Our traditional sessions are 50 minutes and offered mainly face-to-face with the option to join virtually. We cover a wide range of topics like using AI, mentorship and career development, how to handle classroom conflict, and more. Many sessions are facilitated by TLPDC staff, and we also partner with other faculty and departments to present innovative ideas and campus resources. Please note that while we do offer a virtual option, these are designed to be delivered face-to-face and do not follow best practices for a true synchronous format.
Please click on the session title to see the description and option to register.
- Nov7Fri
Mind Behind the Machine: Thinking Beyond the Prompt – (November 7, 2025 01:00 PM – 01:50 PM)
Location:TLPDC Room 153
2802 18th Street
Lubbock, TX 79409Room: TLPDC 153
Available Seats: 13
This workshop introduces faculty to a curriculum module designed to build students’ critical AI literacy through interactive, reflective learning. In this workshop, faculty will learn about and reflect on how they currently use AI tools in their own teaching, research, and daily lives. Participants will explore a series of scaffolded modules that help students:
- Understand what AI is (and isn’t) and how generative models work.
- Use AI thoughtfully by experimenting with different prompts and iterating on outputs.
- Evaluate AI-generated content critically to identify accuracy, bias, and missing context.
- Nov10Mon
Effects of AI-feedback on advanced L2 German learners’ writing – (November 10, 2025 02:00 PM – 02:50 PM)
Location:TLPDC Room 153
2802 18th Street
Lubbock, TX 79409Room: TLPDC 153
Available Seats: 34
Many scholars express concern over students' use of AI in academic work, but whether we embrace it or not, AI is here to stay. This presentation will offer a practical example of how AI can be thoughtfully integrated into the foreign language classroom, specifically in a way that still challenges students to think critically and engage actively with their own work. Over the course of two semesters, advanced learners of German used AI tools to improve their writing. In the first step, students wrote various texts in class without any AI assistance. After completing their drafts, they submitted them to an AI program using a prompt that instructed the AI to “highlight and explain but not correct” any errors. The AI provided detailed explanations of the mistakes, which students then used to revise their work independently. These "first revised drafts" (including first drafts and AI feedback) were submitted to the instructor for feedback and grading. Based on the instructor’s feedback, students made further revisions and submitted a final version of their texts. In this presentation, we will walk through the procedure in detail, share sample texts and AI feedback, and discuss the instructor’s and students' and reflections, as collected through a survey. The goal is to encourage fellow (foreign) language instructors—and anyone else who asks students to write essays, reports, or other assignments— to implement AI in their teaching in meaningful ways. This workshop session is designed to be delivered in a face-to-face format; however, we understand that you might need to attend remotely for a variety of reasons. Please use this link to join the conversation remotely: Teams link Meeting ID: 221 378 248 379 7 Passcode: 2DR2Xy6C
- Nov11Tue
TAI: AI as Virtual Teaching Assistant – (November 11, 2025 02:00 PM – 02:50 PM)
Location:TLPDC Room 153
2802 18th Street
Lubbock, TX 79409Room: TLPDC 153
Available Seats: 9
Generative AI (AI) presents many challenges for educators, but this emerging technology also presents opportunities to improve student learning and lessen the burden on faculty. In a sense, AI can be use as a virtual “TA” to assist with reviewing, creating, and even assessing class materials. The workshop will also address the potential pitfalls of using AI, including inaccurate information and balancing faculties’ own use of AI with restrictions placed on student use. This workshop session is designed to be delivered in a face-to-face format; however, we understand that you might need to attend remotely for a variety of reasons. Please use this link to join the conversation remotely:
Meeting ID: 215 555 920 182 3
Passcode: HN9Y97Xv
- Nov12Wed
Dialing It In: The Art of the Public Interview – (November 12, 2025 10:00 AM – 10:50 AM)
Location:TLPDC Room 150
2802 18th Street
Lubbock, TX 79409Room: TLPDC 150
Available Seats: 35
As scholars and teachers, faculty are often invited to comment upon areas of their expertise and its relation to matters of public policy: linking history, sociology, sciences, economics, and related scholarly disciplines to topics of the day. As academics, we are adept with our knowledge, and with calibrating our presentation of that knowledge to the audiences we are addressing. But either conducting or responding to an interview can provide its own challenges and opportunities: how to ask, and how to answer, and how to tailor our questions and responses in a fashion that maximizes clarity and minimizes potential distortions. In this 50-minute presentation, Christopher Smith, professor of musicology and founding director of the Vernacular Music Center, a veteran of three decades in public radio, co-director of Reciprocal Studios podcasting consultancy, and showrunner of three ongoing podcasts (SOUNDING HISTORY, VOICES FROM THE VERNACULAR MUSIC CENTER, and THE BASSANDA PODCAST), will provide guidelines, visualizations, participatory exercises, best practices, and technical advice that help academics “dial in” their capacity for effective, accessible, engaging, and rewarding interview experiences, on both sides of the microphone. Teams Link Meeting ID: 210 288 269 353 1 Passcode: qh73nh9E
- Nov13Thu
Auto-Grading with AI and Large Language Models – (November 13, 2025 09:30 AM – 10:20 AM)
Location:TLPDC Room 150
2802 18th Street
Lubbock, TX 79409Room: TLPDC 150
Available Seats: 28
With the rise and widespread adoption of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) in recent years, extensive research has been conducted on their applications across various domains. One such domain is education, where a key area of interest for researchers is investigating the implementation and reliability of LLMs in grading student responses. In this talk, I will discuss how LLMs have been used in grading across six academic sub-fields: educational assessment, essay grading, natural sciences and technology, social sciences and humanities, computer science and engineering, and mathematics. I will also discuss what prompting techniques have been used employed in building those systems and the effectiveness of LLM based grading for both structured and open-ended responses. This workshop session is designed to be delivered in a face-to-face format; however, we understand that you might need to attend remotely for a variety of reasons. Please use this link to join the conversation remotely:
Meeting ID: 226 618 674 300 5Passcode: WR3nd6jd - Nov14Fri
Raider Success Hub Fundamentals for Faculty – (November 14, 2025 01:00 PM – 01:50 PM)
Location:TLPDC Room 151
2802 18th Street
Lubbock, TX 79409Room: TLPDC 151
Available Seats: 71
Raider Success Hub (RSH) is Texas Tech’s centralized platform for supporting student success. In this training, faculty will learn basic navigation of the system, how to view student information, submit alerts, complete progress surveys, and more. Faculty play a critical role in student success, and this session will demonstrate how RSH makes it easier to offer timely support and connect students to the right resources at the right time. This workshop session is designed to be delivered in a face-to-face format; however, we understand that you might need to attend remotely for a variety of reasons. Please use this link to join the conversation remotely:
Meeting ID: 276 964 546 675 0Passcode: f2Dr6Tc7