This week, one of my teammates shared the newest in a series of advances in AI capabilities. The reaction speaks to the moment: One person expressed excitement and an earnest desire to explore each and every new feature. Another expressed that they want to run away—that it’s all getting to be too much too fast. Another showed steady optimism—a willingness to try new things and learn.
If there’s one pattern I see in the discourse around higher education right now, it’s the value of community. Whether we are processing the current climate and issues that we face, sensemaking through rapid changes, or working on our practices, community spaces center our humanity and enrich our lives in academia. This has been especially true related to AI diffusion.
To that end, Teaching and Learning Innovations is offering four Faculty Inquiry Communities for Spring 2026. These are based on timely issues in teaching and learning, as well as their alignment with expressed priorities in the Division of Academic Affairs.
DAA priorities include:
- Improve Enrollment & Retention – Student Success
- Strengthen Effective, Efficient Shared Governance
- Cultivate Community-building & Healthy Climate
- Fortify Foundations of Operational Excellence
OneHE Faculty Inquiry Community on Fostering Belonging and Building Community
Facilitator: Danna Lomax
Description: CI’s OneHE Faculty Inquiry Community on Fostering Belonging and Building Community will be facilitated by Danna Lomax, a lecturer in the School of Education who has been recognized locally, nationally, and internationally for teaching for social justice, and will focus on building community and integrating culturally sustaining pedagogy in your courses. Faculty participants in this inquiry community will meet monthly for 90 minutes from February to May for a total of 4 meetings to learn, implement, and reflect on teaching strategies and practices via OneHE, and share their experiences with other inquiry community participants in a caring, supportive, and respectful environment. Each monthly meeting will be preceded by an optional one-hour work session, similar to a writing group, in which participants can work on their OneHE course of choice. At the end of the Spring 2026 session, inquiry community participants will have an opportunity to share their successes, experiences, and reflections with the wider campus community by writing a blog or participating in an online celebration.
Belonging and Building Community Inquiry Community Meeting Dates and Times
(hybrid options available; in-person recommended):
- Optional: February pre-meeting work session – February 9, 2026, from 3:15-4:15 PM
- Session 1 Meeting: February 11, 2026, from 3:30-5:00
- Optional: March pre-meeting work session – March 9, 2026, from 3:15-4:15 PM
- Session 2 Meeting: March 11, 2026, from 3:30-5:00 PM
- Optional: April pre-meeting work session – April 6, 2026, from 3:15-4:15 PM
- Session 3 Meeting: April 8, 2026, from 3:30-5:00
- Optional: May pre-meeting work session – May 4, 2026, from 3:15-4:15 PM
- Session 4 Meeting: May 6, 2026, from 3:30-5:00 PM
→ Register for the Belonging and Building Community Inquiry Community
Accessible & Inclusive Course Design
Facilitators: Kristi O’Neil-Gonzalez & Ana Peñaranda
Description: Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) goes into enforcement in April 2026. This Spring, our inquiry community will work together to strengthen both the accessibility and inclusivity of our courses, not only to meet compliance requirements but to build learning environments where every student can participate fully.
Across the sessions, the community will explore both the practical and pedagogical sides of inclusive course design. Participants will engage in hands-on work with text structure, color contrast, and media accessibility, while also exploring inclusive design principles, multimodality, and multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression. Our work will also incorporate tools that support this work: UDOIT, TidyUP, and thoughtfully applied AI.
This community will meet five times during Spring 2026, with opportunities between sessions to apply and practice new skills.
Inclusive Course Design Inquiry Community In-Person Meeting Dates and Times
- Session 1: Thursday, February 5, 2026, from 3:00 – 4:30 PM
- Session 2: Thursday, February 19, 2026, from 3:00 – 4:30 PM
- Session 3: Thursday, March 5, 2026, from 3:00 – 4:30 PM
- Session 4: Thursday, March 26, 2026, from 3:00 – 4:30 PM
- Session 5: Thursday, April 16, 2026, from 3:00 – 4:30 PM
- Bonus session*: Thursday, April 30, 2026, from 3:00 – 4:30 PM
*An Accessible & Inclusive Course Prep Workflow focused on sustainable, repeatable practices for readying courses for the next term while maintaining accessibility and inclusion.
Optional Practice Time: Tuesdays between sessions (2/10, 2/24, 3/10, 4/7, and 4/21) from 1:30 – 3:00 PM on Zoom.
Consider this dedicated time for hands-on support, accessibility checks, and guided practice with real course materials.
→ Register for the Accessibility & Inclusive Course Design Community
Empowering Students Not to Use AI for Humanities, Arts, and Creative Works
Facilitators: Stacey Beauregard & Kim Vose
Description: This inquiry community will explore strategies for constructing learning activities and environments that empower students to work through creative and intellectual challenges without the use of AI. Whether you teach a course with learning objectives that are incompatible with generative AI, or would just like to rework a key assignment to be more resistant to uses of AI that don’t serve your students’ learning, this inquiry community can be both a sounding board for ideas and a source of practical techniques. Our particular focus will be on courses in the humanities and related fields. Bring your dilemmas, your struggles, your wins, and your creative reinventions.
Topics of inquiry include:
- Students’ motivations for using AI
- How to communicate transparently and openly with students about AI
- AI-resistant learning design
- Assessments that reward human outputs (format, grading, rubrics, assignment weighting)
- Avoiding punitive approaches and invasive surveillance — what can we do instead?
- What’s gained and what’s lost when we redesign to avoid AI?
- What opportunities does this moment present? Sharing discoveries and innovations.
Empowering Students Not to Use AI Meeting Dates and Times
All sessions will meet in the FIT Studio (Solano Hall 1201). In-person attendance is encouraged, but Zoom options will also be available.
- Session 1: Wednesday, February 4, 2026, from 3:00-4:30 p.m.
- Session 2: Wednesday, March 4, 2026, from 3:00-4:30 p.m.
- Session 3: Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from 3:00-4:30 p.m.
- Session 4: Wednesday, April 29, 2026, from 3:00-4:30 p.m.
→ Register for the Empowering Students Not to Use AI Community
Decoding the Disciplines for AI
Facilitators: Lorna Gonzalez and Georgia Van Tyne
Description: Rapid diffusion of AI capabilities has placed academic professionals in a position of simultaneously discovering the possibilities and limitations of AI in their disciplines as well as in their university teaching. Faculty will explore the use of AI in disciplines and use the Decoding the Disciplines framework to articulate how those practices might translate to new learning objectives to integrate within teaching.
This inquiry community will meet five times during Spring 2026, but there will be some practice and exploration with AI between synchronous meetings.
Decoding the Disciplines for AI Meeting Dates and Times
All meetings will be held in the FIT Studio (Solano Hall 1201), with hybrid options in Zoom.
- Session 1: Friday, February 13, 2026, from 11-12:15 pm
- Session 2: Friday, February 27, 2026, from 11-12:15 pm
- Session 3: Friday, March 13, 2026, from 11-12:15 pm
- Session 4: Friday, April 3, 2026, from 11-12:15 pm
- Session 5: Friday, April 27, 2026, from 11-12:15 pm
→ Register for the Decoding the Disciplines Community
Join the conversation, share the questions you’re carrying, and explore what’s possible in good company. We’d love to have you with us this spring!
