Spring Conference 2025

Spring Conference

The Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL) welcomes all campus educators to join us for our annual Spring Conference. This year's two-day conference will explore innovative practices that are shaping the future of teaching and learning in higher education. Specific topics will include generative AI and teaching and learning, equity-minded assessment, and inclusive pedagogy, among others. We hope you will join us for one or more of our interactive workshops, community-building sessions, or panels. We value your participation as we work together as a community of educators to foster dynamic and supportive learning environments for all of our students. 

πŸ“… When:
  • Monday, February 24th – 8:45 AM to 12:20 PM MT
  • Tuesday, February 25th – 9:00 AM to 12:15 PM MT
πŸ“ Where:

Hybrid Format - Choose what works best for you:

Stay tunedβ€”more details and information are coming soon. We can’t wait to see you there!

   Monday, February 24, 2025-Tuesday, February 25, 2025

   Center for Teaching & Learning, CASE, E390 (Hybrid: Attend in-person or via Zoom)

   FREE - No fee to attend

Conference Schedule 2024

Monday, February, 26, 2024 - A.M. Sessions

Work Life Balance in the Classroom: The Graduate Student Perspective

   10:10 a.m.-11:00 a.m. MT, CASE E-390

With CTL Leads - Jesse Rush, Antonio Berbel Viudez, Pablo Botin, Olivia Joyner, Katie Mercer

This session will focus on work life balance from the graduate student perspective. We will cover balancing graduate student responsibilities with and without teaching, and how to teach your own students about work life balance.

Cultivating an Environment of Belonging in Our Classrooms (Keynote)

   11:15 a.m.-12:05 a.m. MT, CASE E-390 or

With , PhD, City University of New York (CUNY)

For deep and meaningful learning to happen, students need to feel that they belong. How do we make the transition from the hierarchical, inequitable, output-driven academy we inherited from the nineteenth century to a higher education that empowers all students to be their own best selves, modeling a more democratic, flourishing, and just society? How do we make this transition in our own classrooms? In this interactive workshop, Dr. Christina Katopodis, coauthor with Cathy N. Davidson of the award-winning book, The New College Classroom (Harvard University Press, 2022), presents what the latest science of learning tells us about inclusive learning. She shares teaching strategies that anyone can adapt easily and effectively into their classes to make structural changes as well as grab-and-go activities that educators around the world are using successfully every day to ensure their students’ lifelong success--and to revitalize their own commitment to a better world. 

Lunch Break

   12:20 p.m.-1:10 p.m. MT

Bring your lunch and join fellow conference goers for lunch and conversation in E-390. A quiet lunch space is also available for lunch and heads down time in E-351.

Active Learning with Confidence (and without the Burnout)

   1:25 p.m.-2:15 p.m. MT, CASE E-390

With , PhD, City University of New York (CUNY)

We know from the learning sciences that active learning is the best way to learn. Empowering students to be active learners can introduce uncertainty in a classroom that looks and sounds different from a more traditional one. In this workshop, we brainstorm our priorities so we can be sturdy leaders throughout the learning process. Participants come away with a student self-evaluation structure that works in any classroom.

Curriculum Revision for Large Courses: Data-driven Strategies for Increased Engagement and Student Success

   2:30 p.m.-3:20 p.m. MT, CASE E-390

With Dr. Warren Sconiers, Associate Teaching Professor and Dr. Katja Friedrich, Professor

Drs. Sconiers and Friedrich will discuss strategies that the EBIO and ATOC programs are implementing to address engagement/student success in large courses. 

AI in Teaching & Learning Panel

   3:35 p.m.-4:25 p.m. MT, CASE E-390

With Dr. Sriram Sankaranarayanan, CSCI; Dr. Lee Frankel Goldwater, ENVS; Dr. Kai Larsen, BUS); Dr. Brianne Cohen, ARTH; Aneesh Waikar, CU Student

Generative AI tools have become publicly available and easily accessible raising concerns, questions and curiosity about its use in teaching & learning. In this panel, we will hear from both CU faculty and students regarding their experience, concerns and discovery on the effective use of AI to promote learning.

Pedagogy of a Peacebuilder (Plenary)

   9:30 a.m.-10:45 a.m. MT, CASE E-390 or

With , Director of Engagement, YOUnify

Although, it is safe to assume that most people, when asked, would declare that peace is a value that they hold dear, there are very few people who have actually had any peace education. And yet, we are indirectly taught ideas about peace that directly impact the way we encounter those with whom we disagree. In this session, we will investigate whether or not our unconscious peacebuilding education might be one of the primary factors leading to conflict in our communities as well as explore some techniques to unlearn this pedagogy in order to make real peace a possibility.

Climate and Processing Emotions through Creative Pedagogy

   11:00 a.m.-11:45 a.m. MT, CASE E-390

With Beth Osnes, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Theatre & Performance Studies

Many of our students experience a variety of negative emotions when engaging with the issue of climate change through coursework and in their lives. Experience creative pedagogical strategies and projects that can support students in processing negative emotions and even associating positive emotions with engagement in climate-related issues. This can sustain climate engagement and feed constructive hope regarding climate action.