As Gen AI (GAI) tools proliferated across the globe during the last few semesters, did you find yourself panicked, excited, or feeling a bit of both? Were you overwhelmed by the implications for academic integrity or overcome by a sense of wonder at the boundless potential to innovate our teaching, learning, and research? Your reactions … Continue reading Navigating the Future of Learning with Gen AI
Start at the Library to Achieve Your Course Accessibility Goals
When selecting materials for your courses, where you start can make all the difference. Beginning your search at the library not only saves time, but it also helps ensure students have current, accessible content to supplement your instruction. Start with Library Links Academic libraries are the best place to start looking for course readings. Librarians can help you identify high-quality, current articles, open-access resources, … Continue reading Start at the Library to Achieve Your Course Accessibility Goals
AI Spark Tips: Using Copilot to Free up Time for Real Interactions
When we talk about generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), it can be easy to focus on sensational stories about deepfakes, AI relationships, or humans offloading so much of their work that AIs are just summarizing and evaluating other AI's reports. The greatest impact of AI isn't in the splashy story, though. It's in the small, AI-enabled … Continue reading AI Spark Tips: Using Copilot to Free up Time for Real Interactions
What Students Want
At the start of each semester, CAIFS hosts a very short and optional Blackboard Ultra Quick Start course for incoming students. The goal of the course is to invite students to explore the LMS and try out the discussion board, assignment submission, and Yuja video quiz so they have some level of familiarity and comfort with the learning environment before classes begin. The discussion board prompts students to discuss how comfortable they are … Continue reading What Students Want
AI Spark Tips: From Curiosity to Confidence: Improving Assignment Instructions with the OLC Course Review Assistant GPT
If you’re curious about ChatGPT.Edu but haven’t quite figured out how it fits into your teaching, you’re not alone. AI suggestions for course materials can fall flat when using a generic AI, but you may be surprised by what you find when you use a customized GPT designed by instructors for instructors. The Online Learning … Continue reading AI Spark Tips: From Curiosity to Confidence: Improving Assignment Instructions with the OLC Course Review Assistant GPT
AI Spark Tips: When Students Ask at 2 a.m.
How Blackboard's AVA Supports Learning Without Replacing You We've all done it. We know the answer is in the user guide or instruction manual, but we don't want to skim the whole document. Students feel the same way about the course syllabus. They know the answer is in the syllabus, but they don't know where … Continue reading AI Spark Tips: When Students Ask at 2 a.m.
5 Practices for Winter Well-Being
And just like that, Fall 2025 is drawing to a close. Over the past semester, you’ve published articles, presented at national and international conferences, completed—or begun—the ACUE Effective Teaching Certification, experimented with GenAI, made your courses more accessible, and shared your ideas and expertise with students and colleagues—all helping to make USC Upstate a more … Continue reading 5 Practices for Winter Well-Being