SUNY FACT2 Campus Representatives Update, Spring 2025
Updates and SUNY faculty development opportunities from FACT2 Campus Representatives.
Dear faculty - we’d like to share some upcoming faculty development opportunities with you.
SUNY AI Tutor Project: Campus Survey
Email from Kim Scalzo, Interim Senior Associate Provost for Digital Innovation and Academic Services:
The Faculty Advisory Council and Teaching and Technology (FACT2) Task Group on Generative AI in Action is exploring the use of AI tutoring platforms to enhance student learning and support faculty instruction. In doing so, the Task Group is conducting a survey to campuses in order to capture examples of current faculty who are already exploring AI tutoring solutions for their courses, features faculty and staff would like to see in a SUNY AI tutor, and where faculty would be interested in using AI tutor support for their classes.
Please share this SUNY AI Tutor Project Campus Survey with your faculty and instructional support staff. The survey will remain open through the end of the semester, but we would like to capture as many responses as possible before April 4th so that the Task group can get some understanding of current activities on our campuses before the end of the semester.
If you have questions on the survey, please reach out to Keith Landa (keith.landa@suny.edu) or Kim Scalzo (kim.scalzo@suny.edu).
New Lumen Circle: Evidence-based Teaching with Generative AI
A new professional development offering focused on using AI is now available from Lumen Circles! This new offering is an opportunity for instructors to reflect on and get feedback from peers on their teaching while they teach. The first Evidence-based Teaching with Generative AI fellowship starts on May 29, 2024, and is available at NO COST to SUNY faculty.
Enroll now and learn to leverage the potential of AI technology to create highly effective learning experiences for your students.
Learn more about the Evidence-based Teaching with Generative AI Lumen Circle and sign up for Circles at the SUNY Application Form: Lumen Circles Programs.
SUNY Academic Innovation Grants Program
SUNY has shared the timeline and process for the 2025 Academic Innovation Grants, which combines resources allocated to the Innovative Instruction Technology Grants (IITG) and Open Educational Resources (OER) Impact grant programs.
This year’s process builds on the success of last year’s two stage proposal process, which resulted in more multi-campus grants and a wider distribution of grants across all campus sectors. Faculty and staff are encouraged to connect beyond departmental and campus boundaries to pilot, share, and scale-up transformative teaching and learning practices. SUNY is specifically seeking grants that support one or more of the Chancellor’s four pillars as well as our shared commitment for leading sustainable, impactful innovations that return value by multiple measures. Like last year, priority will also be given to proposals that focus on:
- optimizing artificial intelligence (AI) for teaching and learning, and/or
- expanding support for the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER).
Please visit the SUNY Academic Innovation Grants Programs website for full details.
SUNY Online Summit, Syracuse, NY (February 26 – 28, 2025)
The SUNY Online Summit is the annual conference that brings together SUNY online practitioners with expertise in online program administration, online faculty development/instructional design, online instruction, online support, etc. Anyone, including Friends of SUNY, are welcome!
The event will be both a face-to face event in Syracuse, NY with a registration fee, and delivered virtually and free of charge for anyone interested in online teaching and learning, including SUNY Online online practitioners with expertise in online program administration, online faculty development/ instructional design, online instruction, online student support, etc. Friends of SUNY are also welcome!
Registration for the SUNY Online Summit is open now!
Spring 2025 SUNY Online Teaching Webinars (March 26 – April 23, 2025)
Zoom for all webinars: https://zoom.us/j/634598796
All webinars are held 12:00-1:00PM EST
March 26, 2025 - Leveraging Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Microsoft, launched in 2023, and based on the GPT-4 series of large language models. Copilot’s conversational interface style resembles that of ChatGPT and is able to cite sources, create poems, generate songs, and use numerous languages and dialects. This webinar will explore Copilot and discuss use cases in online teaching and learning.
Presenter: Alexandra Pickett, Director, SUNY Online Teaching
April 17, 2025 - AI Assignments for Students: Examples from a Community of Practice
The Faculty Center for Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship at SUNY Oneonta convened a community of practice inviting faculty from across campus to share approaches, tools, and materials related to AI in the classroom. The group met monthly to workshop assignments, troubleshoot challenges, and explore new pedagogies engaging with AI from a range of perspectives. These interdisciplinary discussions enabled faculty to adopt new technologies for use in their individual courses, draft and refine new curricular activities, and articulate values informed by diverse (and sometimes opposing) voices. In this panel presentation, group members will talk about their experiences and share materials developed out of their own engagements with AI tools for teaching and learning.
Presenter: Racheal Fest, Gina Solano, Liyao Pan, Wen Wen - SUNY Oneonta
April 23, 2025 - Introduction to COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning)
Established in 2004, the COIL Center seeks to ensure that all students have access to educational opportunities that allow them to engage with other people and perspectives, develop greater understanding of differences, and build important 21st century skills, such as teamwork, reflection, and communication. COIL methodology was developed to bring these opportunities into the classroom by connecting students and professors with their peers around the world for collaborative online work, thereby ensuring that all students have equitable access to global learning.
Learn more about COIL, COIL courses and resources, as well as the collaboration to expand OSCQR standards to enhance and ensure quality in COIL courses.
Presenters: Hope Windle, Director, SUNY COIL Center; Alexandra Pickett, Director, SUNY Online Teaching; COIL members panel
SUNY DEISJ Curriculum Development Certificate Program (Spring & Summer 2025)
The purpose of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice (DEISJ) Curriculum Development Certificate program is to help faculty and others involved in teaching SUNY General Education learn the knowledge and skills necessary to create course content that meets the SUNY DEISJ Gen Ed student learning outcomes. A group of SUNY DEISJ faculty fellows and SUNY staff developed the program framework. All courses are six-weeks, asynchronous online via Brightspace, and take 2-4 hours each week to complete. The courses are interactive with instructor feedback to participants and capped at 20 registrants. Please contact TLTC@purchase.edu if you’re interested in participating in the program.
SUNY Digital Learning Conference 2025, Binghamton University (March 12 – 13, 2025)
Public humanities reaches beyond classroom and academic walls by encouraging the creation of accessible and open scholarship, projects and resources that engage a community audience. Teaching students in public humanities classes, or creating public humanities work, requires access to and knowledge of tools and methods to create and share scholarship for the public eye including web design, oral history, digital storytelling and more.
For this open, two-day SUNY Digital Learning Conference, we invite faculty, technologists, librarians, teaching and learning support specialists, and students to engage in discussions and workshops focused on tools and methods essential for effective public humanities work. This conference offers a platform for educators and practitioners to share their experiences and collaborate on projects that resonate with and engage diverse community audiences.
Registration for the SUNY Digital Learning Conference 2025 is open now until March 5 at 11:59pm.
SUNY CIT 2025 - Human-Centered Learning: Tensions, Innovations, and Inclusion in the Future of Education (SUNY Oneonta, May 20 – 23, 2025)
CIT 2025: Human-Centered Learning: Tensions, Innovations, and Inclusion in the Future of Education will explore the evolving landscape of education by focusing on the balance between emerging innovations in education technologies and the human aspects of teaching and learning to maximize student learning outcomes.
Registration for CIT 2025 is now open.
Thanks for your time and attention. We will provide additional updates as needed. Wishing you a successful spring semester.
Marie Sciangula & Kim Detterbeck, Your SUNY FACT2 Campus Representatives