Attendees should make their way to the second floor lobby at the Omni Tempe Hotel at ASU for check-in where our FOLC Fest volunteers will provide your badge, FOLC Fest swag and answer any questions you may have throughout the conference.
Time:
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Room: Pre Function North
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Pre Function North
Poster Presentations
View poster presentations and connect directly with presenters to learn about their work and ask questions.
Keynote Speaker Isabelle C. Hau - The Next Intelligence
The Next Intelligence argues that in an AI-driven world, the most important frontier is not artificial intelligence, but relational intelligence—the human capacity to connect, collaborate, and care. Leveraging neuroscience, learning sciences, and anthropology, this keynote explores why relationships are foundational to learning and flourishing, and how we can design systems and technologies that amplify, rather than erode, our humanity.
Isabelle C. Hau, Executive Director, Stanford Accelerator for Learning
Time:
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Room: Salt River Ballroom 4-5
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Salt River Ballroom 4-5
Welcome Reception
Join the FOLC Fest 2026 kick-off celebration with networking with colleagues, live music from ASU's very own Brent Michael Espineda and MC/DJ Matthew Robinson.
Each attendee will receive one complimentary drink ticket. Hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar will be available.
Thank you to Instructure for sponsoring this reception.
Time:
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Room: Salt River Ballroom 4-5
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Salt River Ballroom 4-5
Friday, Feb. 6
Session name
Time
Rooms
Check-In & Continental Breakfast
Attendees should make their way to the second floor lobby at the Omni Tempe Hotel at ASU for check-in where our FOLC Fest volunteers will provide your badge, FOLC Fest swag and answer any questions you may have throughout the conference.
Arrive early and join us for continental breakfast while you visit with conference exhibitors and get settled in for a full day of engaging sessions.
Student Panel - The Future Starts With Us: Student Voices on Changing Futures
The future is not a distant horizon—it is already shaping how students learn, live, and imagine what comes next.
This opening panel centers student experience as insight. Students from engineering, design, sustainability, data science, and education policy share how their futures are being shaped by learning systems built for speed, scale, and complexity in real time. Drawing on first-generation, transfer, international, parent-learner, and doctoral pathways, panelists reflect on what sustains learning, what constrains it, and where change is most urgently needed. Their perspectives illuminate how innovation is felt, navigated, and negotiated in everyday student lives.
If we hope to change futures, we must begin with those already living them.
Moderator: Iveta Silova, Associate Dean and Professor, Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation
Track 1: 🎶 Imagine: Designing the Future of Learning—Together 🎶
Transforming Your Classroom with AI in Canvas
In this session, Ryan Lufkin, VP of Global Academic Strategy at Instructure, will discuss how leading institutions are leveraging Canvas AI features and market-leading generative AI solutions to reimagine the digital classroom. Leveraging AI to reduce educators workload, speed up and strengthen feedback for learners, and deliver measurable gains in teaching and learning outcomes.
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Meeting Learners Everywhere: Designing Engaging Experiences in Alternative Modalities
Learning now happens in countless spaces—on phones, in inboxes, and through podcasts. This interactive session explores alternative formats such as microlearning, email-based courses, and text-based lessons that extend learning beyond traditional classrooms. Participants will discover how these approaches can stand alone as powerful means to support lifelong learning or integrate into larger academic experiences to enhance accessibility, engagement, and belonging—advancing ASU’s mission to design inclusive, scalable, and innovative learning for the future.
Instructional designers are uniquely positioned to change futures by turning “inclusion” from a checkbox into a catalyst for meaningful lifelong learning. This session explores how Principled Innovation, reflective practice, and ethical use of emerging technologies empower designers to dismantle cultural, accessibility, and structural barriers. Participants will explore real-world examples of how design decisions expand access, foster global awareness, and create scalable, learner-centered strategies that meet people where they are across diverse contexts.
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
From Access to Impact: Reimagining STEM Pathways for Every Learner
The School of Life Sciences Undergraduate Research (SOLUR) program supports research experiences for students pursuing science and medical careers. Through mentorship, professional development, and science communication, it broadens participation for diverse learners. The Research Immersion and SOLUR Catalyst programs extend this mission to ASU Online students, offering hands-on lab training for undergrads and advanced research for graduate students. This session shares implementation strategies and lessons learned, fostering discussion on scalability and adaptation across disciplines.
Decoding Accessibility: Making STEM Speak to Everyone
STEM disciplines involve complex symbols, equations, and structures that can present unique accessibility challenges in digital learning environments. This session shares our ongoing work to support faculty in addressing these challenges through practical strategies, lessons learned, and emerging AI tools. Participants will engage in discussion, explore ethical and scalable approaches, and contribute their own experiences as we collectively advance more inclusive STEM learning opportunities for all students.
