Academic

This session introduces key insights from the 2025 UCLA Senior Survey using interactive data dashboards. Learn how to interpret student responses to better understand their academic experiences and inform your teaching practices. Join us to explore trends and translate student feedback into meaningful improvements for your courses and programs. Presenter: Casey Shapiro, Director of Assessment of Student and Instructor Experience, TLC #student-experiences-of-teaching #data-informed-teaching Each academic quarter, the UCLA Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) hosts a weekly series of 10+10 Pop-Up sessions on Zoom. These brief, 10-minute presentations focus on specific topics related to course design, teaching, learning, and assessment, and are led by instructional designers and developers from TLC and campus partners. The “+10” refers to an optional 10-minute discussion following each presentation, where participants can ask questions and share insights. These sessions are open to all UCLA instructors—including faculty, lecturers, instructors of record, graduate student instructors, and postdoctoral scholars. Please direct any inquiries to instructorsupport@teaching.ucla.edu.

#GraduateProfessional #FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

What does it mean to feel stony? John Milton’s 1671 verse drama Samson Agonistes retells the last day of the biblical Judge Samson, as he moves from an initial feeling that his disabled body is a “Sepulcher, a moving grave” to his eventual toppling of the Temple of Dagon occasioned by a mysterious set of “rousing motions.” This talk by Shaun Nowicki, Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a recipient of the 2025-26 Kenneth Karmiole Graduate Research Fellowship at the UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, examines Milton’s deployment of the lithic as a structuring metaphor for understanding both Samson’s initial abjection and the eventual return of his strength. In doing so, the play both draws on emergent cultural understandings of disability as an abject category of being and offers a refutation of that paradigm by considering the potential vivacity of non-living things and the possibilities inherent in the alliances between the human and nonhuman world.

#Educational #Academic

This workshop introduces the genres of public speaking in academia, ranging from teaching lectures to conference papers to job talks. The workshop includes suggested strategies to improve your presentation skills.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

Please join us for the Summer Institute on Evidence-based Teaching information session, taking place in Powell Library room 186 and on Zoom. Please register to attend. The Summer Institute is an annual professional learning opportunity open to all UCLA instructors of record and will take place on campus from July 13-16. Applications are open through Friday, May 8. Please contact help@teaching.ucla.edu if you have any questions.

#FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

In this session, participants will explore how Gradescope supports efficient, consistent, and meaningful feedback- perfect for courses with limited grading resources and support. Rather than building assessments from scratch, this Practice & Play focuses on understanding the student submission experience and practicing grading workflows that scale. Participants will walk through the student submission process and then practice using Gradescope’s rubric tools and AI-assisted answer grouping to deliver timely, high-quality feedback while managing workload constraints. This session is designed for graduate students, TAs, and postdocs. All instructors are welcome to attend. What is Practice and Play with EdTech The Practice and Play with EdTech series offers instructors a hands-on opportunity to explore teaching tools and strategies with TLC staff. Each session begins with a brief overview of a tool followed by a guided exercise and time to explore and apply the tool to participants’ own course.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

The Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC) made significant strides towards establishing colonial control over the Indonesian islands in the seventeenth century. When the Company founded Batavia in 1619, the city became the administrative hub of an extensive mercantile network and served as its Asian headquarters. In this talk, Emma Gagnon, Ph.D. candidate in the History of Art and Architecture Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a recipient of the 2025-26 Kenneth Karmiole Graduate Research Fellowship at the UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, examines the images of Batavia in Johan Nieuhof’s (1618-1672) illustrated travelogues. Nieuhof spent years in and out of the colonial capital, and his accounts provide some of the earliest images of Batavia. This talk demonstrates how the city’s Dutch identity was defined not only by its built environment but also through the dissemination of these forms in the Dutch Republic’s print culture.

