News & Events
Through readings, group discussion, and course re-design activities, participants will reflect upon the decisions they make in the first few weeks of a course, and the value of the texts, artworks, canonical debates, and theoretical frameworks they first introduce to students.
RSPV
Prepare students to learn about the skills and organization necessary to work with each other as well as to collaborate with communities outside of RISD.
Free. Registration requested. Open to college faculty at RISD and other member institutions.
RSVP
Naimah Petigny, Schiller Family Assistant Professorship in Race in Art and Design Assistant Professor of Literary Arts and Studies, and Falaks Vasa, Critic, Digital + Media, join the Teaching & Learning Lab as Faculty Fellows in 2026-2027.
Learn more and book an appointment with Naimah and Falaks.
The Teaching & Learning Lab put together a Fall 2026 ‘Teacher’s Toolkit’ to help faculty get started with the new term. Access the toolkit here.
Faculty Workshop Series
Syllabus Swap: Strategies for Inclusive Teaching
The "Syllabus Swap" sessions provide space, time, and tools for reflection on, peer-to-peer review of, and revision of syllabus and course components that center inclusive teaching and learning. The workshops aim to help faculty:
- get access to tools and insights for reflective teaching
- “audit” the accessibility and diversity of course components and materials and identify areas for improvement
- identify strategies and practical steps for inclusive feedback and critique, classroom/studio interactions, and grading and assessment
- review and redesign syllabus statements, course policies, and teaching strategies
Inclusive Critique and Feedback
The "Inclusive Critique and Feedback" discussion-based sessions are open to all faculty interested in sharing insights and experiences on the ways they define and use inclusive critique and feedback methods.
Syllabi and Course Design in the Age of AI
These workshops address different approaches, challenges, possibilities and types of digital labor involved in designing a syllabus in our age of born-digital, machine readable, or machine generated content. AI, seen by many as a major disruptive force in higher education pedagogy, has already triggered a wide range of responses from strong skepticism to excitement. Despite valid concerns and criticism, the emergence of new AI tools is the latest, and clearest, signal of transitioning to a new digital environment for producing course content and, more broadly, types of knowledge that cannot be ignored by teachers. This new condition invites reflection on the function and purpose of what we call a “syllabus” but also presents some new possibilities in designing a course that are worth exploring. What should a syllabus look like? What are its key components? How can we build a machine-readable syllabus? Should we redesign assignments or rethink assessment in light of machine-generated content? How do we account for and communicate the ethical issues and questions of accessibility, labor, time, and workload involved in designing course content both for faculty and students?
