career, and in your professional life, etc.

These resources – and this file – can become an emotional sanctuary to revisit after a bad class, a rude comment, a failed classroom experiment, or other professional setback that can’t help but feel personal and cut deep, especially when a highly invested instructor is tired and over-stretched. These stored artifacts can not only boost your morale and remind you of your excellence, but they can also contribute in practical ways – and greatly simplify – the process of assembling or updating your dossier for PTR, your files for awards, etc. 

The rapid rise of AI in education presents both opportunities and challenges for how we teach and how students learn. For educators, this means navigating two key areas: teaching with AI—helping students explore and use AI tools in meaningful ways—and teaching about AI—encouraging critical thinking about its societal, ethical, and educational implications (Searson, Langran, and Trumble, 2024).

As AI becomes more embedded  noin daily life, it’s important to thoughtfully consider how these tools fit into our classrooms. Avoiding AI altogether or relying solely on traditional methods can unintentionally widen the digital divide, leaving some students with more access and familiarity than others. By exploring balanced, inclusive approaches, we can better support all learners.

We invite you to join the Teaching Commons’ Teaching with AI Community of Practice (CoP). This semester, we’ll focus on Teaching with AI and sharing ideas, strategies, and examples to enhance learning. In the winter semester, we’ll shift to Teaching about AI, examining how to build critical AI literacy among students.

References: Searson, M. Langran, E., Trumble J. (Eds). (2024). Exploring new horizons: Generative artificial intelligence and teacher education. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/p/223928/ 

This workshop will take participants through the phases of creating and grading assessments in the quiz tool. Topics will include: 

• setting up questions in the various formats;

• setting the timing settings of the quiz; 

• setting up special access times for specific students writing at a different time, or who are allowed extra time to write; 

• previewing the quiz as the students will see it; 

• viewing the results and statistics of the quiz; 

• grading any questions that were not automatically graded; 

• making the grades available to students.  

This workshop will be delivered through Zoom and will be recorded. The Zoom join link will be provided to registrants before the event.

This session introduces key ideas and practices for making online learning both more active and more effective: engaging student attention, having students “do something” as they learn, using the flipped classroom model, adapting active-learning strategies, and/or offering more authentic learning experiences. 

Participants will discover a variety of easy-to-use engagement triggers for lecture segments as well as specific activities for students in their online classes to make learning more interactive. They will briefly consider the “flipped classroom” model and be invited to explore the Online Instructional Activities Index to see how a range of learning strategies can be used in online teaching to craft authentic learning experiences and assessments. 

Note: Most of these resources are equally useful for teaching in the on-campus classroom.

This workshop will take a deeper dive into some of the tools introduced in the essentials workshop and introduce course tools that promote collaboration, aid in grading and feedback, and monitor student progress.  Topics will include creating groups and associating them with the assignment and discussion tools; creating rubrics, grading students with rubrics, and exploring user progress to learn how students progress through and interact with online courses. 

It is recommended that participants have attended the mycourselink/D2L Essentials Skills Workshop or watched the recording of the Essentials Skills workshop before attending this workshop.

This workshop will be delivered through Zoom and will be recorded.  The Zoom join link will be provided to registrants before the event.

Audience: Instructional staff