CIRTL Network

The Faculty Inclusive Teaching Survey (FITS) Guidebook: Growing as a Reflective and Iterative Inclusive Instructor
2026-06-30 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Chicago)
Despite recent opposition to diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEI), effective instructional methods that truly enable all students to succeed are still critical to the success of the U.S. STEM workforce. Inclusive teaching is instrumental in helping instructors reflectively examine how their identities intersect and interact with their students and how they can structure and implement their courses and teaching practices that will uplift and support all students to succeed. Inclusive teaching is about inviting all to enter a learning environment that is safe, inviting, and supportive and that produces learning, thus promoting ongoing persistence into STEM fields and careers.
This workshop will share and synthesize research results from the The Inclusive STEM Teaching Project (ISTP) into a practical, integrated FITS Guidebook that contains validated scales, resources, and recommendations to create reflective and inclusive practitioners that embrace ongoing growth and development. By the end of this workshop, participants will be prepared to:

Develop as iterative, reflective, and inclusive practitioners by engaging in deep, reflective prompts and peer-peer learning focused on ISTP research results
Examine the lived experiences of learners (e.g., students, faculty members) and campus constituents that impact and influence the development of inclusive instructors
Advance an inclusive teaching action plan

Instructors
Kim Weaver, University of Utah
Lucas Hill, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Linden Higgins, University of Vermont
Workshop Schedule
This two-part online workshop meets in Zoom on Tuesday, June 30th and Wednesday, July 1st at 9-10:30pm Gulf / 1-2:30pm Eastern / 12-1:30pm Central / 10-11:30am Pacific/Arizona.
Audience
This workshop is designed for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars who are interested in developing as iterative, reflective, and inclusive practitioners.
Registration and Enrollment
REGISTER NOW
Registration opens on Monday, June 8th at 10am CT and closes on the first day of the workshop. No cap.
Accessibility
If you have access needs, please let us know what they are. Contact Zoe Zuleger (zmzuleger@wisc.edu) who is supporting this workshop, to let us know how we can help you have a successful experience. In addition to meeting individualized needs, we will also take measures throughout the workshop to support accessibility for all our students:

Sending pre-session reminders with upcoming assignments to all students
Sharing materials for synchronous sessions with students (slides, activity instructions, etc.)
Enabling live captioning in synchronous sessions
Incorporating multiple modes of interaction into synchronous sessions

About CIRTL Programming
CIRTL Network programming is designed to develop future faculty committed to implementing and advancing evidence-based teaching practices to create undergraduate educational experiences that are accessible to all learners. Participants can explore our programming in any order, and to whatever extent supports your own teaching development needs and interests. To help participants understand what they can expect across all our programming, all CIRTL programming aligns with four broad learning goals; within those goals, programming might provide participants with an introductory, intermediate, or advanced learning experience.
This institute supports the following CIRTL learning goals at an intermediate level:

Goal 1: Develop evidence-based teaching knowledge. See more Goal 1 programming.
Goal 2: Connect with community to enhance teaching. See more Goal 2 programming.
Goal 3: Cultivate teaching skills through reflective improvement. See more Goal 3 programming.
Goal 4: Prepare for an impactful career. See more Goal 4 programming.

Critical AI Literacy for Teachers and Students: Prompting, Evaluating, and Ethically Using Generative AI
2026-07-13 12:00 - 13:30
Surprised by how fast AI is developing, yet still cautious about trusting it? Already using AI but wondering how to encourage students to remain critical of its outputs? As generative AI reshapes the educational landscape, developing critical AI literacy becomes essential for responsible AI use and critical evaluation. This workshop series explores critical AI literacy across various disciplines, with particular focus on AI prompt literacy, critical evaluation of AI outputs, and ethical disclosure practices. Instead of seeing generative AI as a dominant tool, the workshop encourages participants to see themselves as active and independent decision makers in human-AI collaboration. In session 1, participants will engage in hands-on activities to iteratively refine prompts that align with their writing purposes and goals, critically evaluate AI-generated outputs, and draft counter-text to articulate the reasons for accepting, modifying, and rejecting AI outputs. In addition, participants will draft an AI use disclosure statement to maintain academic and professional integrity and transparency. In session 2, participants will reflect on and extend these strategies by adapting the workshop activities to their own teaching, research, or professional contexts. Through collaborative sharing and discussion, participants will explore how critical AI literacy practices can be applied in different disciplines and settings. By the end of this workshop, participants will be prepared to:

