Lisa Aikman, Educational Developer, Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars Centre for Teaching and Learning, UTSC Alli Diskin, Programs Coordinator, Teaching Assistants' Training Program, CTSI Andrea Graham, Graduate Programs Team Lead, Centre for Learning Strategy Support, Student Life Joel Rodgers, Coordinator, Graduate Student Professional Development, FAS Finding the Frequency: Clarity, Purpose, and What Matters Most     Graduate student professional development is central to shaping thoughtful, confident, and well supported emerging scholars and professionals. Across the university, however, faculty and staff rarely have opportunities to reflect together on how departmental cultures, supervisory relationships, and institutional structures influence graduate students’ growth in their academic [...]

Jasjit Sangha, Educational Developer, Centre for Teaching and Learning, UTSC Paulina Rousseau, Liaison Librarian, UTSC Kathleen Scheaffer, Strategic Initiatives and Liaison Librarian, UTM             Amplifying the Signal: Connection, Engagement, and Civil Discourse           Increasingly, higher education within Canada is facing shrinking resources and simultaneously educators are being challenged to engage larger class sizes with more diverse and complex needs, including the disruptions from AI. In response, the book “Hope Circuits”, Ridell (2024) invites us to reimagine the university to create campuses that are more inclusive, more human centered, less hierarchical, and more responsive to [...]

Moderator: Cristina D'Amico, Educational Developer, Graduate Student Development & TA Training, CTSI Panelists:  Moaz Shoura, TATP Course Instructor Coordinator, Department of Psychology, UTSC Luke Volk, Department of Mathematics, FAS Carlie Manners, Department of History, FAS Donald McCarthy, Department of Classics, FAS In this roundtable session, we will engage in conversation with graduate student course instructors at the University of Toronto’s and hear their approach to teaching challenges and building learning communities. Panelists include the Course Instructor Coordinator at the Teaching Assistants’ Training Program (TATP) and shortlisted candidates for the Course Instructor Teaching Excellence Award (https://tatp.utoronto.ca/awards/ci-award/), which is given annually by the [...]

4.3.1 AmplifyingSupport: A Low-Stakes Infographic Activity to Help Students Navigate SocialSupports and Connect Emotional Topics to Community Resources Odilia Yim, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Psychology, FAS Amplifying the Signal: Connection, Engagement, and Civil Discourse In undergraduate courses that address sensitive and emotionally-charged interpersonal topics, students often struggle to distinguish the core learning “signal” from the emotional and cognitive “noise” these themes can evoke. This session shares insights from implementing a new low-stakes “Community Resources Infographic” activity designed to help students translate abstract course concepts into real, actionable forms of support. In the activity, students in an upper-level undergraduate course select a [...]

The university's AI Task Force report (Toward an AI-Ready University (https://ai.utoronto.ca/u-of-t-ai-task-force/report)) called for a proactive approach to AI adoption: one that prioritizes literacy, ethical use, and accessible, human-centred tools. The AI Kitchen (AIK) is a core recommendation for delivering on that vision, providing the ingredients, appliances, and guidance for faculty, staff, and librarians who choose to bring AI into their work.  In this session, members of the AIK team will share what they're learning as they build out these supports, including where the clearest needs are emerging. There will be time for conversation and questions, so come ready to surface your [...]

Safieh Moghaddam, Associate Professor, Language Studies, Centre for Teaching and Learning Dina Soliman, Educational Developer, Digital Pedagogies                                                     Filtering the Noise: Tools, Trends, and Tensions         Generative AI can introduce “noise” into assessment: polished text that masks learning, unclear authorship, overconfident claims supported by weak or fabricated evidence, and tasks that inadvertently reward fluency over intended learning outcomes. This interactive workshop supports instructors in redesigning one existing assignment so the “signal” (reasoning, evidence use, and [...]

Nicole Birch-Bayley, Educational Developer, Career Exploration & Education                     Kelci Archibald, Lead Coordinator, Career Education, Career Exploration & Education                Amplifying the Signal: Connection, Engagement, and Civil Discourse     Postsecondary students are asked to make sense of both their academic learning and career futures in environments saturated with competing priorities. In career education, noise often takes the form of grim labour‑market statistics, anxieties about AI, climate change, and skills gaps, and prescriptive narratives emphasizing outcomes over process. Academic learning is similarly noisy with performance pressures, unclear expectations, [...]

Chris Eaton, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Institute for Scholarship in University Pedagogy (ISUP), UTM                                                   Claire Gouveia, PhD candidate, OISE Sheliza Ibrahim, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, ISUP, UTM Kathleen Scheaffer, Librarian, UTM Joanna Szurmak, Librarian, UTM Michelle Troberg, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, DLS, UTM Finding the Frequency: Clarity, Purpose, and What Matters Most    As learners, we have experienced moments in which we tuned into a previously difficult concept as it resolved into a clear and resonant signal. [...]

5.4.1 Back to the 90s: Investigating Engagement, Interaction, and Thinking in a Screenless First-Year Writing Class Mustafa Siddiqui, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy, UTM Ryan Shuvera, Sessional Lecturer, Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy, UTM Sustaining Resonance: Lessons, Insights, and Impact Earlier this term, I conducted a first-year writing class a bit differently—I went screenless. The two sections I taught for three hours each did not use any technology. This meant there were no slides, no laptops, and no phones, and I called it a “Back-to-the-90s Class.” As an instructor, I relied on handouts, [...]

5.5.1 Beyond the Literature Review: Modernizing Scientific Writing Assignments Naijin Li, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Human Biology Program, FAS Sustaining Resonance: Lessons, Insights, and Impact This session showcases a novel scientific manuscript assignment that has been developed for an advanced undergraduate neuroscience course. The assignment replaces traditional literature reviews with an authentic simulation of the research process whereby students formulate a focused neurobiological question, design an experimental pipeline, analyze three provided datasets based on core neuroscience methodologies, and communicate their findings in a professional manuscript format. Students also complete structured peer reviews that mirror scholarly publishing practices. Since the assignment requires [...]

Facilitator: Jordan Holmes, Senior Manager, Teaching, Learning, and Technology, CTSI Research shows that generative AI tool design matters for learning. The OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026 (https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/oecd-digital-education-outlook-2026_062a7394-en.html) finds that AI tools with clear educational guardrails may support learning outcomes, while unstructured use of AI risks becoming a shortcut that may hamper genuine learning gains.   Through Cogniti, U of T is giving instructors control over how AI is used for learning. Cogniti is an AI platform embedded directly in Quercus — no separate accounts required — that lets you shape AI interactions around your course content, your learning objectives, and your pedagogical [...]