Feeling alone when it comes to AI? You’re not! This panel explores how collaboration and community turn uncertainty into confidence. Featuring four AI Community of Practice (CoP) Leads, we’ll share how conversation sparks innovation and empowers people to explore AI together. Walk away with strategies for easing fear, tips for leading AI conversations, insights into existing communities, and inspiration from real stories of connection and shared learning.
Engineering Education @ Scale: Advancing the largest Engineering Teaching and Learning Center in US
Considering our Charter, growth and diversity of learners, the opportunity to evolve instructional models is apparent. Guided by FSE Values, stakeholders representing numerous engineering disciplines and roles (college, school and program leadership; faculty; academic support; learning design; advising) share strategic efforts related to SCALED - a technology-enhanced instructional model which combines common instructional resources and curriculum; purposeful implementation of learning technologies, concept mastery, active learning practices, and coordinated delivery by instructional teams while supported by academic units.
Designing with Insight: Data, History, and Learning Futures
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Designing with Data: Turning Course Analytics into Actionable Learning Design
How can everyday course data fuel meaningful change? In this interactive workshop, participants explore a practical framework for analyzing gradebooks and other learning analytics to uncover patterns, ask better questions, and design low-stakes experiments that improve learning outcomes. Based on the Universal Learner Courses Data Dive model, attendees leave with a customizable plan for their own courses or teams.
Teaching Future Frames: Historical Patterns for Future Thinking
This session demonstrates teaching 'future frames,' a methodology for analyzing predicted futures through historical patterns. Drawing from an STS humanities course (STS-200), participants will learn seven conceptual frames and apply analytical scales to evaluate assumptions underlying progress narratives and future predictions. Attendees will experience hands-on application, explore implementation strategies, including active application on each attendee’s own future vision, and contemplate this approach’s to develop student capacity for critical, ethical engagement with contemporary future narratives.
ASU AI Landscape: Patterns, Perceptions, Performance of Undergraduate Online and Campus Students
How do today’s students think about and use AI in their learning? This session shares early findings from an ASU-wide survey of 1,000 undergraduates across STEM and non-STEM programs. Results reveal distinct patterns in motivation, concern, and usage, offering a grounded view of how AI is reshaping academic work and success. Paired with national data, these insights highlight key trends and gaps to help ASU align AI strategies with students’ experiences and expectations.
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Loops of Learning: How Reciprocity Shapes AI Literacy
AI literacy is an evolving field that demands continual reflection, dialogue, and shared understanding among diverse voices. This interactive session introduces reciprocal learning as a dynamic “loop” where participants teach, learn, and reflect together to co-construct ethical and practical insights about AI. Through a collaborative mini-activity and guided debrief, participants will experience how reciprocity strengthens AI Literacy by cultivating curiosity, empathy, and humility essential for redesigning the future of learning.
Level Up AI Strategies: The Contagion of Literacy, Fluency, Agility for Learning
Sharing our grassroots journey of discovery and empowerment to advance AI at Edson College. The intentional efforts of early adopters have resulted in a curation of tools, supports, and learning opportunities that help faculty integrate AI into their teaching and practice. Key resources include the Edson GAI Hub, AI literacy workshops, Canvas-ready student module, and individualized, personalized consultations that promote ethical, practical, and meaningful applications to support instructional and research goals.
The Human in the Machine: Reimagining Education, Ethics, and Connection in the Age of AI
In this dynamic student-led panel, ASU AI Innovation Interns share how AI is reshaping learning, ethics, and human connection. Faculty will gain student-informed strategies for designing future-ready assignments, safeguarding data privacy, and using AI to support well-being. The conversation culminates in powerful takeaways on what’s missing and what’s next in the age of AI.
Creative Futures: AI, Expression, and Language Learning
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Generative AI in Music: Ethical Integration for Creation, Prototyping, and Production
This session explores how generative AI can serve as a tool for exploration, expansion, and collaboration in creative learning. Drawing from classroom experiences, it highlights a co-creative process where students and instructor examine AI’s ethical, cultural, and artistic implications while embracing the vulnerability of not being an expert. Participants will gain insights into fostering agency, curiosity, and responsibility, affirming that creativity and ethical reflection remain uniquely human domains even as AI broadens what’s possible.
