The Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI) continues to offer a wide array of support for Salem State faculty. This semester’s programming includes faculty professional learning communities (FPLCs), reading groups, early career faculty gatherings, and, as always, personalized instructional design assistance. Explore the options below to find the opportunities that best support your goals this fall!

Faculty Showcase: Innovations in Online Teaching and Learning

Thursday, December 11, 2025
11:00am–12:15pm
Virtual (Zoom registration link)

Join Salem State University’s Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI) for our annual end-of-semester Faculty Innovation Showcase, a virtual space for faculty, librarians, and staff to connect, inspire, and reflect on the semester in a collegial environment.

This year’s showcase theme is Innovations in Online Teaching and Learning. Online learning continues to grow at Salem State, and CTI is honored to highlight some of the ways faculty are incorporating and engaging with online components in fully online, hybrid, and in-person modalities. Join faculty from a range of disciplines as they share and reflect on recent experiences with student-centered online course design, experiential learning, international collaborations, and engaged research in the contemporary classroom.

Faculty Presenters

Sahar Hussain, CTI's Assistant Director for Online Learning, is our host for a series of five-minute Lightning Talks from:

Zlatinka Blaber, Accounting and Finance: "COIL-Riipen Partnership with Indonesian Classes: A Salem State University - Universitas Bina Mandiri Gorontalo (UBMG) Micro-Internship with CGA Creative"
Kathi Crow, Mathematics: "Don't Get Lost in the Links: Canvas Tips for Mixed-Media OER"
Rebecca Hains, Media and Communications: "Community Engagement and Experiential Learning in the Online Classroom"
Jayashree (Jay) Ranga, Chemistry and Physics: "Exploration of 'One Stop Place' in General Chemistry Courses"
Fátima Serra, World Languages and Cultures: "From Connection to Transformation: Teaching Literature and Culture through COIL"
Peter Smolianov, Sport and Movement Science: "Advancing Online Teaching Methods through International Research Cooperation"

We look forward to seeing you there!

Teaching in the Age of AI Programming

Generative Academic Insights: Readings and Reflections on Teaching In The Age of AI

CTI is offering a series of programs this fall to help faculty think about AI's impact on their courses. Building on the work taken on by last year's AI Advisory Group, we have identified key topics and paired them with selected readings. We have also invited SSU faculty to co-facilitate several sessions to share their own emerging AI literacies.

In these 60-minute drop-in sessions, CTI Instructional Designer Jim McGrath and faculty co-facilitators will introduce the reading and highlight some core takeaways. Questions? Contact Jim: jmcgrath2@salemstate.edu

**Generative Academic Insights: Thinking With AI**

Thursday, December 4th, 11:00am-12:00pm via Zoom (Zoom Registration Link)

What could it mean to think with AI? Join Jonathan Fitzgerald (English) and Jim McGrath (Center for Teaching Innovation) to discuss ways that AI platforms like ChatGPT can be leveraged as conversation partners for brainstorming. Considering these contexts can help instructors reflect on how AI impacts approaches to thinking, drafting, and revision that we emphasize with our students (and use in our own writing and thinking). All registrants will receive copies of relevant readings on this topic prior to the Zoom meeting.

Core Reading: These sessions will be anchored by a core reading, which we hope you have time to review (or at least scan) before attending the live session. For this session, we'd like you to read “What It’s Like to Brainstorm with a Bot,” written by Dan Rockmore and published in The New Yorker in August 2025. Please email Jim if you have trouble accessing this reading.

Generative Academic Insights: AI, Linguistic Bias, and Other Critiques and Concerns

Tuesday, November 4th, 3:00pm-4:00pm via Zoom (Zoom Registration Link)

What critiques and concerns about AI have resonated with faculty at SSU? Join Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello (Interdisciplinary Studies and American Ethnic Studies) and Jim McGrath (Center for Teaching Innovation) for a discussion of critical Ai literacies and particular areas of concern like linguistic and algorithmic bias. All registrants will receive copies of relevant readings on this topic prior to the Zoom meeting.

Core Reading: These sessions will be anchored by a core reading, which we hope you have time to review (or at least scan) before attending the live session. For this session, we'd like you to read "To Become an Object Among Objects: Generative Artificial “Intelligence,” Writing, and Linguistic White Supremacy" by Roberto Santiago de Roock. Please email Jim if you have trouble accessing this reading.

You may also be interested in additional "Resources on Refusing, Rejecting, and Rethinking Generative AI." The Critical AI journal (out of Rutgers University) is another good resource for critical perspectives on AI. The de Roock reading will be discussed at this session, but we'll have time to share additional perspectives that attendees find helpful (in addition to personal experiences in and beyond the classroom).

Generative Academic Insights: AI as a Teaching Partner

Thursday, October 16th, 1:00pm-2:00pm via Zoom (Zoom Registration Link)

How can AI tools support and enhance your teaching? Join Allan Brockenbrough (Computer Science) and Jim McGrath (Center for Teaching Innovation) to discuss examples of AI classroom support roles and to hear Allan’s thoughts on where and how AI might improve student learning and engagement. All registrants will receive copies of relevant readings on this topic prior to the Zoom meeting.

