Penn State University

Events


Schreyer Institute programs are for anyone at Penn State who has an instructional role or is preparing for a future one. Our participants are typically faculty, graduate students, and postdocs. Academic administrators, instructional designers, staff members, and undergraduates in instructional roles are also welcome.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Course
Facilitated by Mary Ann Tobin, Associate Research Professor
Thursday, 3/5/2026 to Thursday, 12/31/2026, Asychronous
Canvas -- World Campus Faculty Development Canvas Course
Portrait Mary Ann Tobin

In this free, non-credit, self-directed, and entirely asynchronous course, participants explore the rationale and research that supports designing learning experiences with UDL, read scenarios about UDL applications, and reflect on ways to apply UDL to their own instructional practices. This course is open to faculty of any rank or status, teaching assistants, and post-doctoral instructors and members of the learning design community.

Register anytime at the following link: https://psu.catalog.instructure.com/browse/wcfd/courses/ol-360001-universal-design-for-learning-2026 . You will have 90 days to complete the course.

This course is a collaboration between the Schreyer Institute and World Campus Online Faculty Development.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please contact the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at SITE@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

Endorsement: Inclusive and Equitable Teaching
Facilitated by Beate Brunow, Associate Director and Associate Research Professor
Friday, 3/13/2026 to Friday, 5/1/2026, Asynchronous
Canvas
Portrait Beate Brunow

This endorsement engages experienced instructors in implementing inclusive and equitable teaching in their current or upcoming course(s). This program assumes participants already understand the need for inclusive and equitable practices. Eligible participants must have teaching responsibilities in the current or upcoming academic year so that they can most immediately benefit from the content of the program by applying program concepts to their teaching. Participants will revise a syllabus or assignments for future use, reflect on their teaching based on student feedback and peer interactions, and consider how they might cultivate belonging in their courses. Once participants have registered, they will be added to a Canvas course and connected with a SITE faculty consultant.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please contact the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at SITE@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

AI Literacy in Faculty + Optional 30-Minute Design Sprint
Facilitated by Logan Harvey, Research Faculty
Monday, 3/16/2026, 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Via Zoom

Portrait Logan Harvey

Developing AI literacy is essential for faculty who want to engage responsibly with generative AI in higher education. In this workshop, we will explore the core components of AI literacy and consider how AI literacy applies to their own teaching, research, and professional practices. Through discussion and hands-on activities, faculty will leave with a clearer understanding of their own AI literacy and practical ways to include it in their workflows and model it in the classroom. Includes an optional 30-minute design sprint at the end.

Registration will close 1 hour before the event starts. Registrants will receive a Zoom link at least 1 hour before the event.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please contact the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at SITE@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

Metacognitive Strategies for the Classroom
Facilitated by Logan Harvey, Research Faculty and Alia Shalaby, Graduate Instructional Consultant
Tuesday, 3/17/2026, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Via Zoom
Portrait Logan Harvey Portrait Alia Shalaby

Metacognition - thinking about one’s own thinking - is a powerful lever for student success, yet students rarely develop it on their own. In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore simple, research-based strategies that help learners plan, monitor, and reflect on their learning. Participants will leave with practical techniques they can immediately integrate into their teaching to deepen student learning and independence.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please contact the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at SITE@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

Talking about Supporting International Graduate Students in the Classroom
Facilitated by Logan Harvey, Research Faculty; Jose Sandoval-LLanos, Graduate Instructional Consultant; Melanie Miller-Foster, Associate Teaching Professor of International Agriculture; Hyung Joon Yoon, Professor in Charge, Workforce Education and Development; Ludmila Ferreira Bandeira, Ph.D. Student in Comparative Politics; and Political Methodology and Madiha Noor, Ph.D. Candidate in Curriculum & Instruction and Comparative International Education
Wednesday, 3/18/2026, 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Via Zoom
Portrait Logan Harvey
Portrait Jose Sandoval-LlanosPortrait Melanie Miller Foster

Portrait Dr. Hyung Joon Yoon

In this session of the Talking about Teaching series, faculty and graduate student panelists will share lived experiences that illuminate the complexities of navigating graduate education across cultures. To strengthen our collective capacity to support international graduate students as integral members of our research and teaching community, we will identify concrete strategies to build classroom climates that honor diverse forms of knowledge, promote belonging, and sustain student well-being in rigorous academic settings. Please bring your questions about ways to support international students for our panelists! 

Registration will close 1 hour before the event starts. Registrants will receive a Zoom link at least 45 minutes before the workshop begins.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please contact the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at SITE@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

Moving Beyond the Banking Model in our Teaching
Facilitated by Jose Sandoval-Llanos, Graduate Instructional Consultant
Thursday, 3/19/2026, 10:35 a.m. - 11:50 a.m.
Via Zoom

Portrait of Jose

Paulo Freire challenged educators to move beyond the "banking" model of teaching, in which instructors "deposit" knowledge into passive students. Yet, despite our best intentions, we still find ourselves immersed in these practices. In this interactive workshop, we will reflect on our own educational experiences and co-create strategies to adopt Freire's dialogic pedagogy. Together, we will reimagine teaching as a collaborative, liberatory practice.