Flowing Like a River: Relational AI and Whole Body Knowing in Learning Innovation
What if AI could learn to flow like a river? This session introduces Relational AI through RiverBot, a technology grounded in Indigenous knowledge and the Whole Body Knowing framework. Unlike standard AI systems, Relational AI acts as a guide rather than an expert, building connection and understanding instead of prediction and control. Participants will explore its broad applications across education, research, and community partnerships, advancing ASU’s mission of Technology for Good through relationality, embodied learning, and access.
Enhancing Language Learning through synchronous virtual conversations via LinguaMeeting
How do we engage language learners from all over the world with differing needs and time commitments? This short presentation explores efforts by the Spanish Program in SILC to improve learning outcomes through a collaboration with LinguaMeeting, a third-party company that offers friendly language coaches who are experts at guiding low-anxiety synchronous conversations with language learners. The presentation will conclude with concrete recommendations for other non-language courses to implement synchronous components in their courses.
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Turn Pilot Chaos Into Strategic Advantage
Overwhelmed by EdTech vendor pitches? ASU Online’s revamped pilot process replaces ad-hoc chaos with strategy. This lightning talk introduces a five-step framework covering vendor intake, risk, accessibility, Canvas integration, and data-driven licensing. Get downloadable AirTable templates, VITRA security tools, WCAG 2.1 AA resources, KPI guides, and communication workflows to launch equitable, scalable, student-centered pilots at your institution.
Augmenting Digital Library Services for Students and Learner
ASU Library is committed to leveraging the best current and emerging technology to enhance sharing and discoverability of ASU's scholarship and archival holdings. In this session, Digital Initiatives Librarian Timothy Provenzano will present an overview of recent advances in library repository functionality, including upgraded image viewer, streamlined process for scholarly work sharing, and upgraded information used to describe our repository items. The session will conclude with time for feedback from attendees on future features they would be interested in.
Remote Hive Exploration: Authentic Research and Science Communication for Online Learners
This presentation showcases an innovative online research model where students study live honeybee colonies remotely through 4K cameras. By observing natural behaviors—such as the queen’s activity and waggle dances—students generate hypotheses, analyze real data, and share findings through presentations and manuscripts. This approach bridges the gap between online and on-campus learners, demonstrating how technology can transform global education by making authentic research experiences accessible to all, truly reflecting the spirit of “changing futures.”
POV Learning: Reimagining Hands-On Fashion Education Through Immersive Video Design
This lightning talk spotlights a new ASU FIDM online sewing course that uses multi-angle video and POV filming to bring learners “into the hands” of the instructor. Discover how immersive filming techniques, clear visual scaffolding, and intentional course design empower students to master technical skills in flexible, online environments.
Strengthening Learning Communities Through Connection and Practice
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Reimagining Academic Integrity: Insights from Faculty and Students Across Watts College
This Lightning Talk shares findings from focus groups with Watts College faculty and students exploring the meaning, practice, and challenges of academic integrity. Participants discussed real experiences, uncovered gaps in understanding, and cocreated strategies for improvement. The session highlights innovative engagement methods, actionable insights, and ways to reimagine integrity as a community value: one that empowers students and faculty alike to cultivate accountability, empathy, and ethical leadership across learning environments.
Micro-Moments, Major Impact: The KiSS Approach to Learning Continuity
How can playful, low-cost design encourage students to keep practicing between courses? Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Keep in School Shape (KiSS) Program uses short, daily review activities to sustain motivation, build confidence, and support learning continuity. This talk features a rapid KiSS-style demonstration and data showing how micro-activities can lead to major impact. Participants will leave with an evidence-based model and immediate ideas for scaling belonging and persistence across ASU and beyond.
Knowledge and Know-how: Connecting students and communities through pedagogy and practice
Through actual and completed cases of engagement between ASU students and Arizona communities of cities and government agencies, we illustrate and discuss best practices of sustainability issues that communities and students have tackled together. We also discuss how ASU's Project Cities initiative has enabled that engagement. This initiative has allowed us to be involved and engaged with over 1300 students working with multiple cities and agencies in the state of Arizona.
The View from the Middle: Observations on Bridging the Faculty-Student Gap.
Teaching assistants (TAs) occupy a unique 'view from the middle' that can bridge the faculty-student gap, yet are rarely empowered as true pedagogical partners. This talk shares observations from an experienced TA on building effective instructional teams and course structures that challenge students. Attendees will gain a new appreciation for the TA's role and consider how to better enable, equip, and motivate them for student success.