Core Reading: These sessions will be anchored by a core reading, which we hope you have time to review (or at least scan) before attending the live session. For this session, we'd like you to read “Assigning AI: Seven Approaches for Students, with Prompts” by Ethan and Lilach Mollick (2023). You can find it via the following DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4475995. Please email Jim if you have trouble accessing this reading.

The Mollicks are names worth knowing in the context of AI and pedagogy; for example, Ethan is the author of the NYT-bestselling book Co-Intelligence:Living and Working with AI (2024) and the One Useful Thing newsletter (which frequently focuses on AI).

Generative Academic Insights: Student Perceptions of AI at SSU

Friday, October 3rd, 12:30pm-1:30pm via Zoom (Zoom Registration Link)

How do students at SSU and at other colleges view AI? Join Nicholas Geron (Geography and Sustainability) and Jim McGrath (Center for Teaching Innovation) to discuss recent data on student perceptions of AI and to hear what Nick has learned from students about their interest in AI use in writing and research contexts. All registrants will receive copies of relevant readings on this topic prior to the Zoom meeting.

For this session, we'd like you to read "How Are Students Really Using AI?" by Derek O'Connell (The Chronicle of Higher Education; July 14 2025). We've chosen this piece because it does a nice job of connecting some of the general talking points re: student perceptions and usage of AI to actual surveys, studies, and other data-oriented considerations of this topic. So we'd encourage you to click around some of the (many) links contained in this piece if you have the time to do so.

Accessing This Reading: SSU faculty and staff can access digital content on The Chronicle of Higher Education via the Salem State University Library website. An easy route to the website might be via the library's Secondary and Higher Education Libguide (which also contains other helpful links!). If you scroll down to the "List of Journals" section, you'll see the link.

If you are already logged in to the Chronicle website with your SSU credentials, you can use the direct link to the article: “How Are Students Really Using AI?”

If you have trouble accessing the article via library resources, please email Jim and he can send you a copy.

Coffee Conversations: Teaching Writing In The Age of AI

A biweekly(ish) series starting on Wednesday, October 1st (10:00am-11:00am)

Full Schedule of Wednesday meetings: 10/1, 10/15, 10/29, 12/3

Co-Sponsored by SSU's Writing Intensive Curriculum (WIC) Program and SSU's Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI)
Starting 10/15, these sessions will be virtual! Please register below and reach out in advance if you'd like to present course materials for feedback!
- 10/15 Zoom Registration Link
- 10/29 Zoom Registration Link Event Canceled
- 12/3 Zoom Registration Link Event Canceled

This biweekly series offers faculty the opportunity to informally share their pedagogical practices for teaching writing that incorporates AI or attempts to prevent its use. In each session, 2-4 faculty members will present a writing lesson, activity, or assignment that has been productive and meaningful in helping students develop as writers in the age of AI. Conversation will follow. Any resources discussed will be shared out via email. These sessions will be co-facilitated by Tanya Rodrigue (Coordinator of the Writing Intensive Curriculum program) and Jim McGrath (Instructional Designer at SSU’s Center for Teaching Innovation). We’ll also have occasional guest speakers from the SSU campus community share relevant work and resources. Coffee or other beverage consumption encouraged (now that we are virtual we unfortunately won't be providing the coffee!).

Interested in presenting your lesson, activity, or assignment? Email Tanya (trodrigue@salemstate.edu) and Jim (jmcgrath2@salemstate.edu).

SoTL Critical Friends Group

This monthly gathering supports faculty in their research around their teaching and student’s learning. Learn more about SoTL at SSU and discipline-specific resources, courtesy of CTI faculty fellow Cami Condie:

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research engages in systematic and/or reflective inquiry, including naming research questions, determining data sources, designing a study, receiving IRB approval (if student work is used or they co-participate), analyzing data, and then making the findings public. In other words, it’s expanding our expertise as disciplinary scholars to intersect with our role as professors.

As a teaching institution, we are frequently revisiting our teaching effectiveness and question what is/is not working or how a particular approach impacts student engagement. Redesigning a course? That’s the beginning of a strong SoTL project. Trying a new (or investigating a longstanding) project with students? That has SoTL potential. Incorporating AI into your teaching or an assignment? Reflecting on your experience applying anti-racism practices into your teaching? Interested in problematizing how your department assessment data will inform program and course decisions? Yes, yes, yes! All could be strong SoTL research!

All phases of a SoTL project are welcome in the SoTL Critical Friends Group. Drop in or drop out as needed.

Fall 2025 SoTL Critical Friends Group dates are schedules for the same days as Early Career Faculty Friday (see below):

Friday, October 10 | 11:30am-12:30pm | in person or remote via Zoom | Charlotte Forten Legacy Room, Meier 316B
November 14 | 11:30am-12:30pm | in person or remote via Zoom | Charlotte Forten Legacy Room, Meier 316B
December 12 | 11:30am-12:30pm | in person or remote via Zoom | Charlotte Forten Legacy Room, Meier 316B

Spring 2026 semester SoTL Critical Friends Group will focus on data analysis, literature reviews, submitting for conferences (like SoTL Summit), and making timelines for publishing.

