All events are open to Vanderbilt University faculty, staff, and students.
AdvancED Events
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September 2025-April 2026
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Baker 805
New Faculty Teaching Academy
The New Faculty Teaching Academy (NFTA) is a cross-disciplinary, cohort-based learning community designed to elevate resource sharing and build rich relationships around teaching for faculty in their early years at Vanderbilt. New faculty share experiences and explore resources around educational development in an encouraging, collegial atmosphere.
This program requires participants to submit applications. Deadline: August 29, 2025.
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August 13
Various Various
Teaching Assistant Orientation
Graduate students balance many roles: student, researcher, mentor—and, in many cases, working as a teaching assistant (TA).
TAO sessions offer: effective strategies for the varied teaching duties that TAs assume, information for on campus resources available to TAs and advice from a panel of experienced Vanderbilt TAs across a range of disciplines.
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August 14
2:30 PM - 5:00 PM Buttrick Hall
Teaching At Vanderbilt
“Teaching at Vanderbilt” (TAV) is AdvancED’s annual orientation for all new full-time and part-time faculty. The orientation is an opportunity for new faculty to meet each other and to learn how our team can support them throughout their Vanderbilt careers.
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August 15
Various Various
Teaching Assistant Faculty Orientation: Foundations for TA Onboarding, Management and Mentorship
The success of your TAs is essential to the success of your course! This one-hour interactive workshop will equip faculty members with key strategies for supervising teaching assistants. Participants will learn effective communication techniques, administrative best practices, and ways to create supportive relationships that empower TAs, ensuring a successful teaching experience for all involved.
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September - November
Various Baker 805
Academy of College Teaching
This 10-week program will integrate both theory and practical applications. This program aims to prepare participants for future careers in higher education teaching and is intended for Vanderbilt graduate students and postdocs whose goals are to become more effective educators and who wish to gain a clearer, deeper, more active approach to teaching and learning in higher education.
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August 18
12:00 – 1:00 PM Baker 805
Syllabus Tune-Up and Peer Review
Are you satisfied with your syllabus? Is your syllabus learner-centered? Do you think your syllabus is free from ambiguity? Does your syllabus include a generative AI policy? If the answer to any of these questions is no, or you're unsure, join us for this informal tune-up session. You’ll receive a menu of ideas for strengthening your syllabi in preparation for the upcoming fall semester — with space for reflection, peer feedback, and practical improvement.
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August 18
1:10 – 2:10 PM Baker 805
Navigating Difficult Conversations in the Classroom
Develop your skills for handling sensitive and challenging discussions with students in this essential workshop. Learn two key techniques for facilitating difficult conversations while fostering a safe and inclusive classroom atmosphere. Discover strategies to manage conflicts effectively and promote open, respectful communication among students, enhancing the overall classroom experience.
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August 18
2:20 – 3:20 PM Baker 805
Brightspace Gradebook How-To
Struggling with your Brightspace Gradebook setup? This hands-on session will walk you through the essential steps for organizing, configuring, and maintaining your course gradebook in Brightspace. Whether you're starting from scratch or refining your current setup, you'll leave with the confidence to ensure grades are calculated accurately and transparently. Bring your questions and your laptop for live support!
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August 18
3:30 – 4:30 PM Baker 805
Gen AI Can Do My Assignment—Now What?
Participants will enhance and reimagine a course assignment in light of available generative artificial intelligence tools. The workshop will combine limited presentations and exemplars of success with some work time and peer interaction, with the goal of each participant leaving the workshop with a road map for a remade assignment for teaching in the era of generative AI.
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August 19
12:00 – 1:00 PM Baker 805
First Day Strategies
Set the tone for a successful semester on Day One. In this practical session, participants will explore strategies to design engaging, inclusive, and purposeful first-day experiences that go beyond reading the syllabus. Learn how to spark curiosity, build classroom community, and establish expectations from the start. Whether you're teaching a large lecture or a small seminar, this session will help you transform your first class into a launchpad for student success.
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August 19
1:10 – 2:10 PM Baker 805
Using AI as a Learning Partner
This workshop will explore how university professors can harness the capabilities of generative AI models to enhance student learning and engagement in and out of the classroom. From using chatbots for personalized tutoring and feedback to facilitatinginnovative brainstorming sessions and discussions, attendees will leave with a toolkit of techniques to position generative AI as a collaborative learning partner — one that empowers students, sparks creativity, and fosters deeper understanding of course concepts.
