**ONLINE** Get Started with Perusall
Monday, August 24, 2026 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Brian Lukoff, Perusall Co-founder, Chief Technology
Officer, and Assistant Professor of Instruction at the McCombs School of
Business at the University of Texas at Austin, will walk
through our recommended course setup strategies, helpful features
configurations, and best practices for creating engaging learning
experiences for your students. He will also demonstrate several of our
newest features, explain how they fit into your teaching, and provide
practical guidance to help you confidently prepare your course for the
semester ahead.
This is the perfect session to build the
foundation for your course, explore new features, and begin the Academy
series with insights from one of our amazing founders and a fellow
educator!
Can't join live? Register anyway and we'll send you the recording and the Perusall sandbox course. Workshop is presented by Perusall. Register Now!
**ONLINE** Equitable Grading: Reducing Bias and Increasing Student Success
Monday, August 24, 2026 from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Effective grading communicates student achievement, incentivizes learning, and informs instruction. However, traditional grading can be biased and hinder growth. In this workshop, we will explore grading practices that are growth-minded and promote more equitable outcomes without lowering expectations. Advance registration required.
Register Now!
**ONLINE** For UNIV 101 Instructors: Navigate Success in UNIV 101: Engage, Support, Connect
Tuesday, August 25, 2026 from 9:15 AM to 10:00 AM
Want to learn how you can support your UNIV 101 students using NIU Navigate? In this session, participants will be able to:
Identify student needs early
- Review student responses to the Intake Survey and Huskie First Survey
- Spot concerns using MissionAI insights on self-reported issues and flags
Simplify appointment scheduling with PALs:
- Create office hour availabilities so students can self-schedule appointments
- Embed your Personal Availability Link (PAL) in your syllabus, Blackboard sites, and emails
Encourage peer connection through Study Buddies:
- See how students use Study Buddies
- Share ideas about how to encourage students to use it in your course
Register Now!
**NEW - ONLINE** Enhancing Student Engagement in Microsoft Teams
Tuesday, August 25, 2026 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Discover practical strategies for creating interactive and engaging learning experiences using Microsoft Teams. This workshop explores features and tools that promote communication, group collaboration, and active participation. Whether you're new to Microsoft Teams or looking to enhance your online teaching, you'll learn both instructional strategies and technology tips to help you foster student engagement. Advance registration required.
Register Now!
**ONLINE** Respondus Monitor: New Features, Fresh Ideas
Wednesday, August 26, 2026 from 1:00 PM to 1:30 PM
See the latest enhancements for LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor, including second camera support, handheld device detection, and the use of MS Word and Excel during secure exams. You'll also discover innovative and cost-effective ways these tools are being used for in-class assessments, labs, pop-up testing centers, presentations, and remote proctoring. Workshop is led by staff from Respondus. Register Now!
**NEW - ONLINE** Using the Blackboard Ultra Gradebook
Wednesday, August 26, 2026 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Blackboard overhauled the Gradebook Grid View in early August. The layout and navigation have changed and the new Grade Details panel was introduced. This workshop will review changes to the Gradebook, and users will learn how to effectively set up the Gradebook, grade assignments, record and calculate grades, and provide feedback to students. Advance registration required
Register Now!
**ONLINE** Becoming AI Ready in Education: Copilot for Campus Operations: Boosting Staff Productivity
Wednesday, August 26, 2026 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
While much of the conversation around AI in education focuses on faculty and the classroom, the impact extends across the institution. In this session, we shift the lens to administrative and operational teams—exploring how Microsoft 365 Copilot supports the day-to-day work of staff in admissions, advising, financial aid, HR, the registrar’s office, marketing, and IT.
You’ll see how Copilot helps staff stay on top of high communication volumes, draft and summarize emails and documents, and reduce the time spent capturing meeting notes and follow-ups. We’ll also demonstrate how teams can accelerate report creation, analyze data in Excel, and streamline recurring workflows—freeing up time for higher-value work that directly supports students and institutional goals. Workshop is led by staff from Microsoft. Register Now!
**ONLINE** Captioning: Moving Beyond Automated Captions
Thursday, August 27, 2026 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Captions and transcripts are essential for making videos and other multimedia accessible to a broad audience, including deaf and hard‑of‑hearing users, multilingual learners, and anyone accessing content in sound‑limited environments. In this workshop, you will learn why accurate captions matter, common captioning pitfalls, and practical strategies for captioning videos and multimedia content effectively. Advance registration required.
Register Now!
**ONLINE** LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor: Protect the Integrity of Online Tests
Thursday, August 27, 2026 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 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** NAVIGATE: Boost Attendance & Participation: NIU's Student Engagement Campaign
Thursday, August 27, 2026 from 2:15 PM to 3:00 PM
Looking to strengthen early attendance and participation in your courses this term?
Join this Navigate Learning Session to learn about NIU's new Student Engagement Campaign for first-year (freshman) students and how your feedback can inform coordinated outreach to first-year students who aren’t attending or participating in your class.
The campaign is designed to help us intervene early before attendance and participation become barriers to academic success.