To learn more about SoTL Critical Friends, contact Cami Condie, ccondie@salemstate.edu

Early Career Faculty Friday (ECFF)

This in-person, monthly gathering is a belonging group for new and early career faculty, including tenure-track and full-time temporary faculty.

Each session offers a welcoming space for informal conversation, collegial support, and shared reflection over breakfast or brunch, depending on the date. We alternate between morning and afternoon meetings to accommodate a variety of teaching schedules.

There are no readings, no deliverables, and no pressure--just time to connect, laugh, and talk about what’s on your mind as you navigate your early years at Salem State and in your career. Stop in for one session or join us each month; you’re always welcome!

Fall 2025 ECFF dates:

Friday 9/12, 1-2pm | Charlotte Forten Legacy Room, Meier Hall 316B, North Campus
Friday 10/10, 9-10am | Charlotte Forten Legacy Room
Friday 11/14, 1-2pm | Charlotte Forten Legacy Room
Friday 12/12, 9-10am | Charlotte Forten Legacy Room

Faculty Professional Learning Communities (FPLCs)

Reimagining Your Course with a Gen Ed Focus

facilitator: Reva Kasman (Mathematics/PAGE)

modality: virtual via Zoom

meetings: Mondays (approximately bi-weekly), 1:15-2:30pm

Many of our courses satisfy a General Education requirement, but what does it mean to teach a class with an intentional focus on its Gen Ed students? What are our goals for a Gen Ed learning experience in an academic course? How might this designation influence our choices around content and pedagogy when teaching primarily to an audience of non-majors?

In this FPLC we will collectively explore these questions through readings and discussions, and each faculty participant will work on designing or updating one of their courses through this lens. An ideal focus course is likely to be one where the target audience is mainly non-majors and which satisfies one of the following Gen Ed categories: Contemporary Society (CS), Creative Expression and Appreciation (CEA), Diversity, Power Dynamics and Social Justice (DPDS), Human Past (HP), Personal Growth and Responsibility (PGR), Quantitative Reasoning (QR), Scientific Reasoning (SL), or World Cultures (WC).

Limited to 12 participants. $500 stipend available for full- and part-time faculty. Unfortunately, we are not able to pay stipends to full-time SSU administrators or staff (AFSCME, APA, and NUP).

Signups for this FPLC have closed. Stay tuned for upcoming programming!

Teaching for Liberatory Outcomes and Joy

facilitator: Cami Condie (Childhood Education and Care; CTI)

modality: in-person or remote via HyFlex

meetings: Fridays (monthly), 10am-12pm; dates to be announced

Building on the work of Paulo Freire and Gina Ann Garcia, we will explore how we foster liberatory outcomes in our teaching, including helping students develop agency, critical consciousness, and the capacity to challenge inequities within and beyond the classroom. Through readings and collaborative inquiry, we will consider how we can design courses and experiences that promote student agency and joy, that cultivate empowered learning, and that humanize professors and students.

Limited to 12 participants. $500 stipend available for full- and part-time faculty. Unfortunately, we are not able to pay stipends to full-time SSU administrators or staff (AFSCME, APA, and NUP).

Signups for this FPLC have closed. Stay tuned for upcoming programming!

Reading Groups

Educating with Empathy: A Holistic Framework for Teaching the Research Process

facilitator: Dawn Stahura (Berry Library)
modality: remote via Zoom

meetings: Mondays, 11:45am-1pm on 9/22, 10/6, 10/27, 11/17, 12/8

As educators we know there is a disconnect between our students’ lived experiences and what they are presented with inside the academia. Our students want and need to feel seen, heard, and treated as fully whole human beings. So many young people feel as if they don’t belong inside the classroom, on a college campus, or walking across the graduation stage. We are told that classrooms have no real place for creativity, spiritually, and holistic embodiment. This harmful and destructive fallacy is destroying the souls of our students. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Join Research and Instruction Librarian, Dawn Stahura, in reading her new book Educating with Empathy: A Holistic Framework for Teaching the Research Process. This is an invitation to explore teaching the research process that incorporates storytelling, spirituality, critical creativity, healing work, witnessing, and social justice. Throughout the semester, we will discuss instruction ideas, community-building techniques, and critical creativity activities to use in the classroom, wherever your classroom may be.

Participants will receive a paperback copy of Educating with Empathy, available to be picked up in the CTI office (MH 115).

Signups for this reading group have closed. Stay tuned for upcoming programming!

Ongoing Teaching and Course Technology Support

1:1 Instructional Design Assistance

Need personalized help with course design, Canvas, or teaching strategies? CTI offers one-on-one consultations with instructional designers Jim McGrath and Abby Machson-Carter. Submit an instructional design assistance request, and we'll get back in touch with you soon.

Technology Support

For technological help with Canvas or other instructional technologies, email the ITS Faculty Support team at: its-facultysupport@salemstate.edu