AI Amplified: Showcase Spotlights explores innovative applications of generative AI in teaching and learning. Each session features educators pioneering thoughtful, pedagogically-grounded approaches to AI integration in their classrooms. This series is co-sponsored by the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation, MarylandOnline, and the Council for University System Faculty (CUSF).
September Spotlight: LLMs in English Departments: Teaching Rhetoric as AI Literacy
Monday, September 21, 2026 | 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Presenter: Dr. Tanya Olson, Lecturer, Department of English, UMBC
About the Session: This session reframes interactions with generative AI as a rhetorical act within language-driven systems. In UMBC's ENGL 211, students apply audience, purpose, tone, and revision principles to AI interactions, learning to treat models as thinking partners rather than text generators. Participants will examine course-based assignments that position AI as a process-oriented tool, helping students critically shape and evaluate AI output across disciplines.
October Spotlight: AI as a Design Thinking Partner: Enhancing Empathy and Customer Discovery in Business and Information Systems Education
Monday, October 19, 2026 | 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Presenter: Dr. Andrew Mangle, Associate Professor, Management Information Systems, Bowie State University
About the Session: Students often miss opportunities for deeper inquiry during interviews. This session explores a course-specific AI tool that provides structured feedback on student interviews, highlighting assumptions and missed follow-ups. Participants will learn how AI can function as a feedback partner to strengthen empathy, listening, and reflective practice across project-based courses.
November Spotlight: Designing Trustworthy AI-Supported Virtual Teaching Assistants: The JAIMIE Framework
Monday, November 16, 2026 | 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Presenters: Charlotte Seckman, PhD, RN, NI-BC, CNE, FAAN, Professor, University of Maryland School of Nursing, University of Maryland, Baltimore and Cory Stephens, DNP, MSN, RN, CNE, NI-BC, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland School of Nursing, University of Maryland, Baltimore
About the Session: How can faculty use generative AI to extend instructional support without replacing human judgment? This interactive session introduces the JAIMIE Framework, a model for designing trustworthy AI-supported virtual teaching assistants in higher education. Using JAIMIE’s evolution from a course-embedded assistant to a broader ecosystem of specialized AI personas, Cory Stephens and Charlotte Seckman will demonstrate how purpose-built assistants can be grounded in approved course materials, bounded by clear guardrails, and evaluated for educational value. Participants will see live examples of text, voice, and avatar-based interaction and consider how a similar approach could support their own courses and institutional priorities.
January Spotlight: Using Generative AI to Teach Case Conceptualization Skills in Clinical Psychology
Monday, January 18, 2027 | 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Presenters: Dr. Amanda Draheim, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Goucher College
About the Session: Case conceptualization requires synthesis, judgment, and feedback—skills that are difficult to scale. This session explores how generative AI was used to scaffold readings, simulate role‑plays, and provide structured feedback while maintaining ethical boundaries. Participants will learn adaptable strategies for positioning AI as a developmental support tool that strengthens reasoning, reflection, and professional identity across applied disciplines.
Registration Opening Soon
February Spotlight: Using Generative AI to Explore Journalism Archives: Opportunities, Limits, and Verification
Monday, February 15, 2027 | 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Presenters: Dr. Derek Willis, Lecturer, Data and Computational Journalism, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park
About the Session: This session examines how journalism students used generative AI to surface insights from large archives of local reporting while documenting AI limitations such as hallucinations and classification errors. By treating AI output as a starting point rather than an authority, students learned about transparency, verification, and responsible use. Participants will gain transferable approaches for teaching AI‑assisted analysis, documentation, and ethical disclosure in research‑based courses.
Registration Opening Soon
April Spotlight: Topic TBA
Monday, April 19, 2027 | 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Presenters: TBA
About the Session: TBA
Registration Details TBA
May Spotlight: Ungrading in the Age of AI: Formative Feedback as a Mechanism for Growth
Monday, May 17, 2027 | 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Presenters: Zia Hassan, Montgomery College
About the Session: Generative AI has broken the assumption that a written artifact reflects a student's own thinking, which undercuts traditional grading. Ungrading solves that problem with mastery-based feedback loops instead, and students can use this feedback to grow their skills rather than calculating how many points are needed to get an A, and potentially using AI as a “shortcut."
Registration Details TBA
