Elevating Generative AI Recipes to Encourage Authentic Assessments

UF Information Technology (UFIT) offers multiple Tech Bytes each year. Tech Bytes are shorter, “byte-sized” events that demonstrate new/emerging technologies and strategies to enhance teaching and learning. The next Tech Byte is on Thursday, Feb. 29, and focuses on encouraging authentic assessments with artificial intelligence (AI).

Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024

2:00 – 3:00 p.m. (via Zoom)

Registration link

Educational Technologist Chris Sharp and Instructional Designer Leslie Mojeiko are hosting this new Tech Byte that explores how to utilize generative AI to increase authentic assessments in the classroom. Chris and Leslie previously shared their AI Prompt Cookbook in a 2023 Tech Byte, which contains recipes (or prompts) designed to enhance teaching and learning. This new session will feature recipes that elevate instructors’ use of generative AI to move beyond basic use and embrace how it can transform the teaching and learning process. Join Chris and Leslie to learn new tech recipes for debating, role playing, tutoring, and more.

Previous Tech Byte event recordings are available online at no charge. Instructors with questions about this event are welcome to contact UFIT’s Center for Instructional Technology and Training via their online form.

Timely Topics the Focus of Teaching TechXploration

The annual Teaching TechXploration will be held on Thursday, Nov. 30, from 1:30-4:30 p.m. This virtual event is part of UFIT’s Tech Byte series and registration is free for the UF community. 

The virtual, conference-style Teaching TechXploration format features short presentations–or lightning rounds–on educational technologies and solutions to teaching challenges. Session topics include: 

  • A faculty panel on AI’s impacts on teaching 
  • Adapting assessments with AI in mind 
  • Tools available within Canvas to enhance your teaching 
  • Podcasting as teaching and assessment strategy 
  • Feedback from faculty using Feedback Fruits, a group evaluation tool 
  • Resources and services from campus partners 
  • Requesting new teaching tools and grants to fund those tools 

Instructors, instructional designers, and graduate students with teaching loads can all benefit from attending and learning about UF’s learning tools and services as you are planning for the spring semester. Once registered, you will be added to the Microsoft Team where the event will take place. Anyone with questions about this year’s Teaching TechXploration may contact UFIT’s Associate Director for Teaching and Learning Technology, Ryan Yang

Course Design Assistance for Summer 2023

It’s that time of semester again! Instructors: please contact UFIT as soon as possible if you’d like to work with an instructional designer (ID) at the Center for Instructional Technology & Training to develop or revise a course for Summer 2023. Our IDs would love to work with you to develop or revise a traditional, flipped, hybrid, or online course or flipped advising site.

If you would like to develop some aspects of your course but can’t commit to a full development, UFIT will work with you to create a custom development plan for just the items you want to focus on. The CITT staff can work with an instructor for a week or a few months–we’ll maximize the time you have available–to develop assessments, course content, videos, or any combination of our services.

Visit UFIT’s instructional design page to learn about the CITT services, or complete the “request assistance form” if you’d like an ID to contact you.

Teaching TechXploration – Fall 2022

Explore the intersections of technology and teaching at the Fall 2022 Teaching TechXploration. The event is on Wednesday, Nov. 9, from 1:00-4:00 p.m. Registration is open and free to the UF community.

The virtual, conference-style Teaching TechXploration will be held via Microsoft Teams. The format features 30-minute presentations on educational technologies and solutions to teaching challenges, as well as sessions for instructors to practice new strategies. Presentation topics include:

Applying UX Principles to Design Human-Centered Courses
Using NameCoach to demonstrate a commitment to equity and inclusion
Zoom into Whiteboarding
Tips for teaching with Microsoft Teams
Survey Tools for Teaching & Learning
New Tools in Learning Analytics and Assessment
Troubleshooting Assignment Alignment
Creating Interactive Widgets using Lumi and H5P
Video Resources

Instructors, instructional designers, and graduate students with teaching loads can all benefit from attending and learning about new services before fully solidifying their teaching plans for the spring term. Once registered, registrants will be added to the Teams site where the event will be held. Anyone with questions about this year’s TechXploration may contact UFIT’s Associate Director for Teaching and Learning Technology, Ryan Yang.