Registration will close 1 hour before the event starts. Registrants will receive a Zoom link at least 45 minutes before the workshop begins.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please contact the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at SITE@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

Rooted in Place: Leveraging Location to Enrich Learning and Strengthen Impact
Facilitated by Laura Cruz, Research Professor and Dr. Ashley Holmes, Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Excellence & Executive Director of the Center for Teaching & Learning
Friday, 3/20/2026, 10:30 a.m. - 03:30 a.m.
State College Municipal Building

Portrait Laura Cruz

Portrait Dr. Ashley Holmes

Dr. Ashley Holmes leads Oregon State University’s Office of Academic Faculty Excellence (OAFE) and serves as Executive Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). In this role, Holmes provides strategic leadership to advance teaching effectiveness, faculty development, and student learning in alignment with OSU’s mission.

With a background in rhetoric, composition, and the teaching of English, Holmes’s research centers around place-based learning, scholarship of teaching and learning, and public writing and rhetoric. Her recent book, Learning on Location: Place-Based Approaches for Diverse Learners in Higher Education (Routledge, Nov. 2023), draws on her own teaching as well as interviews with faculty across many disciplines in the U.S. and Canada. Prior to joining OSU in 2024, she was academic faculty in English at Georgia State University for 12 years where she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in community-engaged writing, composition pedagogy, rhetorical theory, and research methods.

This event includes a keynote address, workshop, and an ideation session (as well as lunch). Participants may choose to attend one or more sessions as their schedules permit.

Schedule

  • 10:30–11:30 Keynote
  • 11:30–12:30 Lunch (with signing)
  • 12:30–1:45 Workshop
  • 2:00–3:30 Ideation Session

Register

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please contact the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at SITE@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

2026 Schreyer Conference on Alternative Grading
Tuesday, 3/24/2026, 12:15 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Via Zoom

The 2026 Schreyer Conference will focus on alternative grading, or ways in which instructors are re-imagining their approach to grading.  These approaches go by many different names—ungrading, specifications (spec) grading, contract grading, standards-based grading, labor-based grading and more---but they share a common focus on changing how and why we grade our students.   

  
The conference includes a keynote address by Robert Talbert, author of the popular book Grading for Growth (2023), as well as a series of panels in which your Penn State colleagues (students and instructors) will share their first-hand experiences with a wide range of approaches to grading differently.    
  
We invite you to join us for a day of lively conversations, practical insights, and thoughtful reflection focused on a long-standing practice we all share--grading.     
  

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please contact the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at SITE@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

Course in Ethical Pedagogy
Facilitated by Alia Shalaby, Graduate Instructional Consultant and Jose Sandoval-Llanos, Graduate Instructional Consultant
Thursday, 3/26/2026 to Thursday, 4/16/2026, 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Via Zoom
Portrait Alia Shalaby Portrait Jose Sandoval-Llanos

This short course is an introductory overview of ethical pedagogical practices that support student learning for all students. The course includes research-based lessons, workshops, interactive coffee hours, reflective journal activities, and opportunities for developing materials like lesson plans and teaching philosophy statements. The course is intended to support advanced graduate students and post-docs who seek to diversify and deepen their pedagogy and teaching materials. Upon successful completion of the course, participants earn a certificate of completion.

The course will take place over a 5-week period and is expected to entail about 25 hours of work (total). It involves:

a) Zoom workshops on Thursdays: March 26, April 2, 9, and 16 from 11:00–12:30pm EST
b) Coffee hour chats: Hybrid format; time/day are based on your availability. Location and Zoom link will be announced the first week of class.

Detailed information about the course can be found at: http://schreyerinstitute.psu.edu/cep
Space is limited. The application deadline is March 4, 2026.
To apply: https://tinyurl.com/site-cep

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please contact the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at SITE@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

Faculty Leaders for AI-Aware Instruction
Facilitated by Larkin Hood, Associate Research Professor, Logan Harvey, Research Faculty, Beate Brunow, Associate Research Professor
Friday, 3/27/2026, 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Rider Building Room 315

portrait of Larkinportrait of Loganportrait of BeateAI-aware Faculty Leaders is a group of colleagues in a SITE grant program who will meet in-person two times during the 2025-26 academic year to share resources, insights, and to identify additional needs to address current and future needs of the discipline.

This is a closed event customized for the requesting department. If you are interested in a Custom Workshop for your area, contact us at site@psu.edu.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please contact the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at SITE@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

Developing Teaching and Learning Research on your EDGE Project
Facilitated by Laura Cruz, Research Professor
Monday, 3/30/2026, 12:15 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.
Via Zoom

Portrait Laura Cruz

In this interactive webinar, you will gain access to a research toolkit (including an IRB) that has been developed especially for EDGE (virtual exchange) projects. Using this toolkit, you will be able to take the first steps towards designing and implementing a publishable/presentable teaching and learning scholarship project—starting as soon as this semester.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please contact the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at SITE@psu.edu or call 814-863-2599 at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the program to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

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