Career Track Faculty Awardee Dr. Karla Murphy, Teaching Professor, School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Chelsie Schlesinger, Instructor, School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
Keynote - Innovation with Purpose: Designing Systems that Serve All Learners, A Fireside Chat with Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan and Nancy Gonzales
In this special FOLC Fest feature, we welcome Dr. Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan, whose visionary leadership at the National Science Foundation ushered in a new era of innovation focused on access, inclusion, and national competitiveness. Panch returns to ASU and will discuss the forces reshaping the future of learning, the role of universities in driving societal impact, and how we can build systems that deliver opportunity at scale. After offering brief opening remarks, he will join Dr. Nancy Gonzales, ASU’s Executive Vice President and University Provost, for a fireside chat about the forces transforming the future of learning with AI and the responsibility universities have to shape more equitable and impactful systems. Together, they will reflect on how ASU’s Changing Futures campaign connects to national efforts and how we can work across roles to create meaningful futures for all learners.
Track 2: 🎻 Come Together: Care, Character and Community by Design 🎻
Health, Well-Being, and Cognitive Support in Learning
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
An executive function assistant for ADHD that transforms mental chaos into actionable plans, powered by Google Gemini.
Lumi supports mental health and well-being by helping neurodivergent young adults build executive function skills through AI-guided planning, organization, and self-regulation. It delivers practical digital health education that empowers users to manage daily routines, reduce overwhelm, and navigate academic and personal systems with confidence and balance.
Collaborative Expertise Team-Teaching (CETT) Model for Multi-Section Health Courses
Aligned with ASU’s Building the Future of Health theme, this session presents a collaborative Expertise team-teaching (CETT) model designed for high-enrollment, multi-section general studies health courses. Participants will explore strategies to enhance instructional consistency, faculty collaboration, and student engagement through shared expertise, coordinated course delivery, and case-based examples. Presenters will share insights from successful implementations, including student and instructor feedback, to help attendees design and apply innovative, high-quality team-teaching approaches that strengthen health education and community well-being.
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Principles in Practice: Cultivating Moral Courage in Ethical Decision-Making
This interactive session explores how ethics education can inspire today and tomorrow’s game changers through AI-enhanced ethical decision-making activities, reflective dialogue, and communication frameworks. Participants will experience innovative approaches to teaching moral courage and ethical reasoning across disciplines. Grounded in principlism and human-centered design, this session demonstrates how technology can support teaching in ways that may deepen empathy, strengthen integrity, and empower learners to take bold, values-driven action in their professional and academic journeys.
Artificial intelligence is transforming how we teach, design, and learn, but without human values at the core, innovation risks losing integrity. This lightning talk introduces three lessons that connect Principled Innovation to the practice of ethical AI: Set the Compass with Intention, Learn with Humility, and Create a Caring Community. The question is not what future AI will build, but instead "What kind of builder will you be?"
Principled AI in Practice: Student Insights for Designing Ethical AI Learning
Funded by ASU’s Learning Engineering Institute, Thunderbird’s Principled Innovation Fellows conducted a stakeholder analysis with students, faculty, alumni, and Global Challenge Lab clients to identify what learners need to use AI ethically in client-facing projects. In this interactive session, student fellows share their findings and invite audience feedback to refine a proposed asynchronous course on responsible AI practice—advancing technology for good and modeling inclusive, ethics-driven course design across ASU.
Engaged Futures: AI Assignments Supporting Student Choice and Belonging in Online Learning
This session highlights practical ways AI-integrated assignments can strengthen student choice, belonging, and agency in online learning. Grounded in Principled Innovation, psychological theories of motivation, and a four-level AI-use framework, we share assignment structures that help students decide when and why to use AI, verify accuracy, and reflect on their learning process. Participants will explore adaptable strategies for embedding responsible, choice-driven AI use into writing, research, and metacognitive activities to create more connected and empowering online learning experiences.
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Navigating Education Policymaking in the Age of GenAI
Our session embodies the Changing Futures theme by showcasing a year-long partnership with the National Association of State Boards of Education to build policymakers' capacity around GenAI. We share landscape data, insights, and engagement findings demonstrating how informed policy leadership can shape equitable, future-ready approaches to GenAI. in education. Participants will engage in possibilities thinking, explore ethical GenAI policymaking experiences, scenario map data-informed policy paths, and apply pedagogical envisioning to future GenAI use cases.
Rewrite the AI Rulebook: Co-Creating Classroom AI Policies with Students
This session invites participants to a lively, hands-on exploration of how students and instructors can co-create meaningful AI use policies together. I share a simple, replicable process grounded in dialogue, ethical reflection, and real classroom examples. The session explores how collaborative norm-building fosters trust, alleviates technostress, and creates an environment where students can shape their own learning with intention. Participants leave with adaptable tools they can implement in their courses immediately.
