Teaching and Learning Center

The UCLA Teaching and Learning Center’s (TLC) Instructional Design and Media Production team will host the GenAI Tools Workshop Series to support instructors interested in thoughtfully exploring how to use Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to further enhance their teaching. Participants will build AI literacy, explore classroom integration strategies, and design meaningful learning activities that promote critical thinking and student engagement in the AI era. The first workshop in the series will explore how Google NotebookLM, an AI-powered notebook designed to help users organize, synthesize, and generate insights, can be used to support their class learning goals. During the workshop, we will explore and discuss -What is Google NotebookLM? -How to use it as a learning tool? -Writing tips for GenAI prompts -Sample uses of Google NotebookLM in an educational setting -Academic integrity considerations when introducing GenAI into a classroom By this end of this workshop, participants will be able to -Describe the core features and functions of Google NotebookLM and explain how it differs from other generative AI tools. -Demonstrate how to use NotebookLM to organize, summarize, and synthesize learning materials or course readings. -Apply effective prompt-writing strategies to guide AI toward producing relevant, accurate, and pedagogically useful responses. -Analyze sample educational scenarios that illustrate how NotebookLM can support student learning and critical thinking. -Evaluate issues of academic integrity, bias, and ethical use when integrating generative AI tools like NotebookLM into teaching and learning contexts. Instructors who complete all three workshops in the series will be eligible to receive $500 in seed funds for AI tool licensing and further experimentation with AI in teaching and learning.

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Cassidy Alvarado, Program Manager of Student Experience Initiatives. Instructors, Teaching Assistants, and Evaluation Coordinators can get support navigating Blue (UCLA’s course feedback platform), accessing reports, and more. Instructors and Teaching Assistants Mondays: 3–4 p.m. Fridays: Noon–1 p.m. Evaluation Coordinators and Department Staff Tuesdays: 2–3 p.m. Fridays: 9–10 a.m.

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Beginning Winter 2026, Student Experiences of Teaching (SET) will offer virtual drop-in hours with Cassidy Alvarado, Program Manager of Student Experience Initiatives. Instructors, Teaching Assistants, and Evaluation Coordinators can get support navigating Blue (UCLA’s course feedback platform), accessing reports, and more. Instructors and Teaching Assistants Mondays: 3–4 p.m. Fridays: Noon–1 p.m. Evaluation Coordinators and Department Staff Tuesdays: 2–3 p.m. Fridays: 9–10 a.m.

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Beginning Winter 2026, Student Experiences of Teaching (SET) will offer virtual drop-in hours with Cassidy Alvarado, Program Manager of Student Experience Initiatives. Instructors, Teaching Assistants, and Evaluation Coordinators can get support navigating Blue (UCLA’s course feedback platform), accessing reports, and more. Instructors and Teaching Assistants Mondays: 3–4 p.m. Fridays: Noon–1 p.m. Evaluation Coordinators and Department Staff Tuesdays: 2–3 p.m. Fridays: 9–10 a.m.

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Choosing the right AI tool can be a real challenge. This short presentation provides a practical framework, using the Diffusion of Innovation model, to help you choose the best tools. We will explore the five key attributes, which are relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, trialability, and observability. The discussion will support you to confidently select GenAI solutions that enhance teaching and learning. Presenter: Sirui Wang, Senior Instructional Designer with Instructional Design and Media Production #GenAI #pick-your-innovation #diffusion-of-innovation #enhancing-teaching-and-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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Beginning Winter 2026, Student Experiences of Teaching (SET) will offer virtual drop-in hours with Cassidy Alvarado, Program Manager of Student Experience Initiatives. Instructors, Teaching Assistants, and Evaluation Coordinators can get support navigating Blue (UCLA’s course feedback platform), accessing reports, and more. Instructors and Teaching Assistants Mondays: 3–4 p.m. Fridays: Noon–1 p.m. Evaluation Coordinators and Department Staff Tuesdays: 2–3 p.m. Fridays: 9–10 a.m.

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As generative AI usage expands across academic settings, educators must decide when AI outputs can be trusted - and when they require verification. This 30-minute Zoom workshop introduces a “Trust, but Verify” framework that centers human judgment in working with AI-generated content. Through guided examples and discussion, participants will build shared language and critical awareness around evaluating AI outputs and exercising informed human oversight. Please contact idmp@teaching.ucla.edu if you have any questions.