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August 19
2:20 – 3:20 PM Baker 805
Active Learning in the Classroom
Looking to energize your teaching? This session will explore dynamic strategies for making your classroom more interactive and engaging. Participants will explore active learning techniques that go beyond simple participation, focusing on methods that deepen student understanding and promote higher-order thinking. Whether you're new to active learning or ready to push your practice further, this workshop offers adaptable tools for any course format.
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August 19
3:30 – 4:30 PM Baker 805
Inquiry-Based Learning
Empower your students to ask questions, explore ideas, and take ownership of their learning. This workshop introduces inquiry-based learning strategies that prioritize curiosity, problem-solving, and authentic engagement with course content. Participants will discuss models of inquiry-based instruction and explore how to implement these approaches in a wide range of disciplines. Expect to leave with ideas for fostering a culture of exploration and critical thinking.
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Various
12:15PM – 1:15PM Baker 805
Charting the Course – Empowering Students as Critical AI Navigators
This series creates a collaborative, cross-disciplinary space where faculty can explore effective strategies for preparing students to become thoughtful, ethical, and skilled users of generative AI. Participants will meet weekly or biweekly and brainstorm strategies for helping students navigate AI tools while maintaining the core values of academic integrity and information literacy. Through hands-on workshops, shared experiences, and guided discussion, participants will develop approaches to integrate AI meaningfully into student learning experiences across diverse disciplines.
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Various
12:15PM – 1:15PM Baker 805
Inquiry-Based Learning in STEM Disciplines
The Inquiry-Based Learning in STEM Faculty Learning Community (IBL-FLC) is a 5-10-week professional development opportunity designed to help STEM faculty transform their teaching through inquiry-based approaches. Participants will meet weekly or biweekly to engage in a supportive community environment to understand, experience, and implement evidence-based IBL strategies that enhance student learning, engagement, and critical thinking skills.
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Various
12:15PM – 1:15PM Baker 805
Humanities Pedagogy
Humanities instructors face many particular challenges, from motivating students to read and write to facing down existential threats to their profession. In this learning community, we’ll take a deep dive into the things that make a humanities classroom unique. We’llexamine a variety of recommended pedagogical practices and explore the ways in which these practices apply (or don’t!) in a humanities classroom.
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September 9
12:15 PM-1:45 PM Baker 805
Navigating Difficult Conversations in the Classroom: Strategies for Courageous Discussions
This workshop equips faculty with frameworks to foster open, respectful, and educationally productive discussions. Using real scenarios, participants will explore strategies for navigating identity, politics and tension in classroom dialogue. Participants will leave with actionable strategies to foster an inclusive classroom environment and effectively manage challenging conversations.
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September 8th-18th
Various Various
Open Classroom Series
Teaching in Action is a two-week AdvancED spotlight series that offers faculty and graduate students the chance to observe live teaching and participate in post-class conversations about pedagogy. From September 15 to 19, 2025, many faculty will open their classrooms to registered visitors, followed by a 30-minute dialogue facilitated by AdvancED staff. This small-scale, high-impact program aims to highlight four key teaching challenges and foster meaningful, cross-disciplinary exchange. Possible themes include Active Learning, Teaching Controversy, Teaching with GenAI, or Teaching in the Core.
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September 23
12:15 PM-1:45 PM Baker 805
Active Learning 2.0: Beyond the Basics for Deeper Student Engagement
This advanced session explores active learning strategies that promote higher-order thinking and authentic student engagement. Participants will apply advanced active learning structures to foster critical thinking, redesign a lecture or activity using an active learning framework and assess how these approaches enhance student participation and outcomes. Faculty will leave with actionable strategies to redesign learning experiences for deeper impact.
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October 22
12:15 PM-1:15 PM Baker 805
Leveraging AI as a Learning Partner: Tutoring, Brainstorming, and Critical Thinking Activities
Explore how faculty can harness generative AI models to support tutoring, feedback, and collaborative student learning. Attendees will identify high-impact opportunities for AI integration, design an activity to foster critical thinking and evaluate best practices for using AI ethically and effectively in the classroom. Faculty will leave equipped with practical strategies to integrate AI as a tool for enhanced student learning and engagement.
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Fall 2025
Varies
Instructional Technology Support Workshops
New workshops coming soon.