11:15-12:25 p.m. – Learning Circles Session 1 

1.1 Slopes Without Borders: Engineering a Cross-Cultural COIL Experience

Derin Ural, Civil and Architectural Engineering

This session outlines an engineering Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) experience pairing undergraduate students from the University of Miami and the Universidad del Valle in Guatemala. In mixed teams, students evaluated the stability of real slope sites in Guatemala.  Prior to collaborating online, students immersed themselves in Guatemalan culture by visiting a Coral Gables Museum exhibit and meeting Consulate officials to discuss local engineering practices. Eleven four-student teams mapped and assessed slope safety, culminating in excellent final technical posters and memos.

1.2 Dear Faculty– A Conversation with Students About Canvas

Gemma Henderson, Carolina Juara, and Sabrina Reina, Academic Technologies

This interactive table invites faculty into a conversation with students about the small design choices that shape their day-to-day learning experience. Through student perspectives and facilitated prompts, participants will explore what helps students find what they need, understand expectations, monitor their progress, and feel connected to their instructor. Participants will leave with one small change they can make in their own Canvas course.

1.3 Partners in Education (PiE): A Case for Every Teaching and Learning Practice 

Kimberly McGrath Moreira, Writing Studies and Aniya Martinez (student), Criminology and Psychology with Minor in Counseling

“I didn’t know what I was getting into while becoming a teacher to a teacher.” - Aniya Martinez ‘28
Join our learning circle for a case study of one semester of pedagogical partnership between an undergraduate student and a Writing Studies faculty member in a first-year writing course. In this small-group conversation, we’ll share our model and lessons learned, then explore with you how partnership can foster resilience and transformative learning in your own courses. Partnerships now connect faculty and students across architecture, math, nursing, physical therapy, business, engineering, and more, and any faculty member can take part. Applications for spring 2027 partnerships are due November 13, 2026.

1.4 Google Gemini Notebook (NotebookLM) and Canvas LMS Hacks: Enhancing Teaching Efficiency and Student Engagement using R.A.D.A.R. Learning Model

Hien Nguyen, Computer Science

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming higher education by enhancing teaching, learning, and student engagement. This session demonstrates how faculty can leverage Google Gemini Notebook and Canvas LMS to streamline course development, generate learning materials, and create AI-assisted quizzes that can be imported into Canvas. Participants will explore practical workflows, tips, and best practices that reduce preparation time while increasing student participation. The session will also introduce the RADAR Learning Model, developed from the DynaFlip teaching and learning strategy, to support interactive and personalized learning. Join us to discover practical approaches for integrating AI into courses and improving student success.

1.5 Art as a Competency-Building Method: Teaching French Through Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS)

Viviana Pezzullo and Valerie Wainer Goldstein (student), Modern Languages

Creativity and imagination are often perceived as fixed, innate traits rather than competencies that students can develop. This Learning Circle demonstrates how integrating art (specifically through the Visual Thinking Strategies - VTS framework) transforms the classroom into an interactive environment for developing essential skills, including rigorous observation, empathy, and active teamwork, while instilling a growth mindset. Participants will first examine practical models of art integration across various French courses. Next, the discussion will pivot to a VTS demonstration and conclude with a guided discussion on the pedagogical benefits of VTS and actionable strategies for applying this approach across diverse academic disciplines.

1.6 What Do Hedgehogs Eat? A Timed Digital Humanities Activity

Samantha Phillips, Writing Studies

Based on my chapter in The Digital Humanities Cookbook (ACRL), I propose a dynamic exercise of a fast-paced hunt to find accurate information on what wild hedgehogs eat. In this case, I will lead participants in a session. Participants will have free reign on their phones, and then will journey back in time to imagine what this informational search would have entailed in a pre-digital era. This activity can also be extended to imagine the current digital divide as well. The exercise highlights the collaborative nature of internet usage and helps students recognize the privilege and responsibilities of rapid internet access. This activity uses concepts from the ACRL Framework: searching has meaning, value, and is intentional. 

1:10 – 2:20 p.m. – Learning Circles Session 2

2.1 Beyond the Classroom: Making Languages a Living Part of Campus Life 

Lorella Di Gregorio, Modern Languages and Literatures + Housing and Residential Life, and FYF (TBA)

As Residential Faculty at the University of Miami, I extend language learning beyond the classroom by creating opportunities for students to engage with languages and cultures through community-building, cultural events, informal conversations, and meaningful faculty-student interactions. From coffee hours and language nights to cultural celebrations and interdisciplinary activities, these initiatives make languages visible, accessible, and relevant to students’ everyday lives. This presentation explores how residential life can complement classroom instruction, foster intercultural curiosity, strengthen students’ sense of belonging, and demonstrate the value of multilingualism in an increasingly interconnected world.

2.2 From Teaching Ideas to Pedagogical Research: Exploring SPRI

Nadia Gal, Mathematics and Nina Miville, Industrial and Systems Engineering

Curious about turning a teaching idea into a research project? Join SPRI organizer Nadia Gal and former participant Nina Miville for a conversation about the Summer Pedagogical Research Institute (SPRI), a faculty-led program supporting colleagues at every stage of the pedagogical research process. We will share how SPRI helps faculty develop research questions, navigate the research process, and move toward publication. Come learn what SPRI offers—and where it might take your own teaching ideas.

2.3 Teaching in “A Different World”

Ebony Gallagher, Management 

The classroom is changing. AI is reshaping how students learn, communicate, and prepare for their careers, while broader social and cultural changes are influencing how students experience belonging, particularly students of color. This faculty roundtable will explore how we can complement AI with human intelligence, including critical thinking, empathy, communication, creativity, and connection. Faculty will discuss strategies to intentionally integrate AI, strengthen student belonging and engagement, navigate challenging classroom conversations, and identify practical approaches for creating inclusive, human centered learning environments in a rapidly changing world. 