Where is the line? EdD student usage of generative AI
Doctor of Education students across North America are using generative AI in their academic work, but they struggle to identify the line for ethical and responsible usage, and how they should formally acknowledge their use. My doctoral research focuses on exploring how this student population is using generative AI and identifies the implications for training and policy.
Immersive Learning: XR, VR, and Experiential Design
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Adaptive XR and Robotics for Personalized and Accessible Learning at Scale
This lecture and demonstration introduces a practical model for personalized, accessible immersive learning with robot in the loop tasks. We will show a short XR simulator demo, unpack a simple three step design template, and share a rubric for accessibility, personalization, and safety. Participants will see early ASU results and receive slides, assignment shells, checklists, and analytics starters to adapt the approach across studios, labs, and general education courses.
Two Years in Virtual Reality: Lasting Impacts of Dreamscape Learn (DSL) on Student Success
Tracking over 4,000 students in BIO 181 and 182 (Fall 2022–Spring 2024), Action Lab’s retrospective study of Dreamscape Learn found that immersive storytelling, virtual reality, and seamless pedagogy deliver sustained gains in performance and engagement. Students rated VR labs 5/5 and described deep immersion. DSL participation correlated with higher STEM retention, a ¼-letter-grade boost in advanced courses, consistent DSL performance (90.8–94.1%), and heightened engagement—making learning both effective and unforgettable.
Paws, Pixels, & Pedagogy: Adventures in Designing a Pre-Veterinary VR Experience
This session explores the design of an immersive VR learning experience in a unique field, demonstrating that virtual reality need not be limited to technology-heavy disciplines. Presenters will share successes, surprises, and practical strategies from bringing hands-on learning to life through VR. The discussion highlights how immersive environments can engage learners across subjects, expand access, and transform education by meeting students wherever they are.
Shaping Futures: Character, Connection, Access, and Community Empowerment with AI
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Designing for Connection: Engaging Future Educators through Spark & Choice Learning
How can reflective and choice-driven learning experiences prepare future educators for a rapidly changing world? In this lightning talk, we’ll share how “Spark & Reflect” and “Choice Menu” assignments in ASU’s new online elementary education program help students think deeply, collaborate authentically, and develop future-ready skills. We’ll highlight examples of student growth and prompt participants to reimagine small design choices that create lasting connection and belonging in online learning.
Changing Futures: Expanding College Access for High School Students Through ASU Innovation
Discover how Accelerate ASU’s Universal Learner Courses are transforming college-in-high-school access by eliminating academic, procedural, and financial barriers. This interactive session explores innovative course design, open enrollment, and global scalability that allow learners of all ages to experience rigorous, low-risk college learning. Participants will engage in collaborative activities to identify access challenges in their own contexts and leave with practical strategies for creating more equitable pathways to higher education.
Using Generative AI to Mobilize Research and Learning for Community Empowerment
Discover how NOVA-ASU: Knowledge Mobilization with Generative AI is transforming the way communities engage with research. In this lightning session, see how ASU’s CreateAI platform and KEEP institutional repository together mobilize ASU scholarship by creating dynamic, multilingual outputs such as research summaries, policy briefs, and teaching cases. Learn how principled, ethical AI empowers educators, students, and community partners to bridge academia and real-world impact. Join us to explore a bold, scalable model for equitable, AI-enabled community learning.
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Scaling Quality Through Alignment: A Programmatic Model for Collaborative Course Design
Developing scalable, effective programs can be a labor-intensive challenge. This session presents an adaptable programmatic alignment model that ensures quality and coherence across modalities. Faculty lead David Brafman and learning experience designers share how coordinated working groups, intentional alignment, and cross-modality consistency transformed Biomedical Engineering courses. Attendees will gain immediately applicable strategies to align curriculum and support faculty collaboration to enhance student outcomes.
Scaling with Quality across Modalities, Instructors, and Instructional Support - SCALED Course Tale
Discover how the SCALED MSE 250 model transforms engineering education through an inclusive, data-driven redesign that met learner needs (+300 enrollment) across modalities as well as coordinated instructional resources (2 faculty, 4 TA’s). This session highlights how shared digital platforms and iterative design enhance access, engagement, and measurable learning outcomes—creating a scalable framework for lifelong learning. Participants will gain insights into how this student-centered approach empowers tomorrow’s innovators and redefines course delivery for global, flexible education models.
Coordinated Course Models for Scalable, Inclusive, and Student-Centered Learning
As programs grow, isolated teaching can lead to inconsistent student experiences. The Course Coordinator Cohort Model addresses this by fostering communication, collaboration, and shared digital resources. This approach improves course delivery, supports faculty, and ensures consistency across sections while preserving academic freedom. In this session, course coordinators and learning designers will share how cohort-based coordination enhances instructional quality and student success through scalable, inclusive strategies that align with ASU’s vision for the future of learning.
