2026 KU Teaching Summit
Teaching as a Human Endeavor
Thursday, August 20 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m on the Lawrence campus in Budig 130. The Center for Teaching Excellence, Provost’s Office, and KU Medical Center co-sponsor the conference for faculty and instructional staff members from the Lawrence, Edwards, and medical center campuses.
Faculty and instructional staff are invited to the annual KU Teaching Summit on Thursday, August 20 in Lawrence.
The theme of this year’s conference is Teaching as a Human Endeavor.
Christopher P. Long will present the keynote, which will address how reimagining the university during this intense period of disruption requires heightened attention to what we value and how we apply those values in our teaching. Long is the provost and senior vice president at the University of Oregon, where he is also Collins Professor of Philosophy. Over the past decade, he has been exploring how intentional efforts to embody our stated values in the daily practices that shape academic life can transform how we teach, research, and learn.
After the keynote, attendees are invited to attend a robust selection of breakouts led by faculty members from the Lawrence, Edwards, and Medical Center campuses. Topics include:
Advancing Human Skills and Connections
- Encouraging Revision and Use of Feedback
- Let’s Reflect on Reflection: Incorporating Effective Reflective Learning Activities
Working with AI
- Using AI to Amplify Human Connections, Critical Thinking, and Career Preparedness
- Leveraging Machine Learning Models to Support Student Learning Outcomes: Opportunities and Challenges
Supporting Student Engagement and Attendance
- No More “Free Riders”: Reinventing Group Work with Accountability Measures
- (Don’t) Reinvent the Game: Using and Adapting Existing Games to Boost Student Engagement and Learning
Preparing Students for their Futures
- Teaching Beyond the Grade: Preparing Students for Their Futures
- Fostering Engagement and Career Readiness with NACE Competencies
Register to attend the Teaching Summit by August 10. When you register, indicate whether you plan to stay for lunch. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate, please contact Nikki Perry by August 3. Feel free to contact Nikki if you have any questions about the Summit.
Post-Summit Online Session: Keeping Up with AI in Teaching
After the Summit, Doug Ward will host an online session on Keeping Up with AI in Teaching, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.Generative artificial intelligence seems to change daily, making it difficult to determine what's important amid a daily torrent of information. In this post-Summit online session, we will help you catch up on some broad trends in generative AI and consider what those trends might mean for teaching and learning. Topics will include:
- How generative AI is changing search and the web
- Why educators in the U.S. and Canada view AI so differently from their colleagues in other countries
- How new AI literacy resources can help you and your students
- How AI agents are being used in teaching and learning
Register for the online session “Keeping Up with AI in Teaching” to receive the meeting link.
Teaching Summit Breakout Session List
| Room | Session I: 10:35–11:15 | Session II: 11:25–12:05 | Session III: 12:20–1:00 | |||
| 4002 | Group Work: A Model to do More with Less | Group Work: A Model to do More with Less | Making Assignments Matter: Designing Authentic Learning Experiences and Navigating the Messiness of Real-World Engagement | |||
| 4007 | Less Point Counting, More Learning: Standards-Based Grading | Less Point Counting, More Learning: Standards-Based Grading | Coordinating Interdisciplinary Teaching with Colleagues (Taylor's Version) | |||
| 4008 | The “Other AI:” Applied Improv for Building Empathy in the Classroom | Using Teaching Evaluations to Spark Conversations about Effective Teaching Practices | Using Teaching Evaluations to Spark Conversations about Effective Teaching Practices | |||
| 4012 | No More “Free Riders”: Reinventing Group Work with Accountability Measures | No More “Free Riders”: Reinventing Group Work with Accountability Measures | Critical Reflection: The Bridge Between Course Content & Meaningful Service | |||
| 4018 | (Don't) Reinvent the Wheel: Boosting Student Engagement and Learning Using Published Games | Gamifying Your Lesson Plan: A Tutorial for Beginners | Gamifying Your Lesson Plan: A Tutorial for Beginners | |||
| 4023 | TBD | TBD | ||||
| 4025 | Using AI to amplify human connections, critical thinking, and career preparedness | Using AI to amplify human connections, critical thinking, and career preparedness | ||||
| 4033 | Teach at Your Best: Harness Your Strengths in the Classroom | Teach at Your Best: Harness Your Strengths in the Classroom | Integrating Career Readiness into Key Courses—Impactful Purpose & Easy Strategies | |||
| 4034 | Influencing – and Grading – Student AI Use | Influencing – and Grading – Student AI Use | ||||
| 4035 | Coordinating Interdisciplinary Teaching with Colleagues (Taylor's Version) | Teaching Beyond the Grade | Teaching Beyond the Grade | |||
| 4040 | Encouraging revision and use of feedback | Encouraging revision and use of feedback | ||||
| 4041 | Let’s reflect on reflection: Incorporating effective reflective learning activities | Let’s reflect on reflection: Incorporating effective reflective learning activities | Leveraging Machine Learning Models to Support Student Learning Outcomes: Opportunities and Challenges | |||
| 4043 | Designing Learning Experiences for AI Literacy and Critical Thinking | Designing Learning Experiences for AI Literacy and Critical Thinking | ||||
| 4051 | Fostering Engagement and Career Readiness with NACE Competencies | Values-Enacted Teaching | Values-Enacted Teaching | |||
| 4076 | Information Literacy Core: Extend the Reach of Your Classroom | Incorporating the 2026-2027 KU Reads selection, Orbital, across disciplines | Incorporating the 2026-2027 KU Reads selection, Orbital, across disciplines |