We offer many types of professional development opportunities, delivered virtually and face-to-face, throughout the year.
All of our offerings are also available by request for instructors in the U of A community. For preparation and planning purposes, please submit your request at least two (2) weeks in advance.
Professional Development Pathways
The UCATT Professional Development Pathways Program gives you the essential skills and knowledge you need for teaching excellence. We've created structured yet flexible learning journeys in high-impact areas that respect your busy schedule and competing demands.
Each pathway offers strategically scaffolded workshops (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) that you can complete individually or as part of a complete track. Workshops are designed as focused 3-4 hour asynchronous online experiences within a one to three-week window, making professional development accessible regardless of your teaching load.
Focus on topics you can immediately apply in your classroom while earning valuable recognition for your commitment to professional growth.
Brightspace Your Way
Pathway: Let's Talk about Tech (in Teaching)
Level: Beginner - Introduces fundamental concepts and basic applications
Ready to make Brightspace work for you? With its robust tools and integrations, Brightspace supports a range of teaching styles and engagement strategies. This workshop starts with a skills inventory that helps you reflect on your current comfort level with core tools and design practices, then guides you toward personalized strategies that fit your teaching style.
Build Your Digital Teaching Persona
Pathway: Designing for Digital Learners
Level: Advanced - Focuses on complex integration and innovation
Ready to create an intentional and engaging digital teaching presence? Drawing from the Community of Inquiry framework and inspired by You Need a Manifesto by Charlotte Burgess-Auburn, you'll reflect on your core teaching values and learn to articulate your online presence accordingly. You'll examine examples of strong instructor personas, analyze how tone and communication frequency shape student engagement, and develop your own "persona toolkit"—including a welcome video script, messaging plan, and engagement prompts tailored to your style and subject matter.
Designing Accessible Assessments
Pathway: Designing for Digital Learners
Level: Beginner - Introduces fundamental concepts and basic applications
Want to create assessments that work for all students? You'll learn the basics of web accessibility for documents, images, and audiovisual media using WCAG 2.0 guidelines, plus discover how to use Brightspace accessibility features like alt-text descriptions. Throughout the workshop, you'll design assessments using Universal Design for Learning principles and create an accessible assessment and rubric for one of your courses.
Designing for Engagement in Brightspace
Pathway: Designing for Digital Learners
Level: Intermediate - Builds on foundational knowledge
How can you design learning experiences that engage all students and foster community across different modalities? This workshop offers practical, hands-on strategies for creating accessible, student-centered courses grounded in inclusion and interaction. You'll explore examples of effective asynchronous engagement, apply Universal Design for Learning principles, and work through modules covering building presence, designing collaboration, and analyzing learner engagement data. Each module includes guided activities, curated tools, and opportunities for reflection and feedback.
Elevating Your Online Course Design
Pathway: Designing for Digital Learners
Level: Intermediate - Builds on foundational knowledge
Want to take your online course to the next level? This workshop focuses on two powerful strategies: Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) and personalized learning. Both approaches help students feel seen as individuals while tailoring your course materials to their readiness level. Personalized learning techniques give students opportunities to apply knowledge, practice skills, and identify areas for improvement—all without the fear of failure that comes with grades. You'll leave with a concrete plan to immediately improve your teaching presence and content presentation.
Designing AI-enhanced Learning Activities
Pathway: All in on AI
Level: Beginner - Introduces fundamental concepts and basic applications
Ready to help students use AI tools effectively while still developing critical thinking skills? This practical workshop starts with a self-assessment of your AI comfort level, then gives you hands-on experience to understand when AI helps versus hinders learning. You'll redesign one of your existing assignments to incorporate AI use, write clear instructions for students, and develop assessment criteria that fairly evaluate both AI integration and individual contributions. No prior AI experience required!
Prompt Engineering for Teaching and Assignment Design
Pathway: All in on AI
Level: Intermediate - Builds on foundational knowledge
Want to use AI tools to enhance your creativity in developing course materials? You'll design workflows that incorporate thoughtful prompt engineering to support all aspects of teaching—from ideation to delivery to revision. While you'll consider how students might use these tools to enhance their own creative and critical thinking, the focus is on helping you gain those insights for yourself. The approach is hands-on with opportunities to research, experiment with tools, reflect on real practices, and develop a workflow that improves both quality and productivity.