Session Topics Include:
- How to access and when to complete the campaign's roster
- Why NIU conducts the campaign and how your input supports early student outreach
- What happens after you submit your students' information
Register Now!
**ONLINE** EDUCAUSE Demo Day | AI Teaching and Learning Tools
Wednesday, September 2, 2026 from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM
Artificial intelligence is reshaping teaching and learning by
enabling new approaches to course content creation, student support,
assessment, and instructional design. As institutions advance their
digital and academic strategies, AI‑enabled tools are increasingly being
used to support faculty innovation, personalize learning experiences,
and improve student outcomes, all while maintaining alignment with
pedagogical goals and institutional values.
Join us for a series of engaging live sessions exploring how
AI‑powered teaching and learning solutions are being implemented across
higher education. Attendees will see live demonstrations, learn about
implementation considerations, and hear how to use AII to enhance
instructional effectiveness, support student success, and strengthen
teaching and learning ecosystems.
This session is led by EDUCAUSE; NIU faculty, staff, and students can create an EDUCAUSE account using their NIU email address to attend at no cost. Register Now!
**ONLINE** Becoming AI Ready in Education: AI Beyond Productivity: Power Platform and Dynamics 365 for Higher Ed
Wednesday, September 2, 2026 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
In this session, we explore how AI supports process transformation across community colleges—helping teams move from isolated tasks to connected, end-to-end workflows. You’ll see how AI is infused across Microsoft’s business applications, including Power Platform—Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Pages, and Copilot Studio—and Dynamics 365. We’ll demonstrate how these tools work together to help colleges build intelligent applications, automate processes, and modernize student and constituent engagement. Workshop is led by staff from Microsoft. Register Now!
**ONLINE** NAVIGATE + Mission AI: Enhancing Student Support Through Mission AI and Navigate
Thursday, September 3, 2026 from 9:15 AM to 10:00 AM
Want to make a bigger impact in helping your students stay on track? Learn how Mission AI, NIU’s new AI text chatbot, integrates with Navigate to assist with actionable insights to support students in your classes or advising caseloads.
- Capture the Student Voice: Discover how Mission AI’s chatbot responses uncover students’ needs and connect them with the right services, helping them succeed term by term.
- Themes from Student Responses: Use Navigate’s tags and alert reasons to find students with various needs of additional support to inform your outreach and campaigns.
- Function to Practice: Brainstorm ways you can see using the student responses in your teaching or advising practice.
Register Now!
**ONLINE** NAVIGATE: How do I issue Navigate Alerts and what happens afterwards?
Tuesday, September 8, 2026 from 2:15 PM to 3:00 PM
Want to let NIU know that students in your class are falling behind and need additional support? Find out how you can use Navigate Staff to issue alerts for students to help them get back on track to succeed in your class before it's too late.
- How to issue ad hoc alerts using Navigate Staff
- How to respond to Progress Reporting Campaigns
- What happens after your alerts are posted in Navigate Staff
- Results data from alerts issued during prior terms
Register Now!
**ONLINE** Connect with Your Students Using Navigate Staff: A New Users Function-to-Practice Session
Thursday, September 10, 2026 from 9:15 AM to 10:00 AM
Are you new to NIU's Navigate Staff system, or looking to understand how it can enhance your advising and support efforts? This virtual session is tailored for those who are not yet familiar with Navigate.
What to Expect: In this beginner session, you'll get hands-on practice with Navigate's features directly from your own screen. We'll cover the basics of system navigation, key functionalities, and practical tips to help you integrate Navigate into your daily workflow.
Why Attend? Navigate is a powerful tool designed to streamline your advising process, improve student outcomes, and foster a more connected campus community. By learning to use Navigate, you'll be able to:
-
Messaging (text and email)
Connect with students to instill a sense of care and belonging. Participants will have hands-on experience with sending a text and an email to the facilitator through Navigate.
-
Student Searches
Identify students for potential academic recruitment outreach, scholarship promotion, research fellows, etc. Participants will be able to:
- Conduct a student search in Navigate to identify students assigned to them who meet specific criteria.
- Create a saved search to be used as a template to build additional searches.
-
Set Up Your Calendar for Students to Self-Schedule with You
- Calendar Sync with Outlook: Learn how to seamlessly integrate your Outlook calendar with Navigate Staff.
- Create Navigate Availabilities: Set up availability slots based on your office hours.
- Personal Availability Links (PALs): Generate PALs to include in your email signatures, Blackboard sites, and syllabi. Students can click and self-manage their appointments, reducing back-and-forth emails.
-
Alerts & Referrals
Identify students in need of additional support and connect them with their care team. Participants will create a plan for when to issue ad hoc alerts for students and plan when to issue the alerts for their classes based on their syllabi.
Register Now!
**NEW - ONLINE** Information Session: Program Learning Improvement Projects
Friday, September 11, 2026 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Is there an area of student learning that you'd like to see improve? Could you use some help addressing it? If so, register for this information session to learn about an exciting new program where department faculty get targeted, structured support throughout the year. Advance registration required.
Register Now!