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Beginning Winter 2026, Student Experiences of Teaching (SET) will offer virtual drop-in hours with Cassidy Alvarado, Program Manager of Student Experience Initiatives. Instructors, Teaching Assistants, and Evaluation Coordinators can get support navigating Blue (UCLA’s course feedback platform), accessing reports, and more. Instructors and Teaching Assistants Mondays: 3–4 p.m. Fridays: Noon–1 p.m. Evaluation Coordinators and Department Staff Tuesdays: 2–3 p.m. Fridays: 9–10 a.m.

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Offered through the Teaching and Learning Center’s Instructor Wellbeing Initiative in collaboration with the Postdoctoral Association and award-winning mental health speaker and advocate, Ross Szabo. This interactive, in-person professional development workshop provides a practical and straight forward approach to help postdocs address common mental health challenges that can show up in classes, mentoring relationships, and office hours. The first portion lays out a common language for mental health that offers a baseline to navigate these issues, as well as how to frame mental health from a health education perspective. The second part of this session offers guidelines for if participants choose to incorporate their personal stories about mental health into interactions with mentees and students to help do so in ways that protect the boundaries of all parties and reinforce learning objectives. Lunch will be provided.

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Beginning Winter 2026, Student Experiences of Teaching (SET) will offer virtual drop-in hours with Cassidy Alvarado, Program Manager of Student Experience Initiatives. Instructors, Teaching Assistants, and Evaluation Coordinators can get support navigating Blue (UCLA’s course feedback platform), accessing reports, and more. Instructors and Teaching Assistants Mondays: 3–4 p.m. Fridays: Noon–1 p.m. Evaluation Coordinators and Department Staff Tuesdays: 2–3 p.m. Fridays: 9–10 a.m.

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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. In this session, participants will explore how to leverage AI to support aspects of their teaching workflow — from brainstorming lesson plans to drafting assessments or developing grading strategies. Participants will experiment with Google Gemini and practice crafting prompts to support their courses. The session will also include time to critically assess AI-generated responses for accuracy, relevance, and bias. This session is designed for graduate students, TAs, and postdocs. All instructors are welcome to attend.

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Are you looking to refresh, rewrite, or rethink your syllabus? Are you designing a new course, and want to learn about best practices for syllabus design? Join the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) for a co-working and peer review session during which you will look at example syllabi; consider backward design principles for syllabus design; explore strategies to foster belonging in your syllabus; and, finally, create a digitally accessible syllabus. This session is open to all instructors, including TAs and postdocs.

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Don't miss the next topic in the Teaching and Learning Center's GenAI Workshop Series. During this In-Person workshop, we will explore and discuss: -The role of AI-supported knowledge construction in enhancing student engagement and deeper learning. -How Google NotebookLM can be used to curate, organize, and connect course materials into interactive knowledge bases. -Strategies for involving students in co-creating and expanding shared AI-assisted notebooks as part of their learning process. -Examples of how NotebookLM can support collaborative inquiry, reflection, and critical discussion in academic settings. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: -Explain how creating shared or individual knowledge bases in Google NotebookLM can enhance student engagement and active learning. -Demonstrate how to organize readings, notes, and resources in NotebookLM to scaffold knowledge building across a course or project. -Design learning activities that engage students in analyzing, connecting, and synthesizing information using NotebookLM. -Integrate NotebookLM into classroom or online environments to promote collaborative inquiry and reflective dialogue. -Evaluate ethical and pedagogical considerations when using AI-generated insights in shared student learning spaces.

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Join the TLC for TA and postdoc drop-in hours, social grading edition! Work through end-of-quarter grading while enjoying refreshments and building community with your fellow TAs. TLC staff members from the Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Scholar Engagement (GSPSE) team will also be available to support you.

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This 30-minute interactive session explores why specific, criteria-aligned feedback supports learner motivation and improvement, and highlights practical strategies for delivering high-quality feedback efficiently at scale. Through guided reflection and discussion, participants will consider evidence-based feedback principles before viewing a brief demonstration of scalable grading practices in Gradescope, including rubric-based grading and AI-assisted answer grouping. This session may be especially useful for instructors teaching large classes or courses with limited grading support.

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In this workshop, you will reflect on essential professional competencies in your discipline in relation to how AI may or may not be used in students’ future workplaces. You will then revise one of your course assignments to develop an AI-informed set of goals and assignment rubric targeting the development of career-ready skills.

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This 30-minute interactive Zoom session explores why specific, criteria-aligned feedback supports learner motivation and improvement, and highlights practical strategies for delivering high-quality feedback efficiently at scale.

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