Full Schedule

Wednesday, May 13: Sessions on Experiential Learning at AU

The Impact of Experiential Learning: Preparing Students for Community-Based Learning

Time: 9:15 AM – 12:30 PM

Location: Butler Boardroom (Butler Pavilion, 6th floor)

Presenters: Amanda Choutka (Senior Professorial Lecturer, CAS | Literature and Faculty Fellow for Community Programs with the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement), Amanda Harrison (Assistant Director, Honors & Scholars Program, UEAS | University Honors) & Jason Swantek (Associate Director, Leadership & Education, SA | Center for Leadership and Community Engagement)

This two-part session will kick off with a panel discussion featuring community partners, AU students, and faculty (9:15 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.). Panelists will share how AU students partner with community-based organizations and advice for faculty who want to add a community-engaged experience to their courses. The second half of this session is a workshop that focuses on how to prepare and support students as they embark on community-engaged learning in the D.C. community (11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.). Community-engaged faculty and staff will share practical strategies to weave preparation and critical reflection work into academic coursework, including in-class activities, assignments, and office hours. 

Bridging the Distance: Promoting Intercultural Competence and Experiential Learning through COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) Projects

Time: 1:15 PM – 2:45 PM

Location: Butler Boardroom (Butler Pavilion, 6th floor)

Presenters: Lilian Baeza-Mendoza (Faculty Associate, Center for Faculty Excellence and Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer, CAS | World Languages and Cultures), Gorky Cruz (Director, CLEAR: Center for Language Learning), Nicholas Demayo (Director of Instructional Design, Office of Digital Learning and Strategy), Daniel Carrasco (Universidad Diego Portales), & Carlos Ahumada (Universidad Diego Portales)

COIL, or Collaborative Online International Learning, is a form of virtual exchange bridging classrooms across borders, allowing students to co-create projects with international peers. Join us to explore how to design these impactful, cross-cultural experiences, covering syllabus design, learning outcomes, and project examples, featuring insights from our partners from Universidad Diego Portales in Chile. Whether you are looking to enhance intercultural competence or build your first COIL project, this session provides the tools to get started.

Preparing Students for Meaningful Internships: Inside AU’s New Career Readiness Course and the AU Ready Internship Pledge

Time: 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM

Location: Butler Boardroom (Butler Pavilion, 6th floor)

Presenters: Brian Rowe (Director of Experiential Education, Career Center) & Anna Litman (Assistant Director for Curriculum Integration, Career Center)

AU’s new AU Ready Internship Pledge, which provides up to $4,500 to support students in unpaid internships, has generated tremendous excitement among students and families. To ensure students are fully prepared to thrive in these opportunities, AU is launching a new asynchronous Career Readiness and Professional Development course as a required prerequisite for funding. In this session, faculty will get an inside look at the course’s design, learning outcomes, and assessment approach, developed collaboratively by career development experts and faculty partners across campus. We’ll explore how the course equips students with essential professional skills, how it strengthens experiential learning pathways, and how it complements existing internship, practicum, and field‑based courses. Participants will leave with an understanding of how the AU Ready Internship Pledge works, how students will access the funding, and how faculty can connect their own programs and courses to this new institutional initiative that expands access to high‑impact learning experiences.

Thursday, May 14: Course Design Institute

Time: 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM

Location: Mary Graydon Student Center (MGSC) 305

Presenters: Lilian Baeza-Mendoza (Faculty Associate, Center for Faculty Excellence), Samantha Cohen (Faculty Associate, Center for Faculty Excellence), Katherine Mahajan (Instructional Technology & AI Manager, Center for Faculty Excellence) & Sonja Walti (Faculty Associate, Center for Faculty Excellence)

Join us for the Course Design Institute — a full-day, hands-on workshop where faculty transform their course materials through student-centered and inclusive pedagogy. Bring a syllabus, a new course you are teaching for the first time, or existing materials to refresh. Leave with refined, semester-ready teaching materials. Featuring collaborative activities, peer feedback, and expert facilitation. CDI offers dedicated space to (re)design your course and activities with intention. We will also explore whether and how to incorporate genAI.

