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The end of the semester can feel overwhelming for both you and your students. Instead of just pushing through, this is a good moment to pause, reflect, and capture what you’ve learned while it’s still fresh. A little intentional reflection now can make a big difference when you return to your course next semester. 

You don’t need to fix everything right now. Instead, think of this moment as leaving a trail for your future self, small notes, quick reflections, and honest observations about what this semester really looked like. Those details are easy to forget but incredibly valuable when you’re planning again. Even a few intentional minutes now can save you time, reduce stress, and help you make more thoughtful decisions later. Ending the semester with reflection isn’t about adding more work, it’s about making your work more sustainable and grounded moving forward. 

Take a sneak peek at an upcoming enhancement to your Canvas experience: Enhanced Rubrics. This feature is coming on the coattails of some performance improvements to SpeedGrader slated for Summer 2026.

“Enhanced Rubrics” will become the new default Canvas experience beginning Fall 2026, but you can take it for a test drive this summer. If you are teaching a Summer 2026 course, you can enable feature preview mode by opening one of your courses, going to course Settings, navigating to Feature Options, and enabling Enhanced Rubrics. If you are not teaching a Summer course but still want to try it out, you can enable it in a Sandbox course.

Do you want a faster way to build assignments and keep grading consistent in Canvas? Reusing rubrics allows you to apply the same scoring structure across multiple assignments without rebuilding it each time.

With Enhanced Rubrics becoming the default Canvas experience in Fall 2026, reused rubrics will be easier to manage and apply in SpeedGrader. When Enhanced Rubrics become the default, your existing Canvas rubrics and scores will be preserved and will open in the new interface. Here’s a quick step‑by‑step on how to reuse rubrics in Canvas. You can also explore these Infrastructure guides for more details. 

Open Office Hours with ITS: Learning Technology’s Instructional Design Team: Tuesdays 10am–12pm

Drop in for a conversation with an instructional designer! We can assist with course and assessment design, discuss teaching questions, and help with Canvas, Teams, and other learning technology.

No registration is needed; you can just join online.

Please join us tomorrow, Wednesday, April 29 from 4 to 5pm at the Weatherspoon for our spring Biergarten to celebrate the end of the semester with colleagues from across campus. This is an opportunity to gather informally with colleagues and relax with a variety of refreshments and beverages (including alcoholic and non-alcoholic options). This is a casual, drop-in event so please feel free to attend for as long or as little as you are able.

In partnership, the Division of Student Success and the UTLC are pleased to announce the Student Experience Project. We will be building a community of practice for faculty that will run from August 2026 to May 2027. This pilot focuses on folks who teach 100 and 200 level classes, with hopes of expanding in the future.

Faculty will spend 3 to 5 hours a month learning instructional practices that are centered around belonging and inclusion in order to increase student outcomes, along with receiving support from other faculty and student success staff. Meetings and trainings will be a mix of face to face and online, and there will social opportunities as well.

If you are interested, please fill out this form. Questions may be directed to Stephanie Keene (s_keene@uncg.edu) or Joyce Clapp (jfclapp@uncg.edu).

May will feature several professional development opportunities!  We will have more details about these events in the coming weeks, including exact times and locations, but we'd love to get on your calendar! Please save the date (and register) for the following:

AI Institute: May 11:

The UTLC is pleased to welcome Dr. Dana Riger as the keynote speaker for this year’s Annual AI Institute. An Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and inaugural Faculty Fellow for Generative AI at the UNC Center for Faculty Excellence, Dr. Riger brings valuable insight into the evolving role of AI in higher education, with a focus on thoughtful, practical integration into teaching and learning.

This year’s institute will be offered as a half-day event and will include a keynote address and a breakout session hour designed for collaboration and practical application. Breakfast and heavy snacks will be provided. Registration is still open—don’t miss the opportunity to engage with colleagues and explore innovative approaches to AI in education.

In The First (Support for those teaching 100/200 level classes): May 12:

Are you teaching a 100/200 level course? A student’s first semester is critical to their academic success – courses that are “In the First!” inning of the academic career set up the whole game.  

This daylong Institute focuses on the unique teaching needs of 100/200 level courses. Participants will learn more about our incoming students, how to prepare for their unique needs, and the tools available to you for supporting them.

Accessibility Incubator: May 18 & 19:

In preparation for campus compliance with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, join the UTLC and campus partners for a second offering of the accessibility retrofitting incubator. Bring your course and work directly with campus experts to ensure your courses are accessible and compliant for Summer and Fall 2026! We’ll bring the snacks.

The UTLC has additional new online resources available for you, including self-paced training options, resources for Generative AI, and teaching guides. We also have new syllabus resources up, including an updated syllabus template.

Check out these upcoming opportunities from the UTLC and other partners on campus. Additionally, the university workshop calendar has opportunities.