Perusall is a social learning platform that turns coursework into a social experience. Whether you are new to Perusall or an experienced user, join us to learn more about how using it can significantly improve student engagement, interaction, and collaboration in your classes. CETL Instructional Designer Tim Stubbs will answer your questions about initial setup, creating assignments, syncing with HuskyCT, communicating with students, etc.
New Topics: “Staged threads” (like “post-first” online discussions), the three approaches to using learner analytics and/or automatic scoring, and Perusall Quizzes for formative assessment.
Recommended Pre-reading (Optional): An Overview of Perusall and Perusall: Social Annotation Tool.

Register - https://fins.uconn.edu/secure_inst/workshops/workshop_view.php?ser=3330

Moving forward, 1000-2000 level courses will use the latest version of Blackboard, called Ultra Course View, a.k.a. “Ultra” Starting in Fall 2025, ALL academic courses will be in Ultra. All levels of experience are welcome, bring your questions! This session will cover:

- An overview of the Ultra course experience and key differences

- How to convert your Original course to Ultra

- The basics of Ultra course building and organization.

Register - https://fins.uconn.edu/secure_inst/workshops/workshop_view.php?ser=3299

It’s January and you might be redesigning your spring course. Are you curious about how to use tools like CoPilot or ChatGPT to support your teaching this semester? Some would argue that GenAI can free up course prep time that you can instead spend on enhancing feedback to students. Ideas and resources for using GenAI to edit assignment prompts for clarity, create case studies, generate problem sets, develop remedial modules, and make quizzes, etc., will be shared. In this interactive session, participants are encouraged to share examples, solicit feedback, or ask questions of other attendees.

This session is suitable for participants with minimal experience using generative AI but will be most useful if you know how to access either Microsoft CoPilot through your UConn Microsoft 365 login, or ChatGPT (both the free “mini” and paid versions will be demonstrated).

Register - https://fins.uconn.edu/secure_inst/workshops/workshop_view.php?ser=3336

In this workshop we will discuss:

• The purposes of a syllabus
• UConn-specific syllabus requirements, resources, and templates
• Ways to improve your syllabus
• The syllabus as contract, blueprint, reference, or inspiration

You are encouraged to share your questions, ideas, and experiences. We hope you will walk away with new ideas for making your syllabus more interactive and engaging.

Register - https://fins.uconn.edu/secure_inst/workshops/workshop_view.php?ser=3320

Starting in Fall 2024 all 1000-2000 level academic courses will need to transition to using Ultra Course View, aka “Ultra”, Blackboard/HuskyCT’s new modernized course version.

This 3-hour hands-on session is intended for Spring 2025 instructors converting one or more courses to Ultra Course View and will feature:

– Training on Ultra course conversion, best practices in course building, navigation/features

– Dedicated time for attendees to work on their course with the assistance of available CETL support staff.

This is a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Session** - please bring a laptop to the session.

Register - https://fins.uconn.edu/secure_inst/workshops/workshop_view.php?ser=3311

ChatGPT is on everyone’s lips these days, but what exactly is a large language model, or LLM? How do they work and how do they develop? Are they widely used by students? What protections (or detections) are possible? This session, hosted by BEACON (the Beneficial and Ethical AI at UConn organization led by graduate and undergraduate students) will present the basics, with time for Q&A.

Note: BEACON is funded by Open Philanthropy as part of its University Organizer Fellowship.

Register - https://fins.uconn.edu/secure_inst/workshops/workshop_view.php?ser=3337

VoiceThread is a powerful HuskyCT integrated tool for transforming media into an asynchronous conversation space. Both instructors and students can create media projects in a slide-show style format, record commentary (voice, webcam or text), and share with others for commenting or discussion.

Pedagogical application:

• Record creative & engaging multimedia presentations
• Post video content enabling learners to directly comment/ask questions
• Stimulate audio/video interaction as a Discussion Board alternative
• Create video content viewing assignments that require student commenting
• Allows learners to explain research, demonstrate understanding, & tell their stories
• Allows learners to build a digital portfolio of shareable artifacts
• Allows learners to collaborate on group projects

Register - https://fins.uconn.edu/secure_inst/workshops/workshop_view.php?ser=3297

What are the uses and limitations of generative AI to help draft teaching and research statements or other job search materials? Join this session for a basic introduction to the promise and perils of GenAI in developing materials for a job search, while collectively considering ethical and practical implications. 

Register - https://fins.uconn.edu/secure_inst/workshops/workshop_view.php?ser=3338