#Educational #Academic

Please join the TLC and Dr. Logan Juliano (UCLA Writing Programs) for a session about mindful play, a pedagogical intervention that combines active learning with improvisation, contemplative awareness, and reflection. Participants will have the opportunity to play and leave with strategies for classroom implementation. This session is open to all instructors, including faculty, TAs, and postdocs. Please contact instructorsupport@teaching.ucla.edu if you have any questions.

#GraduateProfessional #FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

The mindful writing retreat will integrate simple techniques from mindfulness to support the writing process and cultivate an approach to writing that fosters balance, self-care, and well-being. Please bring a current writing project because much of the retreat time will be allocated for writing. All sessions will be remotely conducted via Zoom.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

When creating digital content—especially materials for your Bruin Learn site—you have an opportunity to improve engagement and learning for all students, not just those using assistive technologies like screen readers. In this session, we’ll cover how to effectively use heading structures and write meaningful alternative text for images. We'll also discuss how GenAI can support (but not replace!) your workflow, with tips on reviewing AI-generated content for accuracy and bias. Presenter: Karen Sobelman, Associate Instructional Designer, Instructional Design and Media Production #digital-accessibility #supporting-all-learners #accessible-headers #alt-text #GenAI-assistance Each academic quarter, the UCLA Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) hosts a weekly series of 10+10 Pop-Up sessions on Zoom. These brief, 10-minute presentations focus on specific topics related to course design, teaching, learning, and assessment, and are led by instructional designers and developers from TLC and campus partners. The “+10” refers to an optional 10-minute discussion following each presentation, where participants can ask questions and share insights. These sessions are open to all UCLA instructors—including faculty, lecturers, instructors of record, graduate student instructors, and postdoctoral scholars. Please direct any inquiries to instructorsupport@teaching.ucla.edu.

#GraduateProfessional #FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

Where can your writing and research interests go beyond a field-specific journal article or academic conference presentation? Writing for non-academic publications offers graduate students the opportunity to flex their creative muscles and develop a broader audience for their work. This workshop will help orient students within the world of non-academic writing, providing guidance on where to publish, how to translate complex ideas for a general audience and strategies for writing a pitch letter to a non-academic publication.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

This workshop supports faculty and graduate student instructors in designing an AI policy for their course. Participants will discuss benefits and risks of GenAI use in education, before exploring their own perspectives from their disciplinary and instructional context. Finally, participants will work together to draft some guidelines for AI use in a course they may teach in the future. This workshop is designed for all instructors, including faculty and graduate students. Please contact instructorsupport@teaching.ucla.edu if you have any questions.

#GraduateProfessional #FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

Join the TLC’s new From PhD to Professor series—a professional development pathway designed to support doctoral students and postdocs in preparing to teach as lead instructors and pursue academic careers. Kick off the series with Course Design Fundamentals, where you’ll learn how to apply the backward design approach to create an impactful course and adapt your plans for different teaching contexts—both at UCLA and beyond. From PhD to Professor is designed for doctoral students and postdocs, though master’s and professional students are also welcome to participate.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

This workshop series will prepare instructors to rethink the design of their assignments and learning goals in light of AI’s impact. In this workshop, participants will reflect on their professional and instructional values, using the Live Your Values card deck to consider ethical AI use in their disciplines. Participants will then revise an existing assignment that can support students in developing their own values and revise their learning objectives to foster students’ caring, curiosity, and community. This event will be preceded by a coffee hour, starting at 10 a.m. Attendees are encouraged to bring an existing assignment to use as part of an activity.

#FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

The mindful writing retreat will integrate simple techniques from mindfulness to support the writing process and cultivate an approach to writing that fosters balance, self-care, and well-being. Please bring a current writing project because much of the retreat time will be allocated for writing. All sessions will be remotely conducted via Zoom.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

Need to ease your grading load in a large course? Join us to explore techniques for delivering feedback efficiently and effectively at scale while still providing students with encouragement and direction to meet their goals. Presenter: Ava Arndt, Program Director for Innovation in Online and Accessible Pedagogy, Graduate Student Professional Development with Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Scholar Engagement #effective-efficient-grading #large-enrollment #timely-feedback #support-student-learning Each academic quarter, the UCLA Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) hosts a weekly series of 10+10 Pop-Up sessions on Zoom. These brief, 10-minute presentations focus on specific topics related to course design, teaching, learning, and assessment, and are led by instructional designers and developers from TLC and campus partners. The “+10” refers to an optional 10-minute discussion following each presentation, where participants can ask questions and share insights. These sessions are open to all UCLA instructors—including faculty, lecturers, instructors of record, graduate student instructors, and postdoctoral scholars. Please direct any inquiries to instructorsupport@teaching.ucla.edu.

#GraduateProfessional #FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

This workshop will describe literature reviews across multiple contexts and genres. The workshop will also cover strategies and best practices for note-taking, preparatory steps, writing process issues, and organization.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

Join the TLC’s new From PhD to Professor series—a professional development pathway designed to support doctoral students and postdocs in preparing to teach as lead instructors and pursue academic careers. The second session in this series, Build Your Own Syllabus, will explore how to plan student workload, pace assignments, and communicate course policies in ways that reflect your teaching values and support student success. From PhD to Professor is designed for doctoral students and postdocs, though master’s and professional students are also welcome to participate.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

This workshop will cover strategies for writing longer literature reviews for theses, dissertations, proposals, and review papers. The workshop will also address organizational approaches and writing process issues.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

In the 2025-26 Core Program conference, historians of the Ottoman, Qing, and Mughal empires revisit the problem of comparison by considering synchronicities and structural parallels across Asia. The third conference, "Empires of Things," looks at Society, Materiality, and Knowledge. In what new ways did merchants trade, how did artisans and craftsmen organize themselves, how did guilds transform, how did the pious communicate with each other, how did common subjects live, how did spatial imaginaries change? Organized by Professors Choon Hwee Koh & Meng Zhang (History, UCLA) and Abhishek Kaicker (History, UC Berkeley).

#Educational #Academic

This Zoom workshop supports faculty and graduate student instructors in designing an AI policy for their course. Participants will discuss benefits and risks of GenAI use in education, before exploring their own perspectives from their disciplinary and instructional context. Finally, participants will work together to draft some guidelines for AI use in a course they may teach in the future. This workshop is designed for all instructors, including faculty and graduate students. Please contact instructorsupport@teaching.ucla.edu if you have any questions.

#GraduateProfessional #FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

In this session, explore practical strategies for improving AI prompts to generate higher-quality classroom assessments. We’ll share a structured approach to prompt design, highlight common pitfalls, and offer tips and tricks to produce sensible assessment items. Presenter: Kevin Chan, Associate Instructional Designer, Instructional Design and Media Production #practical-strategies #improving-ai-prompt-design #generate-classroom-assessment Each academic quarter, the UCLA Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) hosts a weekly series of 10+10 Pop-Up sessions on Zoom. These brief, 10-minute presentations focus on specific topics related to course design, teaching, learning, and assessment, and are led by instructional designers and developers from TLC and campus partners. The “+10” refers to an optional 10-minute discussion following each presentation, where participants can ask questions and share insights. These sessions are open to all UCLA instructors—including faculty, lecturers, instructors of record, graduate student instructors, and postdoctoral scholars. Please direct any inquiries to instructorsupport@teaching.ucla.edu.

#GraduateProfessional #FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

The learners, technologies, and policies educators must consider in a post-pandemic setting may seem overwhelming, while also offering instructors new opportunities to review, reflect, and restock their pedagogical toolkit. In this workshop, we will present key findings on the post-COVID students in higher education. Using these data, participants will discuss case studies and consider a range of practical, evidence-based practices to engage learners. Topics will include digital accessibility (including current requirements) and University Design for Learning.

#FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

This workshop will provide guidance on preparing a competitive application for the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans (https://www.pdsoros.org/), which provides up to $90K in support for graduate students from migrant backgrounds. Specifically, this workshop will focus on writing strategies for telling your New American story in a compelling, creative, and empowering way. We will brainstorm and begin drafting application components during the session. Although the application is not due until October 2026, we recommend getting started on your application essays well in advance, to allow for multiple drafts and revision.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

Spark Student Engagement! This 30-minute interactive session invites participants to step into the role of learners by engaging in authentic classroom activities and exercises that model these approaches in practice. Together, participants will explore why these strategies matter and how they can be adapted for use even in low-tech, fixed-seat classrooms. The session highlights practical approaches instructors can apply immediately in their own teaching contexts. Join in-person

#FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

Short-form video is a flexible tool for explaining key concepts, prompting reflection, and engaging students through familiar media. This session will explore pedagogically grounded use cases, showcase examples aligned with common learning goals, and demo simple, accessible workflows for creating and integrating short-form video into your courses. No prior video production experience required. Presenter: Tyler Compton, Multimedia Designer, Instructional Design and Media Production #short-form-video #enhancing-student-engagement #flexible-tool #multimodal-learning Each academic quarter, the UCLA Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) hosts a weekly series of 10+10 Pop-Up sessions on Zoom. These brief, 10-minute presentations focus on specific topics related to course design, teaching, learning, and assessment, and are led by instructional designers and developers from TLC and campus partners. The “+10” refers to an optional 10-minute discussion following each presentation, where participants can ask questions and share insights. These sessions are open to all UCLA instructors—including faculty, lecturers, instructors of record, graduate student instructors, and postdoctoral scholars. Please direct any inquiries to instructorsupport@teaching.ucla.edu.

#GraduateProfessional #FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

Meet the TLC’s Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Scholar Engagement (GSPSE) team at the Graduate Student Resource Center (GSRC)! Enjoy coffee and snacks while supplies last and chat with us about all of your TA training and other teaching-related professional development questions.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

This workshop will cover the application process and required components of an NIH NRSA application. We will discuss preparation, documents required, and writing strategies for the F31, but the F30 and F32 are very similar. We will also address how to find appropriate materials/resources for a complete application.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

This co-working peer review session will cover syllabus design best practices. Participants will look at example syllabi, consider best practices for student-centered, inclusive, and digitally accessible design, and peer review each other’s materials. Light refreshments will be served. This session is open to all instructors, including faculty, TAs, and postdocs. Please contact instructorsupport@teaching.ucla.edu if you have any questions.

#GraduateProfessional #FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

This workshop will give an overview of the dissertation requirement in terms of structure, process, and role in one's career trajectory. The workshop will address the dissertation from multiple angles to deepen attendees' understanding of decisions and choices around the planning and execution of the dissertation.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

Please join us for a foundational workshop on how to give effective feedback to students. Whether you’re leading a large lecture course or a small discussion section, this session will prepare you with equity-minded practices to support students in developing a growth-mindset and feedback literacy, as well as foster a classroom culture where feedback is valued. This Zoom session is open to all instructors, including faculty, TAs, and postdocs. Please contact instructorsupport@teaching.ucla.edu if you have any questions.

#GraduateProfessional #FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

The mindful writing retreat will integrate simple techniques from mindfulness to support the writing process and cultivate an approach to writing that fosters balance, self-care, and well-being. Please bring a current writing project because much of the retreat time will be allocated for writing. All sessions will be remotely conducted via Zoom.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

In this session, participants will explore how modernized classroom spaces can engage students and support meaningful active learning. Through guided practice and reflection, attendees will examine how flexible classroom layouts and integrated technologies support pedagogical goals. Participants will engage in hands-on experiences designed to foster collaboration, deepen content processing, increase student engagement, and promote inclusive participation. Attendees will leave with practical ideas for creating dynamic, student-centered learning environments in their own courses. This session is designed for graduate students, TAs, and postdocs. All instructors are welcome to attend. What is Practice and Play with EdTech The Practice and Play with EdTech series offers instructors a hands-on opportunity to explore teaching tools and strategies with TLC staff. Each session begins with a brief overview of a tool followed by a guided exercise and time to explore and apply the tool to participants’ own course

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

This workshop gives an overview of organization, time management, writing process issues and writing strategies. Recommended for people in the early stages of the dissertation, but useful for all stages.

