Workshops and Events

The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) offers teaching workshops and seminars to help interested faculty, teaching assistants and instructors improve their teaching effectiveness and course management skills. These training programs provide opportunities to gather with colleagues to listen, discuss, interact, learn about and reflect on a number of topics to enhance teaching and learning.

Our list of programming is constantly growing. Make sure to check out past video recordings and future offerings.

Your feedback is very valuable to us. The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching welcomes feedback, suggestions and requests for workshops; email: CELT@uml.edu.

For Information Technology (IT) sponsored workshops, please visit the IT Trainings / Workshops page.

Summer 2026

Join colleagues from across UMass Lowell this August for the CELT Summer Workshop Series, a collection of engaging, faculty-led sessions designed to spark new ideas and enhance teaching, learning, mentoring and student success.

This summer series features practical, evidence-informed workshops on timely topics such as artificial intelligence, career readiness, graduate student support, writing feedback, and innovative teaching practices. Facilitates by UMass Lowell faculty who are bringing insights from national conferences, research, and classroom experience, these sessions provide opportunities to learn new strategies, exchange ideas with colleagues, and prepare for the upcoming academic year.

All workshop are open to UMass Lowell faculty, teaching assistants and staff community.

Use the CELT Summer Workshops registration link to sign up for the upcoming 2026 summer workshops series and receive updates.

Fostering Writer Self-Efficacy Through Wise-Feedback: An Iterative Approach to Supporting Emerging Scholar Academic Writing Development

Christine Montecillo Leider, School of Education
August 5, 10-11 a.m.

Workshop Description: In this workshop, participants will learn about an iterative feedback and resubmission system that has been modeled after the peer review submission process. Specifically, Professor Leider will share about how she uses principles of wise-feedback to foster writer self-efficacy when working with doctoral students in developing their academic writing in coursework and progress through the dissertation writing process. Because this system is modeled after the peer review submission process, it also apprentices emerging scholars into the "hidden curriculum" of academic publishing. Participants will be invited to share their own processes for writing feedback and have an opportunity to practice wise-feedback. While not required, participants are encouraged to bring a student writing sample, and/or a writing assignment evaluation rubric to examine during the workshop.

Preparing Students for the Workplace: Integrating Career-Connected Communication into Course Activities

Sirong Lin, Miner School of Computer and Information Sciences
Adrienne Atterberry, Sociology
August 6, 10-11 a.m.

Career-connected learning and communication play an important role in students' professional development. Incorporating activities that help students develop the professional skills that employers want and giving them the tools to articulate the connection between their classroom learning and professional competencies will help set students up for success in the workplace.

This one-hour workshop will explore why career-connected education matters at UMass Lowell and how faculty across disciplines can incorporate career-connected communication into their classes without redesigning an entire class. We will share examples from different disciplines, including a senior-level Mobile App Development course an an Introductory Sociology course, to show how career-connected communication can be embedded into both project-based and lecture-based courses.

A segment of the workshop will be dedicated to an interactive assignment-revision activity. Participants will select one existing assignment from their own course and begin revising it to more intentionally support students' career readiness.

A Workshop Invitation: Building Student Agency and Success, One Conversation at a Time.

Hannah King and Linda Rossetti, Student Life and Well-Being
August 10, 10-11 a.m.

Workshop Description: The way we talk with students, especially in moments of uncertainty or as they face challenges, can make a lasting difference in how they see themselves and their ability to succeed at UMass Lowell. In this hands-on workshop, we will share a straight forward, four-step conversation approach that helps students build confidence, take ownership of their learning, and stay resilient when things get tough. Developed by Linda Rossetti, a long-standing partner to the university. HAIL^TM is a reframing technique that has been growing at UMass Lowell with data showing a significant increase in resiliency among users. Participants will learn a new method and vocabulary they can use right away in class, during office hours, or in those quick hallway conversations that often matter most.

If you are looking for something practical, proven and easy to integrate into what you already do, this session is for you.

Teaching Neurodivergent Students Without Extra Workload: Universal Design In Practice

Pallavi Doradla, Physics and Applied Physics
August 11, 10-11 a.m.

Workshop Description: This workshop will focus on practical, low-effort strategies grounded in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to better support neurodivergent students, including those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, and executive function challenges. Participants will explore small course design changes that can have a significant impact on student success while also supporting faculty well-being. The session will include "before and after" course examples and a quick-wins checklist that faculty can apply immediately in their classrooms.

The Times They Are a-Changin': Incorporating AI in Courses to Prepare Students for Their Future Careers

Suzanne Young, Chemistry
August 12, 10-11 a.m.

Workshop Description: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the workplace, and employers increasingly expect graduates to understand how to work effectively with AI tools.

In this interactive workshop, Professor Suzanne Young will share practical strategies for integrating AI into existing courses in ways that enhance learning and preparing students for the realities of today's workforce. Participants will explore how AI can be incorporated into course activities and assignments, aligned with current learning objectives, and leveraged as a research and problem-solving tool.

Drawing on real-world examples and classroom-tested practices, the session will also examine how AI is being used across industries and why AI literacy has become a sought-after skill in many professions.

Whether you are just beginning to explore AI or looking for new ways yo incorporate it into your teaching, this workshop will provide practical ideas and resources to help students develop skills they will need in an AI-enables future.

Creating a Positive Impact by Incorporating a "Pause" in Class

Kelly Willard-Bray, Career and Co-Op Center
August 17, 11 a.m. - Noon

During Spring 2026, one section began each week with a brief mindfulness activity or "pause" lasting five minutes or less. Activities included mindful breathing, guided meditation, drawing/doodling, breathing while in a superhero pose, and "pick your pause" where students chose what to do. To gauge the impact of the pause activity, two words were collected from students about how they felt upon arrival to class, and two words were collected after the pause activity. Common words students wrote down upon arrival to class were tired, stressed, overwhelmed, and anxious. After the pause, students used words including calm, focused, present, and relaxed. As the semester progressed, students shared that they looked forward to this aspect of class, and one indicated that it was "the only opportunity all week to simply pause and breathe."

This session will include details about the impact of pause activities from week to week (spoiler... drawing / doodling was a class favorite) and information on how to incorporate pause activities in the classroom.

AI in Service of Effective Pedagogy

Kevin Petersen, English
August 19, 10-11 a.m.

This interactive workshop introduces faculty to evidence-based uses of AI in teaching, drawing from the new publication The Science of Learning Meets AI (Ludwig & Zakrajsek, 2026). During the workshop, participants will explore selected ideas from the book and practice exercises to revise a syllabus or assignment using AI-informed strategies that support student learning and academic integrity. Attendees should bring a syllabus and/or assignment they would like to revise and have access to an AI tool, such as Microsoft Co-pilot, so they can fully engage in the activities.

Professor Petersen will offer a brief preview of key concepts from the book during the workshop. Faculty who are interested in exploring the book more deeply will have the opportunity to join a fall semester reading group. Participants who commit to the reading group will receive a copy of the book and meet twice during the semester to discuss, apply, and evaluate the techniques in their own teaching contexts.