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(Still) Teaching with AI – Continued Events and Professional Development Opportunities

by | Sep 29, 2026 | AI, Blog, Faculty Development Workshop

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has unarguably made its way into our classrooms and has affected our teaching on a multitude of levels. We also experience certain emotions on the topic of GenAI on a personal level, either positive, negative, or a complicated mix of both. AI is here to stay (for better or for worse) and we need to continue to ask ourselves how we want to adapt our teaching, research, and personal behaviors in response. We therefore want to highlight a few upcoming opportunities for you to continue to engage with this (seemingly never-ending) topic, all different in focus and scope: 

1. Community of Practice (offered and facilitated here at WCU) 

2. Resisting the Use of AI in Education: Taking a Stand for Our Students and Our Colleagues (watch external webinar on your own or join in-person watch party followed by a discussion) 

3. Evaluating AI Information for Reliability (WCU hybrid workshop)

4. Teaching & Learning with AI (asynchronous 4-week Canvas course) 

Register

If any of these offerings speak to you, we invite you to register: 

AI Community of Practice flyer, sponsored by IT, Coulter Faculty Commons, and Hunter Library.
Banner with text Teaching and Learning with AI

Session Descriptions

AI Community of Practice  

Whether you’re an AI novice or a more advanced user, the AI Community of Practice is a place to learn, share, and connect with colleagues across WCU. 

Led by IT, Coulter Faculty Commons, and Hunter Library, this friendly community brings together faculty and staff to explore real-world applications of AI for teaching, learning, research, and workplace productivity. Each session features practical examples for all experience levels, from simple everyday uses to more complex ideas. 

Resisting the Use of AI in Education: Taking a Stand for Our Students and Our Colleagues – Watch Party

The CFC is hosting a watch party for a webinar facilitated by Joshua Eyler (University of Mississippi), Kevin Gannon (University of Charlotte), Catherine Denial (University of Minnesota-Rochester), and Liz Norell (University of Mississippi). We will watch their webinar together and discuss our reactions right after. If you’d rather watch the webinar on your own and skip the discussion, register for the Resisting the Use of AI in Education webinar.  

Webinar description: Among the many voices nudging instructors and administrators toward an acceptance, or even a warm embrace, of generative AI, most of the opposition focuses on questions of academic integrity. But there are many more reasons to be skeptical of AI and its potential impact on learning, teaching, and well-being. In this panel discussion, four experts on pedagogy in higher education share research and reporting about the negative impacts of AI in education. Grounded in evidence and motivated by a shared commitment to humanistic values, this panel will make the case for prioritizing the relationships and care that we know power student learning. 

Evaluating AI Information for Reliability

This session, facilitated by Meredith Saba, acknowledges the value of the (trained) human eye when working with new technologies, such as AI, to ensure that the information is accurate and reliable, and can therefore be used for some purpose/application (to make decisions, solve problems, etc.) without issue. The goal of the session is for participants to learn how to critically evaluate GenAI outputs to determine if the information can be trusted and used reliably, while enhancing our overall thinking skills.

Upcoming asynchronous 4-week Canvas course “Teaching & Learning with AI”

While searching for resources of existing course content that we could share with you, we were struggling to find asynchronous courses that checked all the boxes we were attempting to check. We therefore decided to slightly change the model of what some of you might have already experienced when you completed other asynchronous trainings offered by the Coulter Faculty Commons, such as the UDL (Universal Design for Learning) or the EoT (Excellence in Online Teaching) course. We decided to curate a learning experience for you that exposes you to a variety of different sources that will help you decide what’s right for you. We are attempting to stay away from prescriptive recommendations that either might not be a right fit for your teaching context or might not align with your personal philosophy on how to integrate AI into your teaching.  

What you will find in this course then is an “AI syllabus” of readings and resources around three areas, followed by invitations of personal reflection to help you develop a path forward that is right for you. We invite you to also engage in discussions with your peers since we know that the combination of reviewing information, personal reflection, and discussion of ideas helps us solidify learning and growth.