Trauma-Informed Pedagogy and Compassionate Learning Design
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Healthcare Clinician to Educator: Applying Trauma Informed Pedagogy
This session explores trauma-informed pedagogy as a framework for meeting diverse student needs in higher education. Clinical professors will examine strategies to build trust, flexibility, and inclusive learning environments while navigating the transition from clinician to educator. Incorporating Transforming Global Education, participants will learn how trauma-informed approaches enhance learning for diverse learners and strengthen the future healthcare workforce by equipping seasoned clinicians with essential pedagogical skills.
Trauma-Informed Care Across Learning Modalities: Connection, Compassion, & Access
This Lightning Talk explores how trauma-informed care can be embedded across in-person, synchronous, and asynchronous learning. Grounded in research and practice, it demonstrates how technological tools can be leveraged to cultivate trust, inclusion, and belonging. Participants will discover adaptable, evidence-based strategies that promote student resilience and engagement while maintaining academic rigor. The session will highlight how compassionate design and mindful pedagogy enhance both learning outcomes and human connection across modalities.
Global Studies, Principled Innovation, and Student Advocacy
This session showcases an innovative Global Studies course integrating Principled Innovation to prepare students for ethical decision-making in global health contexts. Faculty underwent PI-based training, infusing reflection and dialogue across cultures. Students evolved into advocates, designing final projects that applied PI frameworks to real-world health and healthcare issues.
Cross-Unit Collaboration as a Lever for Gateway Course Success
This presentation describes the collaborative redesign of Brief Calculus, a gateway course required for most students in the W. P. Carey School of Business. Faculty from business and mathematics, in partnership with university leadership, restructured course content, pedagogy, and policies. This collaborative effort led to strong alignment between content, assessments, and downstream business curricular needs. Simultaneously, student pass rates increased by double digits, with particularly strong gains among students with lower levels of prior math preparation. We examine the challenges and opportunities inherent in cross-unit collaboration, the design decisions that proved most consequential, and the institutional conditions that supported change. We conclude with a discussion of how this model of collaborative gateway course reform may be adapted to other high-impact courses across the curriculum, leaving participants with concrete ideas for their own courses.
Track 3: 🪕 Here Comes the Sun: From Practice to Possibility 🪕
Designing Future-Ready Learning Experiences
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Strategic Teaching, Inspired Learning: Building Future Biologists in Online Spaces
Adapting course design for today’s students requires rethinking the ASU Charter and how we support learners. Building on our successful online biology course for non-majors and recent advances in digital learning, we are redesigning ASU’s biology majors course with a predictable, low-stress structure to lower DEW rates and improve retention. Replacing high-stakes exams with low-stakes assignments and discussions fosters motivation and authentic learning. Streamlined materials, clear navigation, mandatory reading, and flexible deadlines emphasize pacing over punishment and shift focus from policing to empowering students—reducing stress, grading load, and barriers to success.
From Numbers to Narratives: Integrating Ethics and Data Across the Math Curriculum
How can math and data courses prepare students to shape a more ethical and inclusive future? This session shares an evidence-based redesign of ASU math and data science courses emphasizing collaboration, ethical data analysis, and student-driven inquiry. Participants will experience an interactive data ethics activity and leave with adaptable templates and ideas for integrating active, reflective, and inclusive learning practices across disciplines.
From Support to Collaboration: Evolving Faculty–Designer Partnerships in Technology-Infused Learning
An interdisciplinary team of faculty and instructional designers partnered in 2024–2025 to create two technology-infused courses - HCD 294/232 American Health Institutions and TPH 501 Foundations of Public Health I - that connect learners with their communities through innovative digital tools. Together, we show how creative collaboration transforms ideas into engaging, accessible learning experiences that advance ASU’s Changing Futures mission and demonstrate the impact of purposeful course design.
Designing for Accessibility and Learner Experience
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Global Voices, Clear Messages: Communication for Equity in Learning
As learning becomes increasingly globalized, the communication challenges faced by students from minority groups are often overlooked. Some encounter significant obstacles as they navigate the homogenous accents of dominant groups. I will illustrate how critical elements, such as tone, pacing, lighting, and slide design, uniquely impact learners. My demonstrations will shed light on the often-overlooked gaps in instructional approaches, such as the effects of nasal or sing-song delivery, and harsh lighting on multilingual and neurodivergent learners. This session offers a human-centered approach to transforming global education, ensuring we meet learners where they are and broaden access at every stage of life.
