**ONLINE** Enriching the Design of General Education - April 2026
Friday, April 3, 2026 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM
The Enriching the Design of General Education (EDGE) initiative supports excellence in general education teaching by fostering a thriving and supportive community of practice among faculty and emphasizing the unique philosophy and practices that define general education courses. This online brown-bag event will be informal - feel free to bring your lunch!
K-12 education has changed significantly, and our incoming students have different expectations based on their experiences prior to NIU. Join us to hear from a panel of K-12 educators and administrators to better understand our students and help them successfully transition from high school to NIU.
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**ONLINE** Building Successful Assignments in Perusall: Grouping, Setup & Scoring
Friday, April 3, 2026 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Want to turn your Perusall assignments into real conversations? Join us for our Perusall Pulse Community panel bringing together real educators from UC Irvine, Oregon State University, and Montclair State University to share practical strategies for setting up advanced assignment types, building effective student groups, and configuring scoring templates that drive meaningful engagement and deeper student learning.
- Discover advanced assignment types and how to use them effectively
- Learn how other instructors structure their student groups to spark meaningful conversations
- Get practical guidance on setting up scoring templates that set students up for success
Can't join live? Register anyway and we'll send you the recording and the Perusall sandbox course. Workshop is led by staff from Perusall. Register Now!
**ONLINE** Blackboard Communication Tools
Tuesday, April 7, 2026 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Communication is a critical element of a successful course, and Blackboard Ultra Course View has a wealth of tools to facilitate building community, encouraging academic discussion, and fostering interaction with and between your students. In this session, you will be introduced to the asynchronous and synchronous tools available in the Blackboard Ultra Course View, including discussions, announcements, conversations, messages and web conferencing. Advance registration required.
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**ONLINE** LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor: Protect the Integrity of Online Tests
Thursday, April 9, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
This comprehensive training webinar is intended for faculty who are interested in using LockDown Browser and/or Respondus Monitor to promote academic integrity for their online exams. The session provides a detailed demonstration of both applications, including enhancements that make Respondus Monitor even more effective and easy to use. Workshop is led by staff from Respondus. Register Now!
**NEW - ONLINE** Connecting with Remote Students: Using MS Education for Online Meetings and More
Thursday, April 9, 2026 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Connecting with your students remotely is a great way to extend your reach and engagement with them. Whether you are teaching fulling online, hybrid, or using virtual meetings for office hours, you will want to have confidence using these new tools in your course. This workshop will cover adding Microsoft Education to your course, and you will learn to integrate Meetings, Teams, and Class Notebooks in courses. Advance registration required.
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**NEW - ONLINE** Turning Student Feedback into Teaching Improvements
Tuesday, April 14, 2026 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Student feedback provides valuable insight into how learners experience a course and where teaching strategies can be refined—but its usefulness depends on strong participation. In this workshop, faculty will explore practical approaches for increasing response rates and encouraging meaningful student input, as well as strategies for interpreting and responding to feedback gathered through both formal course evaluations and informal sources such as midterm surveys, student reflections, emails, and in-class feedback activities. Participants will learn how to identify meaningful patterns in student comments and ratings, distinguish actionable feedback from less useful input, and translate what they learn into concrete teaching adjustments. The session will include a faculty panel sharing strategies and experiences with collecting and using student feedback. Advance registration required.
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**ONLINE** Pathways of Social Impact: Theoretical, Empirical, and Critical Reflections
Tuesday, April 14, 2026 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
The Pathways of Social Impact framework presents a typology designed to help educators better understand and support students’ evolving civic identities and engagement strategies. Each pathway overlaps with multiple other pathways, so that activities falling in one pathway may also exist in another. The Practitioner Profiles acknowledge this interconnectivity while working to clearly articulate the knowledge, skills, and attributes from the perspective of each pathway. In this session from Campus Compact, we reflect on the theoretical, empirical, and critical implications of the pathways framework. Register Now!
**NEW - ONLINE** Community Engagement Brownbag: Engaged Classrooms, Stronger Research: Expanding Faculty Capacity Through Teaching
Tuesday, April 14, 2026 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Discover how Professor Melani Duffrin integrates research and teaching — two pillars often viewed separately in academia. Over the lunch hour, we’ll explore how experiential learning can transform your research capacity while providing invaluable experiences for students. This approach not only enhances student learning but also expands your research capabilities, diversifies funding sources and brings fresh perspectives to your work. Register Now!
**ONLINE** LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor: Protect the Integrity of Online Tests
Thursday, April 16, 2026 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
This comprehensive training webinar is intended for faculty who are interested in using LockDown Browser and/or Respondus Monitor to promote academic integrity for their online exams. The session provides a detailed demonstration of both applications, including enhancements that make Respondus Monitor even more effective and easy to use. Workshop is led by staff from Respondus. Register Now!
**ONLINE** Inclusive STEM Teaching: Insights from Student-Centered Pedagogy
Monday, April 20, 2026 from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Are you looking to create a more inclusive and empowering classroom environment? Join us for an interactive workshop exploring how feminist teaching approaches can help close the persistent gaps in STEM degree completion, particularly for women and students from underrepresented groups. You'll discover practical strategies to challenge traditional classroom dynamics and create spaces where all students can thrive. We'll explore ways to validate diverse perspectives and learning styles while building supportive learning communities. Whether you're new to these concepts or already incorporating inclusive practices, you'll walk away with concrete tools to promote more equitable outcomes in your teaching. Bring your experiences and questions! Advance registration required.
