The Center for Teaching and Learning is pleased to announce the next offering in our Pedagogy Matters workshop series. These workshops support faculty from the pedagogical perspective in developing, designing, deploying, and utilizing technology in their courses.
The workshops focus on building and strengthening the pedagogical infrastructure of courses, no matter the format. The Center for Teaching and Learning will be offering virtual Pedagogy Matters workshops in the Fall 2026 semester.
Fall 2026
Reimagining Assessment in an AI-Influenced University: Connecting Assessment to Career Competencies
- When: Wednesday, September 23, 2026 | 1:00-2:00
- Where: Online via Teams
- Registration: Open
As artificial intelligence reshapes the ways students learn, create, and solve problems, higher education must rethink how learning is assessed. In this Pedagogy Matters session, faculty will explore how career-ready competencies can serve as a framework for designing meaningful, authentic assessments in an AI-influenced learning environment. Participants will examine strategies for assessing critical thinking, communication, collaboration, ethical decision-making, adaptability, and problem-solving through assignments that mirror real-world professional practice. The workshop will highlight practical approaches to aligning course outcomes, career competencies, and assessment design while leveraging AI as a tool for learning. Faculty will leave with actionable ideas for creating assessments that better prepare students for success in an evolving workforce while maintaining rigor, relevance, and student engagement.
Canva for Teaching: Designing Engaging and Accessible Learning Materials
- When: Wednesday, October 21, 2026 | 1:00-2:00
- Where: Online via Teams
- Registration: Open
Canva has become a powerful and user-friendly tool for creating visually engaging instructional materials, but effective design begins with sound pedagogy. In this Pedagogy Matters session, participants will explore how Canva can be used to support teaching and learning through the creation of course graphics, presentations, infographics, discussion prompts, and student learning activities. The workshop will highlight strategies for aligning visual design with learning objectives, promoting accessibility, fostering student engagement, and enhancing communication in both face-to-face and online courses. Faculty will leave with practical ideas and ready-to-implement techniques for using Canva to create meaningful, inclusive, and effective learning experiences.
NotebookLM
- When: Wednesday, November 4, 2026 | 2:00-3:00
- Where: Online via Teams
- Registration: Open
AI tools are rapidly becoming part of the higher education landscape, but many faculty are still searching for practical ways to use them to support student learning. This workshop introduces faculty to Google’s NotebookLM, an AI-powered research and learning assistant designed to work directly with course materials and instructor-selected sources. Participants will explore how NotebookLM can help organize complex information, generate summaries, identify key themes, create study guides, develop discussion questions, and support lesson preparation while maintaining greater control over source content than many general-purpose AI tools. Through hands-on demonstrations and guided exploration, faculty will consider how NotebookLM can be integrated into teaching, scholarship, and service activities.
Spring 2026
Pedagogy Matters 1:
AI Higher Education Update: Marshall and Beyond
- When: Thursday, March 5, 2026 | 2:30-3:30
- Where: Online via Teams
AI as a technology is changing rapidly, and that against the rapidly changing landscape of higher ed in general. Join us for an hour-long update of how professors, students, and administrators are thinking about the uses and abuses of AI in their lives, classrooms, and institutions in the spring of 2026.
Pedagogy Matters 2:
Productive Resistance: Sometimes Friction Is Exactly Where the Learning Happens
- When: Friday, March 27, 2026 Postponed, TBD | 12:30-1:30
- Where: Online via Teams
As most of us know intuitively, effective learning rarely happens in conditions of perfect ease, coasting downhill on vibes and printouts from Sparknotes and ChatGPT. This workshop will explore the role of “intellectual friction” in pedagogy, examining how moments of confusion, tension, uncertainty, and effort can serve as catalysts for deeper learning. Participants will consider how to build these moments of friction into their own courses in ways that are supportive and even fun, as well as help students develop habits of mind associated with expert thinking.
Pedagogy Matters 3:
The Assignment Garage: Taking a Fresh Look Under the Hood
- When: Wednesday, April 15, 2026 | 11:00-12:00
- Where: Online via Teams
In this hands-on workshop, faculty are invited to bring an existing assignment from one of their courses and “put it up on the lift” in the CTL’s Assignment Garage. Through a series of guided design stations, participants will consider how to incorporate elements such as threshold concepts, professional noticing, creative constraints, and reflection into their assignments. The goal is to leave with a revised learning experience that helps students move beyond completing tasks to practicing the kinds of judgment, decision-making, and problem-solving that characterize expert work in the field.
Previous Pedagogy Matters topics
Questions? Contact Jamie Warner (warnerj@marshall.edu).