Newsletter June 11, 2026
cte.utah.edu

If you haven’t already signed up for CTE's Everybody Reads program, you still have time. This online book group will give you a copy of the book, The Science of Learning Meets AI: A Practical Guide to Purposeful Integration, Student Engagement, and Ethical Practice and step you through it over a 6-week period. The online Canvas guide will include questions, discussions, and examples. We’ll also have two optional Zoom meetings to discuss the book. Finally, we’ll finish the book right before CTE’s Faculty Intensive Teaching Institute at the end of July. The co-author of the book, Dr. Todd Zakrajsek, will be giving a keynote talk during Part 2 of the Institute.  

How it works:

As a research-intensive institution of higher education, the University of Utah employs scholars who are leaders in their fields to conduct research and teach in degree programs across multiple disciplines. To keep instructional quality at the U on the cutting edge, the Martha Bradley Evans Teaching Fellowship encourages and supports faculty engagement in projects related to factors affecting instruction within their disciplines at the national level. Each year, projects address critical issues in twenty-first century, post-pandemic higher education. For the 2026-27 academic year, fellowships will focus on “A Curricular Approach to Advancing Accessibility and Innovating Pedagogy.”

Federal rulings from the Department of Justice and Health and Human Services mandate that public universities the size of the University of Utah meet digital accessibility requirements by April 27, 2027. Although many faculty have been engaged in addressing these requirements at the course level, even more progress can be made with a program- or curriculum-level approach. This year, we are seeking faculty fellows to lead projects that will address federal accessibility requirements AND innovate pedagogy at a curricular level (e.g., developing new video tutorials to be used across multiple online courses, creating digital archives that improve access to critical materials for program curriculum). Each proposed project should impact multiple courses within the same program, demonstrate how the project will address critical digital accessibility issues, and lead to improvements/innovations in pedagogical practice at the program/curriculum level.

Open to Career-line, tenure-track, and tenured faculty at .75FTE or higher. Each fellowship funds up to $10,000 for a project to be completed in 1 year. Learn more and apply to be an MBE Teaching Fellow — applications due July 1, 2026. 

Each year in late July, we offer a 2-part in-person Faculty Intensive Teaching Institute for all faculty.  Part 1, on July 27-28 focuses on Back to Basics and covers fundamental pedagogical issues (e.g., course design, syllabus construction, assessments, Canvas, etc.). Part 2, on July 29-30, dives deeper into a special topic. This year, the theme of Part 2 will be “Issues Affecting the Future of Teaching and Learning in Higher Ed: AI, Accessibility, and Durable Skills.” Over these two days, we’ll discuss strategies and issues relating to AI, accessibility and durable skills in teaching, as well as how these issues interact. 

Registration is free, but capacity is limited, and lunch will be served all 4 days. The event is in-person only.  Participants may register for Part 1 or Part 2, or both. 

Effective August 1, 2026, Revised Policy 6-100 requires that any educational trainees or graduate student who is the Instructor of Record for a course section should complete training or a course on teaching in higher education either before or concurrently with the teaching assignment or have comparable, prior experience in teaching in higher education. Training may be conducted by the academic unit or can be completed through the Martha Bradley Evans Center for Teaching Excellence, or through other means. For students who plan to complete the requirement through CTE, we recommend either attending our Graduate Teaching Institute next May or taking the course CTLE 6000 Teaching in Higher Education during fall or spring semester. This course is part of CTE’s graduate certificate in Teaching in Higher Education. 

Are you in a STEM field and interested in connecting with other education professionals as you work through digital accessibility issues?  As a reminder, the Department of Justice’s Title II ADA mandates that all digital content (including course content) provided by universities to students should meet WCAG guidelines by April 24, 2027 — you can learn more about what this means for you at CTE’s Accessibility Essentials site. 

If you’re in a STEM field, we also encourage you to join the STEM Accessibility Community of Practice being formed by individuals from multiple universities to share ideas, challenges, resources, and promising practices.