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**ONLINE** Facilitating Group Work Online
Tuesday, April 21, 2026 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Group work can be an excellent way to engage students in an online course. When effectively implemented, students working in groups or teams can foster critical thinking and dynamic interaction in an online environment. In this workshop, we will explore different types of group structures, identify the benefits and challenges of group work and discuss how to set up group online. Advance registration required.
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**ONLINE** Teaching Digital Literacy with Adobe Express
Wednesday, April 22, 2026 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Explore Adobe Express, a versatile digital design tool now available to all NIU faculty, staff, and students. This all-in-one solution covers image generation, photo and video editing, web design, posters, presentations, animations, and more, enhanced by generative AI. With hundreds of templates to inspire creativity, Adobe Express addresses the need for accessible digital tools in education. In this hands-on workshop, participants will create a self-portrait for course use, learning to generate customized content. Discover how to easily supplement your instructional materials with suitable images. Advance registration required.
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**ONLINE** Maximize Benefits of Diversity through Culturally Responsive Teaching in Your Classroom
Thursday, April 23, 2026 from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
This workshop will provide faculty with practical strategies to maximize the benefits of diversity through a culturally responsive teaching framework developed by Geneva Gay. Participants will explore effective ways to create a welcoming environment that recognizes and utilizes their students' diverse cultural, linguistic, and learning backgrounds. The focus will be on culturally responsive practices that affirm students' cultures while promoting positive academic outcomes. Faculty members will leave this workshop with actionable steps to take advantage of diversity in their classrooms. Advance registration required.
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**ONLINE** Exploring Kaltura Features
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Learn about NIU's video platform, Kaltura! This workshop will provide a broad overview of the features and functions of Kaltura and strategies for incorporating these to meet your multimedia needs. Topics covered in this introductory workshop will include uploading videos, recording webcam video, screen recording, basic editing features, and more. This workshop will also prepare you for the next series of Kaltura workshops covering more advanced features. Advance registration required.
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**IN-PERSON** Paper Making Demonstration in the NIU BookLab
Wednesday, April 29, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 12:15 PM
Join students from Dr. Nicole Clifton's course on Technologies of the Word for a special paper-making demonstration in the NIU BookLab. Lunch will be provided to registered attendees. Advance registration required; space is limited.
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**NEW - ONLINE** Teaching for Tomorrow: Using the Career-Readiness Toolkit to Connect Coursework to Careers
Wednesday, April 29, 2026 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Join us for a workshop designed to inspire innovative approaches in your teaching and enhance students’ learning. Together, we will explore The Career Readiness Toolkit—a new resource designed to help faculty and instructors integrate career development into academic coursework. This toolkit helps instructors connect classroom learning to the career skills students will need after graduation. Grounded in the NACE Career Competencies, it offers evidence-based teaching strategies and sample activities that enable students to identify, practice, and articulate the professional strengths cultivated within your discipline.
The toolkit also includes program‑level options for aligning curricula with career-readiness outcomes, providing departments with ways to enhance discipline and career coherence, and improve student impact. In this workshop, we will explore methods that can enrich your teaching and strengthen students’ understanding of how your course contributes to their future pathways. The session offers a supportive space to gather useful ideas, connect with colleagues, and expand the ways you help students develop, recognize, and articulate career-readiness skills. Advance registration required.
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**ONLINE** Redesigning Student Supports for the Gen Z Era
Wednesday, April 29, 2026 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
As colleges and universities adapt to shifting student expectations, Gen Z presents a unique challenge: separating generational myth from meaningful reality. While much has been written about this cohort, not all narratives hold up to scrutiny. Which behaviors reflect true generational difference—and which are simply products of age, economic disruption, or technological change? This session will explore three critical areas where institutional practices can better align with Gen Z’s needs and, in turn, strengthen support for future student populations:
- Mental health through process design. Rather than adding more wellness programming, consider how institutional processes themselves may be contributing to student stress. What changes to policies, procedures, and structures could reduce cognitive load and frustration?
- Addressing learning loss. COVID disruptions have left gaps in executive functioning and academic preparation, especially visible in graduate and professional students. How can institutions adapt undergraduate-style academic supports to meet these needs?
- Reimagining career services. With AI tools increasingly able to replicate traditional career services, what new value should institutions provide? From cultivating professional skills to expanding networking opportunities, how can career support evolve to meet the realities of Gen Z’s entry into the workforce?
Session is led by staff from EAB.
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**ONLINE** Show Your Work with Adobe Express Webpages
Thursday, April 30, 2026 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Ready to showcase your work and personality online? This hands-on workshop will guide you through the intuitive process of building dynamic and visually appealing webpages using Adobe Express. Learn how to create engaging educational portfolios to highlight your skills and projects, or craft a compelling personal profile page to share your story and connect with others. We'll cover everything from layout design and multimedia integration to sharing your finished webpage with the world. Come discover how Adobe Express can help you make a memorable digital impression. Advance registration required.
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