Online Mini-Courses
These offerings are facilitated online courses in Brightspace, ranging from 1-2 weeks in duration. Expect to devote 30 minutes to one hour a day to complete the activities in a mini-course.
Location: Virtual
Length: 1 week
Discover the impact of instructor presence, collaboration, personalized learning, and social networking in the development of community, connectedness, and learning in online courses.
Location: Virtual
Length: 1 week
Create a plan for collaborative and group learning in courses.
Location: Virtual
Length: 1 week
Establish assessment strategies and techniques that can be implemented at the course level to measure student learning, course design, and teaching practices.
Location: Virtual
Length: 1 week
Explore strategies for designing and facilitating effective online discussions that expand student exposure to curriculum, deepen learning, and increase student engagement.
Location: Virtual
Length: 1 week
Refine and revise an existing course plan and syllabus using the methodology of backward design and the principle of alignment.
Location: Virtual
Length: 2 weeks
Focus on foundational reflections to introduce strategies for intentionally building and strengthening instructor-student relationships.
Location: Virtual
Length: 2 weeks
Experience taking an online course while learning about methods, tools, and best practices for teaching hybrid and fully online courses.
Location: Virtual
Length: 1 week
Weave personal stories into teaching, drawing upon cognitive science, neuroscience, and psychology research.
Location: Virtual
Length: 1 week
Learn strategies and techniques that engage and motivate students in large online classes.
Self-Paced
These offerings offer maximum flexibility while still providing high-quality learning opportunities.
Self-paced asynchronous tutorials are available at any time via BrightSpace Explore and EDGE Learning
Location: Virtual
Length: 4 self-paced guided modules
Take a deeper dive into the online course development design process.
Webinars
These offerings are designed to educate and engage you on specific topics. These range from 15 to 60 minutes in duration.
Location: Virtual
Length: 15 minutes
Learn about the UDL framework to apply principles of universality and accessibility in online courses.
Location: Virtual
Length: 15 minutes
Gain insight to increase visibility and personality within online courses to create a culture of connectedness.
Location: Virtual
Length: 30 minutes
Monthly webinar series covering a variety of D2L-related topics with 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for Q&A.
Location: Virtual
Length: 30 minutes
Webinar series covering D2L topics related to the start of the academic year with 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for Q&A.
Location: Virtual
Length: 60 minutes
Discuss challenges and share creative ideas for combining tech with pedagogy.
Location: Virtual
Length: 30-60 minutes
A review of the new features in Brightspace.
Location: Virtual
Length: 60 minutes
Provides an informational overview of some of the various instructional technology tools that instructors can utilize within their courses (e.g. Panopto, PlayPosit, Pressbooks, VoiceThread, Zoom).
Location: Virtual
Length: 60 minutes
Learn about recent updates and new features that Zoom has released.
Location: Virtual
Length: 60 minutes
Each month of the academic year, we take a deep dive into one of the Quality Matters Rubric Standards. These webinars are open to anyone who designs and/or teaches online or blended courses at U of A.
Quality Matters Workshops
Quality Matters workshops are free, professional growth opportunities offered to all U of A instructors. Participants who complete the APPQMR will receive certificates from Quality Matters.
Location: Virtual
Length: 2 weeks
Take a deep dive into the QM rubric to learn the underlying principles of the QM rubric and develop an understanding of the quality assurance process.
Location: Virtual
Length: 2 weeks
Use the QM Rubric as a framework for assessing and revising your own online course.
Location: Virtual
Length: 2 weeks
Create a plan for course improvement using the Specific Review Standards of the Quality Matters Rubric.
Location: Virtual
Length: 3 weeks
Learn how to build accessible and inclusive online courses that includes a deep dive into the principles and practices of Universal Design Theory.
Workshops
These offerings are in multiple modalities where the outcome is a product or specific knowledge that can be implemented immediately.
Location: Virtual
Length: 8 weeks
Join your colleagues to learn how to develop your online course with an instructional designer facilitating the experience.
Location: Virtual
Length: 5 weeks
Learn the process of online course design: creating content, organizing and presenting content, and creating successful online learning environments for students.
Adobe
We offer app-specific online workshops, host regular one-on-one office hours for your creative projects and ideas, and host special events throughout the year.