#GraduateProfessional #Educational #Academic

The Bruin Underground Scholars (BUS) End of Year Celebration is a gathering to honor and celebrate the accomplishments, resilience, and leadership of formerly incarcerated and system-impacted scholars at UCLA. This event brings together students, campus partners, families, and community members to recognize the journeys and achievements of our scholars throughout the academic year.

#Educational #Academic

A central figure in the literary and cultural spheres of the late nineteenth century, Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was also the originator of Irish modernism. Still, literary scholarship has largely sidelined his powerful influence over this movement. Regarded by his contemporaries as an outstanding artist, critic, and public intellectual until his imprisonment in 1895, current research on Wilde tends to confine his leading presence within the late Victorian aesthetic and decadent movements. By highlighting this overlooked aspect of Wilde’s legacy, “Oscar Wilde’s Modernist Legacies” will raise critical and theoretical awareness of his influence over modernist innovation not only within the field of literary production but also in related artistic areas in Ireland and beyond.

#Educational #Academic

This session introduces adaptive equity-oriented pedagogy (AEP). AEP adapts evidence-based practices (e.g., grading for equity, AI, formative assessments, UDL) to address barriers to student learning. Research studies show that, compared to active learning courses, instructors applying AEP increase average achievement by over a letter grade for all students. AEP also supports positive psychosocial outcomes (e.g., motivation, sense of self-efficacy, sense of community) across disciplines and college contexts. This session highlights strategies that instructors have used to adjust teaching, address equity barriers to learning, and increase achievement in over a dozen courses. It also shares findings on how AEP-Al supported greater student engagement and success across college courses. Presenter Bio: Andrew Estrada Phuong is an assistant professor in the Department of Education Studies at UC San Diego. He earned a master’s degree from Harvard and a PhD from UC Berkeley. His research examines how adaptive equity-oriented pedagogies (AEP), artificial intelligence, and professional development improve student achievement and positive psychosocial outcomes such as motivation, sense of self-efficacy, belonging, and reduced stereotype threat. In over a dozen STEM courses in Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, and Statistics, his work has demonstrated that AEP-based professional development increased instructors’ equitable teaching competencies. Instructors have leveraged these competencies to improve their students’ success at scale. He has taught STEM pedagogy courses and co-developed award-winning, campus-wide programs that supported instructors, staff, and managers in using AEP to improve learner success at scale. His work has been recognized with the Teaching Effectiveness Award, the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Team Award, the 2024 Robert J. Menges New Researcher Award from the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Faculty Teaching, Evaluation, and Development SIG, and the POD Network’s 2025 Robert J. Menges Award. His work was featured in Times Higher Education, and UC San Diego Today called him “The Teaching Transformer.”

#GraduateProfessional #FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic

The UCLA Teaching and Learning Center’s inaugural symposium will provide a forum for dialogue on the impact of emerging technologies. Presenters and participants will thoughtfully address AI’s evolving role in teaching and learning from a variety of perspectives, and live demonstrations will showcase various tools for responsibly integrating AI into courses. The symposium will include: Keynote Address by Terence Tao Terence Tao, professor and the James and Carol Collins Chair in the UCLA College of Letters and Sciences, will examine the implications of AI in higher education. Learn more about the keynote speaker. Panel Discussion A group of faculty experts will illuminate the implications of AI’s presence in higher education. Concurrent Sessions Flash talks and roundtables will showcase examples of how instructors have developed and integrated AI tools. Technology Exposition and Social Hour Hands-on demonstrations to explore AI tools for teaching and learning.

#GraduateProfessional #FacultyStaff #Educational #Academic