Eberly Center › Faculty Series on Teaching and Learning

Faculty Series on Teaching and Learning

Neuroinclusive Seminar Series

The Neuroinclusive Teaching Series is a joint collaboration between multiple units of both Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). These three sessions can be taken together as a series or as standalones, though we recommend attending the first session at minimum.

Session One: Introduction to Neurodiversity and Neuroinclusive Learning

What do the terms neurodiversity and neuroinclusive mean and how do they relate to neurodivergence? How can instructors support neurodivergent students in the classroom? This introductory seminar will unpack these terms, the strengths and challenges of neurodivergent students, and offer an overview of the pedagogical practices that can support these learners. Participants will have a chance to engage with a specific practice and then collectively brainstorm strategies for use in their own teaching contexts. Please join us for this first, foundational seminar in this series!

Friday, March 14, 10:00-11:15am
Remote via Zoom
Register here

Session Two: Re-envisioning the Classroom for Neurodiversity

Note: This session was previously titled "Creating Neuroaffirming Classrooms”

How can instructors create learning environments for neurodivergent learners that are conducive to their success, while balancing the needs of all students? Building on the Foundational session, participants will learn about the influence of pedagogical settings and explore concrete strategies to academically enhance the physical, environmental, and social aspects of learning. Participants will collaborate to design incremental strategies to various aspects of their course design and teaching.

Friday, March 21, 10:00am - 11:15am, 75 minutes
Remote via Zoom
Register here

Session Three: Neurodivergence and the Accommodation Process

Some, though certainly not all, individuals who identify as neurodivergent experience disability. In this session, Leigh Culley from Pitt's Disability Resources and Services and Catherine Getchell from CMU's Office of Disability Resources discuss the reasons why someone who is neurodivergent might experience disability as a result. We will share some common and not-so-common accommodations that may support a neurodivergent student in fully accessing their education, and how instructors and advisors can best support students in connecting students with our offices and implementing approved accommodations.

Friday, March 28, 10:00am - 11:00am, 60 minutes
Remote via Zoom
Register here

Special Interest Group: Designing Inclusive Undergraduate Research at Scale (DIURS)

Tuesdays, March 18, 25, & April 1, 8, 9:30-10:30am
Remote via Zoom

Are you interested in reimagining approaches to scaling undergraduate research and creative inquiry? Join colleagues to generate innovative models for recruiting and inclusively mentoring undergraduate researchers from diverse backgrounds. For this SIG, we invite faculty of any rank and postdocs from all schools and colleges, even if undergraduate research is not the norm in your field. No prior experience with undergraduate research or mentoring required.

Eberly-Powered Instructional Community (EPIC)

Four Tuesdays or Wednesdays from 12:00 to 1:30pm, starting March 25, 2025
Eberly Center (Tepper Quad room TBD)

NOTE: Registration for this program has been paused.

Technology-Enhanced Learning: Developing Critical Thinking Skills Through Peer Review

Wednesday, April 30, 11:00am-12:00pm
Tepper Quad 1308

Are you looking for strategies to help students engage in critical thinking in an era of generative AI?

Join us for a hands-on workshop exploring peer review as a powerful tool to deepen student learning and reduce reliance on AI-generated content. You’ll learn how to implement peer review activities that encourage meaningful engagement and equip students with heuristics and norms for effective feedback. You’ll experience Feedback Fruits, a suite of tools to help streamline the peer review process. We will discuss how scaffolding and rubrics can set students up for success. Walk away with practical strategies and ready-to-use templates to help you foster more thoughtful, engaged learning experiences for your students.

Recurring Signature Eberly Center Programs

Incoming Faculty Orientation

Incoming Faculty Orientation is a university-wide program brought to you by the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty in partnership with the Office of the Vice Provost for Education and the Eberly Center. This multi-day event, held annually the week before fall classes begin, provides opportunities to meet other new faculty, learn about evidence-based teaching practices as well as CMU students, policies, and norms, and explore what support CMU provides to faculty. For more information and registration details please visit the Incoming Faculty Orientation webpage.

Teaching and Learning Summit

This highly interactive event is designed to...

foster dialogue, networking, and collaboration within and across disciplines.
showcase the transferable, evidence-based, and innovative teaching strategies employed by CMU instructors of all types.
disseminate the educational research of CMU instructors and learning scientists.

Find out more about the Teaching & Learning Summit

Provost’s Inclusive Teaching Fellowship

PITF supports the adoption of inclusive teaching techniques by CMU faculty of any rank by working closely with the Eberly Center to iterate on a CMU course they are actively teaching. Fellows also meet one or twice per month as a special interest group to explore research and strategies on inclusive teaching. See more info and examples on the PITF website.

Wimmer Faculty Fellowship for the Development of Teaching

Wimmer Fellowships provide resources and Eberly Center support to junior faculty designing or redesigning a course by innovating course materials and/or pedagogical approaches. Each Fellow works in close collaboration with Eberly Center colleagues to design, implement, and assess the impacts of their innovations.

See more information on the Wimmer Fellowship here...

Teaching as Research Institute:
Can generative AI tools enhance student learning?

Are you wondering how generative AI tools might enhance student learning and equity in CMU courses? Join a community of instructor-scholars brainstorming how to apply generative AI tools in their teaching AND measure the impacts on student learning! Prior experience with AI or educational research is NOT required.

This 4-session program will help you generate ideas for teaching innovations AND prepare to study them in your own CMU course, with tangible Eberly Center support from start to finish. Participants will:

- Design a generative AI teaching intervention to implement and investigate,
- Identify data sources to measure student learning,
- Design a study to conduct in your course, and
- Exit with an action plan, including Eberly support, that you could submit as a Teaching as Research Fellowship proposal.

Teaching as Research Fellowship: Generative AI

Generative AI Teaching as Research (GAITAR) Fellows receive a $5000 award and copious in-kind support from a team of Eberly Center colleagues to:

implement a teaching innovation using a generative AI tool in a Fall 2025 or Spring 2026 CMU course;
measure the impacts of the innovation on student learning; and
disseminate findings at CMU and beyond.

Fellows also participate in a special interest group of instructor-scholars meeting several times per semester to discuss their successes, challenges, and lessons learned teaching with generative AI tools.

See more information on the GAITAR Fellowships here...

Prior experience with generative AI or educational research is NOT required.
All CMU instructors of record are eligible to apply.

Instrumented, Technology-enhanced, Active Learning Classrooms

Proposal due date: TBD

Program duration: up to one semester of class sessions

The Eberly Center provides two instrumented technology-enhanced, active learning classrooms in the Tepper Quad. These rooms are designed to capture rich data on classroom interactions and behaviors that can be used for (a) formative feedback on your teaching and your students’ learning, (b) exploring the effect of a new technology or pedagogy you wish to incorporate in your course, (c) conducting educational research in a real class setting, and more! Faculty work closely with Eberly colleagues to design and implement their proposed use of an instrumented classroom as well as to collect, interpret, and apply any data collected.

For more info: see examples of use cases and the classroom request form