Showcase of Instructional Support Services

On Tuesday, Oct. 18, UFIT’s Center for Instructional Technology & Training (CITT) is showcasing its services for faculty. Faculty are invited to stop by the second floor of the Hub from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. and talk to experts from the instructional design, instructional technology, learning analytics, video production, and web services staffs.

The CITT Open House will be held on the second floor of the Hub, located at 1765 Stadium Road. In addition to learning about services available, attendees can get new headshots taken or record a holiday themed message in UFIT’s multi-studio digital production facility, both offered free of charge. Faculty interested in a consultation for any of our instructional services can request one via this link on the CITT homepage. Consultations may be requested for multiple CITT services.

Stop by the CITT Open House and visit with staff dedicated to your teaching and learning success. Faculty can get a quick consultation or pick up a snack! Faculty with questions about the event or who cannot attend but would like to schedule a consultation or video studio time may complete the request form here (https://citt.ufl.edu/request-assistance/), or email Digital Production Services Manager Greg D’Angio.

Focus Your Efforts on Accessibility

UFIT has online resources and training to bolster the classroom experience and perfect web content so anyone with a disability or impairment can fully engage with your content.

For students with visual, auditory, motor or cognitive impairments, accessing websites or course content can be a challenge if they are not designed with these issues in mind. UFIT has several options for faculty and staff to help bridge the online accessibility gap:

1. Apply these five easy accessibility tips to improve web and social media content. The tips explain how to describe images, provide text alternatives for audio and video, select colors to use, and more to keep content accessible for everyone. There is also an up-to-date web accessibility standards page that lists what website managers should include in their page layout and style sheets to ensure a site meets Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. A link to a just-in-time web accessibility training is also provided on this page.

2. Register for the new SiteImprove training. The one-hour class will next be held on Wednesday, May 25, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. Learn how to automate the process of identifying Electronic Information Technology Accessibility (EITA) issues on websites. The free 60-minute webinar will also explain how to run accessibility reports to pinpoint areas on a website or document that could be improved, such as broken links and misspellings.

Visit UFIT’s Center for Instructional Technology & Training Request Assistance page for assistance with these accessibility options.

Course Development Assistance for Fall 2022

Faculty who would like to work with a UFIT instructional designer to develop or revise a course for Fall 2022–the time is now! UFIT’s Center for Instructional Technology & Training (CITT) can help enhance your traditional, flipped, hybrid, online course, or flipped advising site.

Some instructional faculty would like the expertise of an instructional designer but cannot commit to a full course development. Not a problem! UFIT can create a custom development plan for just the items you have time to focus on. Whether you have two weeks or a few months, CITT staff will assist you with developing assessments, course content, or accessibility review. Visit the instructional design page to view all services available. Interested in developing videos for your online or in-person course? UFIT can create welcome videos, course intro videos, and film facets of your course, like a lab experiment. Several examples of in-studio and location shoots are featured on https://citt.ufl.edu/about/academic-media-productions/.

Expertise is available to support your teaching and learning, regardless of your course development needs. Instructors interested in working with the CITT staff may complete the Request Assistance webpage, and a staff member will contact you.

Tech Byte Event: Learning Analytics

Instructors are invited to attend Tech Bytes, a Teaching TechXploration online event. This installment of Tech Bytes is focused on how learning analytics is transforming teaching and learning:

NEW DATE: September 1
2:00-3:00 p.m.
Registration Link

This one-hour event features presentations on two new UF initiatives that can make data more valuable for instructors and students. The first presenter will be Instructional Designer Heather Maness of UFIT’s Center for Instructional Technology and Training. Dr. Maness will discuss a pilot of the My Learning Analytics tool that enables students to improve their academic outcomes by better understanding their online course performance and progress. The second presenter will be by Instructional Assessment Coordinator John Jordi from UF’s Center for Teaching Excellence. Dr. Jordi will share how he is engaging with learning analytics through structured conversations with faculty. Attendees will have an opportunity to get involved with both initiatives.

Register now for this virtual Tech Bytes event, part of a series that covers the intersections of technology and teaching in bite-sized pieces. Instructional faculty with questions about either presentation are welcome to contact Heather Maness or John Jordi.