Presenter: Priscilla Mah Belloh
Designing the Future of Learning: Accessibility, Intention, and Belonging
This interactive session explores how accessibility, intentional design, and collaboration shape the future of learning. Participants will engage with real examples and strategies drawn from VR-based curriculum and instructional practices to reimagine what it means to design for inclusion and belonging. Through culturally mindful design choices and accessible learning experiences, we’ll share lessons learned from collaborative work that bridges technology, curriculum, and pedagogy to create meaningful and equitable learning futures.
Bridging Difference: Zine-Making for Shared Futures
Participants create futures-oriented zines from diverse perspectives—students navigating economic barriers, faculty facing institutional constraints, parents balancing competing demands. By embodying others' experiences, we challenge assumptions and discover shared hopes for dignity, purpose, and belonging. Participants leave with replicable perspective-taking tools to empower all learners—across abilities, backgrounds, and circumstances—to articulate authentic futures and take bold steps toward personal, academic, and professional transformation.
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
The Education Tree: A New Theoretical Model for P-20 Education and Development
P–20 education, particularly K–16 education, has come under increased scrutiny over the past decade, and was particularly accelerated during the reported learning losses that occurred during shutdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Presentation identifies alternative learning strategies available in the current literature and proposes a new iteration on progressive models that consist of gradeless classrooms, ungrading, and employing generative artificial intelligence.
From Learning to Earning: AI-Powered Pathways and Structured Skill Recognition
Discover how AI can transform the bridge between learning and employment. This interactive session showcases ASU CareerCatalyst’s vision for equitable, technology-enabled skill recognition through structured learner records and AI matchmaking. Participants will explore practical frameworks that connect education, credentials, and workforce opportunities—advancing ASU’s Changing Futures mission to inspire tomorrow’s game changers and use technology for good. Leave with actionable strategies to build transparent, inclusive pathways from the classroom to meaningful careers.
Co-Designing Water Futures: UX Strategies for Environmental Learning and Action
How can co-design transform environmental learning and inspire action? The ASU Arizona Water Innovation Initiative UX team shares how we apply user experience (UX) principles to co-create educational games, museum exhibits, and digital tools with communities across Arizona. From VR tours to interactive chatbots, our work demonstrates how participatory design fosters local belonging, environmental literacy, and civic action. Participants will explore methods, models, and strategies they can adapt for their own community-engaged projects.
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
From Cosine to Confidence: Automating Course Articulation at Scale
This session showcases a deterministic AI articulation pipeline that transforms raw course catalogs into mathematically validated equivalency decisions. Using large-scale embeddings, cosine distance fields, hierarchical clustering, and calibrated confidence scoring, the system produces transparent, reproducible matches across institutions. We trace the full workflow—from data ingestion and normalization to vector projection, cluster analysis, and supervised cross-validation grounded in labeled data—showing how automation, interpretability, and geometric rigor can modernize and scale transfer credit evaluation.
Canvas Makeover Lab: Where Boring Course Content Gets an AI Boost
Join this hands-on session to discover practical ways to boost your course materials with Claude AI. Watch live transformations of Canvas pages and presentations, learn proven prompting strategies, and explore real-world integration examples. Faculty will gain practical insights into how generative AI can create more accessible, engaging course materials while maintaining pedagogical quality. Perfect for educators ready to integrate AI tools into their instructional design workflow with confidence.
Principled Innovation in Practice: An AI Agent to Guide PI Focused Course Design
This session introduces the Principled Innovation Course Consultant, an interactive AI-supported tool that helps faculty design and refine courses in alignment with ASU's Principled Innovation framework. The agent prompts instructors to consider moral, civic, intellectual, and performance dimensions of their design choices, transforming abstract principles into practical, repeatable design actions. Participants will experience the workflow firsthand and discuss how reflective AI systems can foster responsible innovation and values-aligned teaching practice.
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
The other 165 hours: Empowering student access and success through guided practice
Many students, especially first-generation and under-resourced learners, face systemic barriers to effective independent study during the 165 hours each week outside class. This session explores how guided practice in Canvas—using optional practice exams, automated feedback, reflection prompts, games, case studies, and study recommendations—can make the hidden curriculum visible and build metacognitive skills.
Presenter: Brendan Lake
AI-Powered Podcast Tools for Accessible Learning and Personalized Assessments
AI has presented challenges to academic integrity for traditional written assessments while also democratizing creative outlets like audio storytelling. Programs like Descript and Adobe Podcast equip students and instructors with entry-level podcast creation tools, leading to innovative approaches for creating learning materials and performing assessments. In this session, Assistant Teaching Professor Roddy Nikpour guides participants in a hands-on demonstration of two AI-powered tools that make audio editing accessible to amateurs.