Friday, May 15: Artificial Intelligence Institute

The AI Institute offers a full-day development program to ground faculty in both the theory and practice of teaching in an age of artificial intelligence. Sessions address AI literacy, curricular adaptation, student engagement, and emerging institutional frameworks at AU and beyond. The day also includes structured roundtable discussion, creating space for a cross-disciplinary exchange about the role of AI in higher education. AU faculty, PhD students, and others are welcome, regardless of your familiarity and ease with AI. Attend all five sessions to earn an AI-readiness certificate or join select sessions at your leisure.

AI Literacy

Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Location: Mary Graydon Student Center (MGSC) 223

Presenters: Sarah Gilchrist (Graduate International Studies & Political Science Librarian, University Library), Katie Hut (Business and Economics Librarian UL, University Library Faculty), and Derrick Cogburn (Professor, SIS | Environment, Development & Health and KSB | Information Technology and Analytics)

This session establishes a shared foundation for the day. Faculty will explore what AI literacy means in an academic context — how AI systems work, how they are being used across higher education, and what critical and informed engagement looks like in the classroom and beyond.

Re-Working Coursework in the Age of AI

Time: 11:10 AM – 12:00 PM

Location: Mary Graydon Student Center (MGSC) 223

Presenters: Katherine Mahajan (Instructional Technology & AI Manager, Center for Faculty Excellence) & Sonja Walti (Faculty Associate, Center for Faculty Excellence)

A hands-on working session in which faculty examine their existing courses through the lens of AI. Participants will explore practical strategies for adapting assignments, assessments, and learning activities to reflect the realities of AI-integrated academic work — with time to apply ideas directly to their own teaching context.

Networking Lunch

Time: 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM

Location: Mary Graydon Student Center (MGSC) 223

Bring your lunch to connect with colleagues about AI research initiatives.

Announcing the AU AI Hub: A Place to Connect, Share, and Learn

Time: 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM Location: Mary Graydon Student Center (MGSC) 223 Presenters: Luis Cerezo Ceballos (Associate Professor, CAS | World Languages and Cultures), Regina Curran (Director, Privacy & Cyber Policy, Office of Information Technology), Anna Olsson (Assistant Vice Provost, Center for Faculty Excellence), Michael Piller (Executive Director, Academic Technology, University Library) & Alison Thomas (Assistant Dean for Academic Integrity)

The team representing American University at the AAC&U Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum will share an update on AU’s developing AI Hub — a central resource designed to connect and support faculty, staff, and students in navigating artificial intelligence in teaching, learning, and academic life. Join us to hear about the vision, early progress, and what’s ahead as AU builds toward a more connected and AI-informed campus community.

Getting Students to Do the Reading in the Age of AI

Time: 2:40 PM – 3:40 PM

Location: Mary Graydon Student Center (MGSC) 223

Presenter: Elizabeth “Betsy” Cohn (Assistant Professor, SIS | Foreign Policy & Global Security)

As AI tools make it easier than ever to summarize and shortcut assigned readings, faculty are rethinking how and why students engage with course texts. This session explores evidence-informed strategies for designing reading experiences that remain meaningful, purposeful, and resistant to passive outsourcing

AI Reflection Roundtable

Time: 3:50 PM – 4:30 PM

Location: Mary Graydon Student Center (MGSC) 223

Presenters: Katherine Mahajan (Instructional Technology & AI Manager, Center for Faculty Excellence & Sonja Walti (Faculty Associate, Center for Faculty Excellence)

The day closes with structured small-group discussion, giving faculty space to process what they have heard, surface questions that remain, and exchange perspectives with colleagues. Roundtable prompts are designed to connect the day’s themes to participants’ own disciplines and teaching contexts.