2.4 From Classroom to Client: Designing AI-Enabled Experiential Learning

Alexander Korogodsky, Business Technology

How can students use AI to solve real problems while remaining accountable for their thinking? Drawing on Miami Digital-First Lab, this learning circle explores short, employer-sponsored projects that connect course concepts with authentic business challenges. Participants will discuss how to scope a four- to seven-week project, guide responsible AI use, and assess both the team’s deliverable and each student’s learning. Through a sample project and guided discussion, faculty will identify an opportunity in their own course and leave with a practical framework for designing it. We will also examine what faculty, student coaches, and employers each contribute.

2.5 The Ripple Effects of Teaching: From Classroom Learning to Undergraduate Research

Lisa Reid, Writing Studies, and Stephanie He (student), B.S. Health Science (Pre-Pharmacy)

How can teaching practices help students see themselves as researchers? This faculty-student co-presentation explores how engaging with research in a course, interpreting and recontextualizing scholarly work and using multimodal approaches to present research to peers can open pathways to undergraduate research. Drawing on a first-year writing course that led to a yearlong IRB-approved research collaboration and a scholarly article in progress, the instructor and undergraduate researcher share their perspectives on this transition. The student's experience invites faculty to consider how their teaching, encouragement, and mentorship can shape students' confidence, research identities, and willingness to pursue new opportunities. 

2.6 Read, Recall, Race

Wesley Smith, Kinesiology

Programmed Play turns course content into active practice and can be built from my lectures and readings in a single day. Students first complete an interactive reading with fill-in-the-blank questions, immediate feedback, and progress tracking. They then play a Minecraft-style quiz on the same material, in lecture order or randomized to simulate an exam. Timed modes, personal bests, and review screens drive repeated practice. The approach combines retrieval practice, immediate feedback, interleaving, and fluency training. It runs as one web page in Canvas and can replace a missed class, as it did when flooding canceled a session before an in-class essay. Each unit leads into a higher-level assignment.

2.7 Beyond the Lecture: Creating More Engaging and Participatory Learning Experiences

Oscar E. Diaz, Arts and Sciences

College students bring valuable personal, professional, and academic experiences into the classroom, but how can faculty use those experiences to deepen learning? Drawing from teaching at the University of Miami and Florida International University, this interactive session explores practical ways to move beyond traditional content delivery and create engaging, participatory learning experiences. Grounded in active and experiential learning, participants will explore strategies that connect prior knowledge to course concepts, promote collaboration, increase participation, and create psychological safety. Faculty will leave with practical techniques they can immediately apply in their classrooms.

Poster Sessions Program - 12:25 - 1:10 p.m.

From Canvas Course to Teaching Community: The ELITE Faculty Teaching Innovations Lab

Shara Gonzalez, Claudia Rodriguez, and Lili Steiner, Miami Business School

The ELITE Faculty Teaching Innovations Lab is a Canvas based Community of Practice (CoP) designed to make faculty development continuous, practical, and collaborative. Faculty and staff exchange teaching strategies, templates, rubrics, activity designs, AI resources, and lessons learned across face to face, hybrid, and online courses. The CoP also supports peer problem solving and highlights approaches that improve learning, save faculty time, and turn Canvas into more than a course platform, a shared space for teaching innovation.

Listening to Students: Using Reflection as a Programmatic Assessment Tool in First-Year Writing

Valerie Gramling, Writing Studies

What can student reflections tell us about a writing program’s impact on student learning? This poster shares preliminary findings from an analysis of approximately 300 anonymous reflections collected from first-year writing students in Spring 2026. By examining how students describe their development as writers, this study explores the value of reflection as a programmatic assessment tool. The findings reveal not only where the program is successfully supporting student learning and achieving its objectives, but also where students perceive unmet needs or gaps in their experience. The project highlights the potential of reflective writing to complement traditional assessment measures by centering student perspectives.

Badges Instead of Points: Exploring Student Motivation and Engagement in First-Year Writing

Quang Ly, Writing Studies

This study examines how a badge-based grading system influences student motivation, engagement, and perceptions of assessment in a first-year writing course. Replacing traditional point-based grading, the system awards badges for participation, skill development, revision, and writing achievement. Using surveys and interviews, the study explores how students experience this alternative grading model and whether it affects engagement with readings, discussions, low-stakes writing, and major projects. Findings will contribute to discussions of gamification, alternative assessment, and writing pedagogy by providing insight into how badge-based grading may support student learning and writing development.

Innovations in Discussion-Based Learning in Marine Biology: Visual Abstracts and Mini-Doc Exercises

Liza Merly, Marine Biology and Ecology

The poster presentation will introduce the use of several discussion-based learning exercises that are being used in marine biology and are applicable to other STEM areas. Active learning exercises challenge students to think critically and integrate information on diverse topics. The visual nature of these exercises make them particularly suitable for topics in biology and help students gain a deep understanding of scientific research findings while working with their classmates to get creative and take ownership of the content in new ways. Specifically, the poster presentation will focus on the use of visual abstracts and 'mini-doc' exercises in marine biology.

Virtual Subject Matter Experts

Matt Acevedo, Teaching and Learning

Instructional designers often work in unfamiliar fields alongside subject matter experts (SMEs), but few courses can bring real experts into class projects. In TAL707, students instead spend the semester interviewing AI chatbots that play SMEs for five fictional organizations, then design training based on what they learn. This poster explains how the chatbots’ instructions were written, shares survey results gathered before, during, and after the course, and offers practical lessons and a six-step guide for building educational chatbots in your own courses.