Develop AI prompts with clear attention to purpose, audience, genre, and ethical boundaries
Critically evaluate AI outputs for accuracy, bias, assumptions, and alignment with disciplinary values
Decide when to accept, revise, or reject AI outputs and explain their reasoning through counter-text to maintain human agency.
Apply critical AI literacy strategies by adapting workshop activities, prompts, or evaluation approaches to their own contexts

Instructors
Ruonan Yang, The Ohio State University
Erin Mercurio, The Ohio State University
Workshop Schedule
This two-part online workshop meets in Zoom on Monday, July 13th at 9-10:30pm Gulf / 1-2:30pm Eastern / 12-1:30pm Central / 10-11:30am Pacific/Arizona and Monday, July 20th at 9-10pm Gulf / 1-2pm Eastern / 12-1pm Central / 10-11am Pacific/Arizona.
Audience
Anyone with an interest in critical AI literacy is welcome to participate. Participants who have experience teaching as independent instructors may find it especially helpful, as it may be easier to adapt the workshop activities to their own teaching contexts.
Registration and Enrollment
Interested in attending? Fill out this short form to get a reminder when registration opens.
Registration opens on Monday, June 29th at 10am CT. Cap: 60. Registration will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. Registrants from CIRTL member institutions or alumni of CIRTL member institutions will receive priority. Once registration closes, all registrants will be notified of their enrollment status.
Accessibility
If you have access needs, please let us know what they are. Contact Zoe Zuleger (zmzuleger@wisc.edu) who is supporting this workshop, to let us know how we can help you have a successful experience. In addition to meeting individualized needs, we will also take measures throughout the workshop to support accessibility for all our students:

Sending pre-session reminders with upcoming assignments to all students
Sharing materials for synchronous sessions with students (slides, activity instructions, etc.)
Enabling live captioning in synchronous sessions
Incorporating multiple modes of interaction into synchronous sessions

About CIRTL Programming
CIRTL Network programming is designed to develop future faculty committed to implementing and advancing evidence-based teaching practices to create undergraduate educational experiences that are accessible to all learners. Participants can explore our programming in any order, and to whatever extent supports your own teaching development needs and interests. To help participants understand what they can expect across all our programming, all CIRTL programming aligns with four broad learning goals; within those goals, programming might provide participants with an introductory, intermediate, or advanced learning experience.
This institute supports the following CIRTL learning goals at an introductory/intermediate level:

Goal 1: Develop evidence-based teaching knowledge. See more Goal 1 programming.
Goal 2: Connect with community to enhance teaching. See more Goal 2 programming.
Goal 3: Cultivate teaching skills through reflective improvement. See more Goal 3 programming.
Goal 4: Prepare for an impactful career. See more Goal 4 programming.

Handling Difficult Dialogues In the Classroom
2026-07-15 10:00 - 11:15
Join us for a discussion about planning complex dialogues and handling difficult moments in the classroom, drawing from scholarly frameworks such as Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) and reflective teaching. By the end of this workshops, participants will be prepared to:

Consider common dynamics that arise when teaching sensitive topics
Integrate transparency, course guidelines, and other strategies into course context to help students engage with sensitive topics
Identify teaching tools to address difficult moments or unexpected student reactions during sensitive discussions.

Instructors
Katherine Beydler, University of Iowa
Darren Hoffman, University of Iowa
Allie Brandriet, University of Iowa
Workshop Schedule
This one-part online workshop meets in Zoom on Wednesday, July 15th at 7-8:15pm Gulf / 11am-12:15pm Eastern / 10-11:15am Central / 8-9:15am Pacific/Arizona.
Audience
This workshop is open to anyone interested in handling difficult dialogues in the classroom.
Registration and Enrollment
REGISTER NOW
Registration opens on Monday, June 22nd at 10am CT and closes on the first day of the workshop. No cap.
Accessibility
If you have access needs, please let us know what they are. Contact Zoe Zuleger (zmzuleger@wisc.edu) who is supporting this workshop, to let us know how we can help you have a successful experience. In addition to meeting individualized needs, we will also take measures throughout the workshop to support accessibility for all our students:

Sending pre-session reminders with upcoming assignments to all students
Sharing materials for synchronous sessions with students (slides, activity instructions, etc.)
Enabling live captioning in synchronous sessions
Incorporating multiple modes of interaction into synchronous sessions