Redesigning Assessments in the Age of AI: Adding Layers of Learning
Generative AI has disrupted traditional assessment practices, creating urgent challenges for educators worldwide. This interactive workshop equips participants with practical frameworks to redesign assessments using the Swiss Cheese Model—layered defenses combining analog verification points, transparent AI collaboration policies, and process decomposition. Through collaborative activities, educators evaluate existing assessments for AI vulnerability and apply a five-step redesign process. Participants leave with immediately implementable strategies that emphasize student agency, ethical AI integration, and authentic learning verification rather than punitive detection approaches
Integrity, Curiosity, and Human Values in AI-Driven Education
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Decentralizing Refugee Education Through AI
This session introduces the AI-enhanced CHALLENGE game, a participatory policy simulation that reimagines refugee education through community-led, decentralized, and low-tech learning models. Participants will explore how AI can support equitable, culturally responsive education for displaced learners, even in environments with limited connectivity. The session offers practical insights, tools, and strategies for designing scalable, inclusive learning ecosystems that align with ASU’s mission to transform global education and advance social impact.
Presenter: Adnan Turan
Integrity Through Design: Teaching in the Age of AI
This session explores how Integrity Through Design empowers educators to embed ethics, transparency, and trust into AI-enhanced learning. Participants will design equitable, authentic experiences that advance technology for good.
The Prompted Mind: Reclaiming Human Curiosity in the Age of AI
The Prompted Mind: Reclaiming Human Curiosity in the Age of AI is an interactive exploration of prompting as the new literacy of thought. Through live experiments, participants see how emotional and contextual framings shape AI responses, and by extension, human understanding. This session reframes AI not as a tool to command, but as a mirror for metacognition, inspiring educators and learners to question, adapt, and co-create knowledge in a rapidly changing world.
AI in the Classroom: From Experimentation to Impact
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
Prompt to Prototype: Building Interactive Learning Widgets with AI
This session introduces a workflow for using AI to design interactive learning materials in higher education. By bridging human insight and machine capability, the approach models how emerging technologies can boost interaction and engagement, enhance understanding, and encourage innovation in teaching and learning.
From Fear to Framework: Integrating AI Thoughtfully in User Experience Education
Rather than prohibiting AI use, faculty can design scaffolded assignments that develop students' critical awareness of AI's capabilities and limitations. This presentation demonstrates how an Instructional Designer and faculty member collaboratively integrated AI into a UX course, teaching students both how AI functions (including why it hallucinates) and how to use it ethically in professional practice. Three assignment sequences illustrate how structured integration prepares students for emerging workplace realities while strengthening critical thinking.
From Attention to Retention: How the Brain Learns Best
Discover how insights from neuroscience can transform how we design, teach, and learn. This interactive session explores practical brain-based strategies that enhance attention, emotional connection, and long-term retention. Participants will experience quick, evidence-informed activities and leave with actionable ideas to create more engaging, inclusive, and enduring learning experiences aligned with ASU’s vision for Changing Futures.
Building Community Through Collaboration and Shared Learning
This 60-minute session is composed of the following presentations, each followed by a Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to stay for the full session and participate in the discussion at the end.
CCTOES: Creating Community Through Observation and Shared Experiences
Reflection and musical intervention with community-generated field recordings can increase connection and shared purpose. Project team members will guide participants through a CCTOES exercise by listening to field recordings, making critical observations about their content, and empathizing with and imagining the significance of these recordings. We will also share how CCTOES has been implemented in the same online and in-person biology class to enhance student awareness of their natural surroundings and sense of belonging.
s(cr)een: building learning communities for online students
This study examines how ThirdPlaceSpaces—hybrid, participatory environments—dismantle boundaries between online and onsite design students through arts-based, poststructural inquiry. Using an iterative DAPAR-i approach, students co-created installations and a film as analytical assemblages. Findings show how aesthetic and ethical relationality, narrative entanglement, and polyvocal knowledge-building foster belonging and reconfigure collaboration, visibility, and agency across digital and physical spaces.
Building Together: AI Collaboration Guided by Principled Innovation
How can faculty communities spark thoughtful, collaborative approaches to teaching with AI? This session explores the role of Communities of Practice in building faculty confidence, ethical awareness, and shared innovation. Join leaders from ASU’s campus-based AI and Principled Innovation Communities of Practice who will share lessons learned and examples of collaborative faculty projects. Participants will reflect on shared challenges, and leave understanding how Principled Innovation strengthens innovation, care, and community in teaching.