**NEW - ONLINE** The Human Advantage: Why Liberal Education Matters More in the Age of AI
Tuesday, September 15, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Preparing students for the future means more than teaching them how to use new tools. It means helping them become active learners who can ask thoughtful questions, evaluate evidence, communicate effectively, exercise ethical reasoning, and apply knowledge to complex, real-world challenges. These human capacities are central to liberal education and become even more important as AI transforms how knowledge is created, accessed, and applied. They are essential to preparing students not only to work alongside AI, but to use their judgment, creativity, and sense of responsibility to navigate an AI-enhanced world. Register Now!
**ONLINE** Blackboard Ally in Practice: Prioritizing Accessibility Improvements for Instructors
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM
Designed specifically for instructors and faculty, this session explores
how Ally can serve as your guide on the side, helping you identify,
understand, and prioritize opportunities to improve course content
accessibility. Learn how to use Ally's feedback and indicators to focus
on the changes that can have the greatest impact on learners, without
feeling overwhelmed by where to start. Through practical examples and
actionable recommendations, you'll discover how Ally can help you build
momentum with quick wins, make informed decisions about your content,
and establish a strong foundation for ongoing accessibility
improvements. Register Now!
**ONLINE** Dig Into the Season: Winter Warm-Up: Moving Beyond the Basics to Deeper Engagement
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Moving beyond the basics: strategy that keeps conversations going. Explore how a few intentional design choices turn early participation into engagement that holds up through the rest of the term. Workshop led by Yellowdig staff. Register Now!
**ONLINE** Blackboard Ally in Practice: Prioritizing Accessibility Improvements for Instructors
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Designed specifically for instructors and faculty, this session explores how Ally can serve as your guide on the side, helping you identify, understand, and prioritize opportunities to improve course content accessibility. Learn how to use Ally's feedback and indicators to focus on the changes that can have the greatest impact on learners, without feeling overwhelmed by where to start. Through practical examples and actionable recommendations, you'll discover how Ally can help you build momentum with quick wins, make informed decisions about your content, and establish a strong foundation for ongoing accessibility improvements. Register Now!
**ONLINE** Preparing Students for an AI-Enabled Workforce: A Faculty Conversation
Friday, September 18, 2026 from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Generative AI is rapidly changing the skills employers expect of graduates, creating new opportunities—and new questions—for higher education. Join this interactive session to separate hype from reality, explore how AI is reshaping the future of work, and discuss why AI literacy is becoming an essential component of curriculum across disciplines. Through practical examples and hands-on activities, we'll examine the most common barriers faculty face when integrating AI into teaching and identify actionable strategies for preparing students to succeed in an AI-enabled workforce. Workshop is led by staff from EAB. Register Now!
**ONLINE** Dig Into the Season: Spring Forward: Power User Moves and Advanced Strategies
Wednesday, September 23, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
What your Yellowdig data is already telling you. A closer look at using analytics to understand what's working, catch what isn't, and scale it across your courses. Workshop led by Yellowdig staff. Register Now!
**ONLINE** Dig Into the Season: Summer Refresh: A First Look at New Features and Future Horizons
Wednesday, October 7, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
What's new in Yellowdig, and what's coming next. A first look at the newest features and the roadmap ahead, so you can plan your next term with the latest tools in hand. Workshop led by Yellowdig staff. Register Now!
**ONLINE** Quinncia Platform Walkthrough & Training
Wednesday, October 7, 2026 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Discover how Quinncia can help students put their best foot forward!
Quinncia is an AI-powered career-readiness platform that helps students build stronger resumes, practice AI interviews, strengthen their LinkedIn presence, and develop the confidence and skills they need to succeed in today’s job market.
Join us for an interactive tour of the Quinncia platform where we’ll explore key features, share best practices, and show you how to make the most of the tools available to your students. We’ll wrap up with a live Q&A so you can get answers to your questions and leave feeling confident using Quinncia.
Come explore, learn, and see what Quinncia can do!. Advance registration required.
Register Now!
**NEW - ONLINE** AI for Program Level Assessment Planning Support
Tuesday, October 20, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Register to learn how to access and use AI tools that can support brainstorming, drafting, and revising learning outcomes, curriculum maps, assessment methods and rubrics. (Please note that we will focus on program level processes, but these tools can also be applied to classroom level assessment processes.) Advance registration required.
Register Now!
**NEW - ONLINE** AI for Program Level Assessment Data Analysis and Decision-making Support
Tuesday, October 27, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Register to learn how to access and use AI tools to support making sense of how to use data gained from assessments of program level student learning outcomes. AI can't do the thinking for you, but it could help you facilitate conversations with colleagues in your department: better ways to present data, potential explanations to think about, next steps they might consider. (Please note that we will focus on program level processes, but these tools may be helpful making sense of classroom level assessment data as well.) Advance registration required.
Register Now!
**ONLINE** Illinois Online Higher Education Symposium
Friday, November 6, 2026 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Join colleagues from across the state of Illinois for the 2026 Illinois Online Higher Education Symposium! This free, one-day virtual conference brings together thought leaders and practitioners with expertise in online teaching and learning to discuss the latest trends in online learning--from pedagogy to technology. All who learn, teach, develop, support, or administer online education are welcome! Learn More and Register Now!
