GenAI Teaching and Learning Innovation Showcase

The Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) in collaboration with Western Libraries, the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (SGPS), Student Experience, and the Artificial Intelligence Resource Centre (AIRC) is excited to announce the Generative AI (GenAI) Teaching and Learning Innovation Showcase scheduled for Friday January 22, 2027. This hybrid event brings together faculty, librarians and archivists, staff, and graduate students from across campus to share and explore diverse experiences, tools, practices, and perspectives related to GenAI in university teaching and learning. This event is free of cost to the Western community and includes a complimentary lunch.

Learnings from the day will also be captured as digital artifacts to be shared in the GenAI Teaching and Learning Innovation Digital Showcase hosted on the Generative AI in Teaching and Learning OWL Site.

Whether you are hoping to learn more about how others across campus are engaging with these tools, seeking practical strategies to address the impacts of AI in your teaching environments, or navigating important conversations about GenAI’s possibilities and challenges, this event offers valuable insights and opportunities for connection with others across campus.

Event Agenda

Note: Agenda subject to minor changes based on Lightning Talk submissions.

9:00-9:45 – Day Opening and Welcoming Remarks

9:45-10:30 – Morning Lightning Talks

Faculty, librarians, archivists, and staff will share their diverse perspectives on the role of genAI in teaching and learning, and how their perspective shows up in their teaching practices. Ten-minute lightning talks will include a showcase a teaching innovation, approach to adoption or integration, and/or fostering students’ critical engagement with genAI; along with practical considerations for educators.

10:45-12:00 – Student Perspectives and Provocations for Discussion

Undergraduate and graduate students with diverse views on genAI will share their perspectives and offer reflections for instructors considering various approaches to GenAI. Student presentations will end with a provocation that attendees will discuss with their colleagues at themed discussion tables over lunch.

12:00 – 1:00 – Lunch and Table Discussions

1:00-1:45 – Afternoon Lightning Talks

Ten-minute lightning talks will continue in the afternoon.

2:00-3:30 – Feature Session

Call for proposals: GenAI Teaching and Learning Innovation Showcase Lighting Talk Presentations

Submission deadline: November 13, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. (note: in-person attendance is required to present a lightning talk)

Submit a proposal

How have you responded to GenAI in your teaching? Do you have an approach, strategy, or consideration to share with other educators across campus?

The Centre for Teaching and Learning in collaboration with Western Libraries, the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (SGPS), Student Experience, and the Artificial Intelligence Resource Centre (AIRC) is accepting proposals for in-person lightning talk presentations for the first Generative AI (GenAI) Teaching and Learning Innovation Showcase on Friday January 22, 2027. The Showcase is a hybrid event, meaning your lightning talk will be delivered in-person to both in-person and virtual audiences. These lightning talks will also be captured as digital artifacts to be shared with the Western community asynchronously in a digital showcase.

What is a Lightning Talk?

Lightning Talks are designed to be engaging, concise, and energizing, and consist of a 10-minute presentation followed by a 5-minute Q&A conversation. This is your opportunity to share a powerful idea, strategy, or experience that has made a meaningful difference in your teaching practice and for student engagement, accessibility, and learning in response to generative AI.

What is the digital artifact?

Lightning Talk presenters will also contribute an artifact that helps share their work asynchronously with the broader Western community. Digital artifacts will be hosted on Western’s Generative AI in Teaching and Learning Owl site that is accessible only to those at Western. The artifact can take many forms and is your choice! It may be a pre- or post-session recording of your Lightning Talk presentation, your presentation slide deck with notes, example course materials, or a handout resource. We do not want this to be an onerous task for you, so a member from the Instructional Technology Resource Centre (ITRC) and/or CTL will work with you to translate your Lightning Talk to an asynchronous resource others can learn from. 

What are we looking for?

While we welcome submissions that share successful innovations, they do not need to showcase approaches that worked perfectly. Presentations may also highlight unsuccessful attempts, unexpected outcomes, and lessons learned while exploring and addressing the role of generative AI in teaching and learning.

We welcome submissions from across the spectrum of critical and informed GenAI engagement. Examples include but are not limited to:

• Strategies for engaging students in critical discussions about GenAI, including ethical, disciplinary, social, environmental, or professional considerations
• Approaches to sharing the pedagogical and/or disciplinary decisions around AI considerations in various course or program requirements (e.g., graduate milestones)
• Strategies for navigating difficult conversations (e.g., power dynamics between instructors and GTAs, GTAs and students, consensus building, attending to difference)
• Approaches to responding to student use of GenAI in courses or in completion of the graduate milestones, including assignment redesign, development of course outline statements, conversation prompts and other instructional approaches
• Examples of integrating GenAI into learning activities, instruction, or assessment
• Approaches for limiting, discouraging, or not incorporating GenAI into teaching and learning, and the pedagogical values informing those decisions
• Reflections on experimentation, unexpected outcomes, tensions, and lessons learned while navigating the evolving role of GenAI in teaching and learning

Submissions will be evaluated based on:

• Relevance and potential value to other instructors across disciplines and contexts
• Clarity of the idea, strategy, reflection, or example being shared
• Likelihood of sparking meaningful discussion, reflection, or exchange among participants

How do I submit a proposal?

Proposal submissions will be accepted via this form until Friday November 13 at 11:59 PM:

Submit a proposal

Submissions will require:

• Presenter details (Name, Western email address, role, and department, program, or unit)
• Lightning talk proposal (title and 250-500 word description)
• A brief description of your proposed digital artifact

Please reach out to ctl@uwo.ca with any questions.