March 2026 Academic Technology Newsletter

Spring is in full swing at CSUN, and innovation is everywhere!

This month we are exploring the powerful intersection of innovation and inclusion. This newsletter is packed with opportunities to engage, beginning with Matador AI Connect on March 27th and our upcoming Digital Equity Day on April 29th, featuring keynote speaker Jenny Nguyen, the 2025 - 2026 Doctoral Fellow in Academic Technology, presenting "Faculty Perceptions of Generative AI
Opportunities, Challenges, and Equity Implications."

As we prepare for the April 24 ADA Title II update, the UDC is offering resources such as professional captioning through Panopto and a variety of accessibility micro‑courses and workshops to support accessible course design. We also invite you to join Dr. Carmen Saunders-Russell's thought-provoking Brown Bag series, and open discussions centered on the ethical implications of AI.

Read about the transformative potential of Extended Reality (XR) in the classroom, and learn how Google.org’s AI Science Impact Challenge is seeking breakthrough applications that leverage artificial intelligence to address complex, cross‑disciplinary problems.

Whether you are looking to refine your technical skills or join a campus-wide conversation on the future of teaching and learning, there is a place for you in our vibrant community.

Join us on March 27th from 10am to 2pm in the Northridge Center for Matador AI Connect, a faculty-led, campus-wide collaboration event designed to spark conversations about responsible AI in teaching, learning, research, and campus operations. Whether you’re just beginning to explore AI or leading advanced research, Matador AI Connect offers a space to collaborate and learn from peers.

Digital Equity Day brings the campus community together to explore how technology access, inclusive design, and innovation intersect to support student success. The event will feature a Keynote by Jenny Nguyen, this year's Doctoral Fellow in Academic Technology, discussions and collaborative opportunities to reduce barriers in digital learning environments. 

The update to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II takes effect in less than 60 days, on April 24! And you can now get unlimited professional captions for your videos directly in Panopto. You can submit a request directly to our captioning vendor, Verbit, from inside Panopto. When your captions are ready, Verbit uploads them right to your video.

At the recent Faculty Retreat, CSUN faculty explored how Extended Reality (XR) is transforming teaching and learning. From virtual simulations to immersive storytelling, XR helps students move from theory to hands-on experience—boosting engagement, empathy, and retention.

The growing partnership between accessibility teams across the CSU and the California Community Colleges means that CSU faculty and staff now have access to the CCC’s library of self‑paced accessibility micro‑courses. These micro-courses align with the Universal Design Center (UDC)’s goal to offer accessibility training in a variety of modalities as well as topics.

Google.org’s AI Science Impact Challenge is an open call supporting innovative projects that use AI to accelerate scientific discovery and generate real-world impact. The initiative seeks breakthrough applications that leverage artificial intelligence to address complex problems across disciplines. If you are considering applying, Academic Technology can help connect you with relevant campus resources and collaborators.

The update to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II takes effect in less than 60 days, on April 24! The Chancellor’s Office and our own Universal Design Center offer a variety of resources to help you reach your accessibility goals. Accessibility Made Easier: New Tools & April Workshops

This training will cover the fundamentals of creating accessible documents using Microsoft Word. Participants will learn how to apply key structural elements to ensure their documents are inclusive and accessible to all users.

CSUN is introducing two new tools—the CSU PDF Accessibility Remediation Tool and the Canvas Course Accessibility Report—to help you quickly and effectively improve the accessibility of your course PDFs through a simple three-step process.

Learn how to effectively use Microsoft PowerPoint to enhance presentations with visual interest while maintaining accessibility, how to avoid common accessibility barriers, utilize structural elements for accessible design, and convert presentations into accessible formats such as tagged PDFs, Braille, or large print.

Find more professional development opportunities on the Academic Technology workshop calendar. Can't make it to a workshop? Book an appointment with one of our team members.

This brown bag discussion will examine current research on the factors that shape the trustworthiness of AI systems, including how racism and other forms of bias can emerge through data, design, and deployment. Discussions will center on five core areas: data quality, algorithmic bias, opacity, safety and security, and responsibility attribution. Hosted by Dr. Carmen Saunders Russell. 

This spring, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (CSBS) continues its college-wide exploration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Extended Reality (VXR) in education and social services. Supported by Dean Searcy and led by Dr. Ellie Kazemi (Department of Psychology), this series creates an open space for thoughtful, critical conversation about how these technologies are shaping our classrooms, disciplines, and daily work. Hosted by Dr. Ellie Kazemi. 

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of students’ everyday learning practices. While AI can support learning, it also raises a new educational risk: cognitive erosion, the gradual weakening of critical thinking when cognitive effort is outsourced to machines. This two-part workshop series explores how instructors can integrate AI into their pedagogical approach without sacrificing critical thinking and while preserving intellectual rigor, metacognition. Hosted by Dr. Deniz Marti. 

Data doesn’t just describe society—it reflects its power dynamics and blind spots, so AI trained on that data can quietly absorb and scale historical bias (race, gender, disability, class) into “automated” decisions. In this brown bag, we’ll unpack how that inheritance happens and what ethical model training can look like in practice—stronger data governance, bias testing and monitoring, community-informed design, and accountability that goes beyond a checkbox. Hosted by Dr. Carmen Saunders Russell. 

Part II is an applied, hands-on session where participants redesign their own assignments using the principles introduced in Part I. Through breakout discussions and guided activities, participants will transform existing assignments into AI-resilient learning tasks that promote critical thinking, metacognition, and responsible AI use, exploring AI-integrated active learning strategies.
Hosted by Dr. Deniz Marti. 

Share topics you would like to see covered in a future newsletter, give us feedback on your experience with instructional technology, or let us know of workshop resources you are interested in with the Academic Technology Feedback Form.

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