About CIRTL Programming
CIRTL Network programming is designed to develop future faculty committed to implementing and advancing evidence-based teaching practices to create undergraduate educational experiences that are accessible to all learners. Participants can explore our programming in any order, and to whatever extent supports your own teaching development needs and interests. To help participants understand what they can expect across all our programming, all CIRTL programming aligns with four broad learning goals; within those goals, programming might provide participants with an introductory, intermediate, or advanced learning experience.
This institute supports the following CIRTL learning goals at an introductory/intermediate level:

Goal 1: Develop evidence-based teaching knowledge. See more Goal 1 programming.
Goal 2: Connect with community to enhance teaching. See more Goal 2 programming.
Goal 3: Cultivate teaching skills through reflective improvement. See more Goal 3 programming.
Goal 4: Prepare for an impactful career. See more Goal 4 programming.

Classroom Ethics in Higher Education: Navigating Dilemmas with Intention
2026-07-15 10:00 - 11:15
Educators at all levels and across content areas navigate daily challenges that emerge from the fraught context of classroom teaching. Apart from the obvious emotional, intellectual, and logistical challenges of providing quality instruction, instructors must also confront intractable dilemmas that pit their own values against the policies and practices of their academic unit or institution at large. This is particularly troubling for graduate and early career instructors who must navigate these spaces without the assurance of institutional protection. In this two-part workshop, instructors and future instructors in higher education are invited to participate in a classroom ethics “bootcamp” that will prepare them for exploring the inherent tensions that arise in the classroom, from issues of fair student assessment to facing controversial topics in discussion. Most instructors teach how they were taught – this workshop will take the first steps in breaking the pattern of status-quo instruction, preparing instructors to practice critical reflection and ethical deliberation. Participants should come prepared to discuss topics like end of semester grade rounding, student emotional disturbance, class attendance, and navigating controversial topics. By the end of this workshop, participants will be prepared to:

Apply ethical theories to resolve abstract dilemmas
Identify and prioritize at-stake values in various ethical case-studies in the context of teaching in the college or university setting
Articulate a reasoned defense of their decisions in resolving an ethical dilemma in the context of teaching in the college or university setting.

Instructors
Walker Ballard, The Ohio State University
Erin Mercurio, The Ohio State University
Workshop Schedule
This two-part online workshop meets in Zoom on Wednesday, July 15th and July 29th at 7-8:15pm Gulf / 11am-12:15pm Eastern / 10-11:15am Central / 8-9:15am Pacific/Arizona.
Audience
This session is for anyone interested in classroom ethics in higher education, though some experience in higher education classrooms as instructor of record might make the session more meaningful.
Registration and Enrollment
Interested in attending? Fill out this short form to get a reminder when registration opens.
Registration opens on Monday, June 29th at 10am CT. Cap: 30. Registration will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. Registrants from CIRTL member institutions or alumni of CIRTL member institutions will receive priority. Once registration closes, all registrants will be notified of their enrollment status.
Accessibility
If you have access needs, please let us know what they are. Contact Zoe Zuleger (zmzuleger@wisc.edu) who is supporting this workshop, to let us know how we can help you have a successful experience. In addition to meeting individualized needs, we will also take measures throughout the workshop to support accessibility for all our students:

Sending pre-session reminders with upcoming assignments to all students
Sharing materials for synchronous sessions with students (slides, activity instructions, etc.)
Enabling live captioning in synchronous sessions
Incorporating multiple modes of interaction into synchronous sessions

About CIRTL Programming
CIRTL Network programming is designed to develop future faculty committed to implementing and advancing evidence-based teaching practices to create undergraduate educational experiences that are accessible to all learners. Participants can explore our programming in any order, and to whatever extent supports your own teaching development needs and interests. To help participants understand what they can expect across all our programming, all CIRTL programming aligns with four broad learning goals; within those goals, programming might provide participants with an introductory, intermediate, or advanced learning experience.
This course supports the following CIRTL learning goals at an introductory/intermediate level:

Goal 1: Develop evidence-based teaching knowledge. See more Goal 1 programming.
Goal 2: Connect with community to enhance teaching. See more Goal 2 programming.
Goal 3: Cultivate teaching skills through reflective improvement. See more Goal 3 programming.
Goal 4: Prepare for an impactful career. See more Goal 4 programming.
