Teaching and Learning Center

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.”

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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.

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