Almost overnight, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a topic of conversation and is being implemented in most higher education settings. However, many faculty members and administrators expect aggressive AI-driven changes in the next five years, they believe their institutions are not ready to support those changes, with serious concerns about the ethical issues that will arise from AI implementation. The purpose of this interactive forum is to discuss contemporary ethical and social issues on how AI is currently being used, experienced, and integrated into higher education. Participants will be surveyed on four categories of AI-adoption profiles (Mah & Groß, 2024) and will be provided with a profile description for future reference and professional growth. The Forum will continue discussing how AI was used to create a systematic literature review that isolated eight common AI themes, with a significant overload of ethical themes over perceptions, experiences, assimilation, literacy, challenges, opportunities, and future applications of AI. Data showed ethical issues and concerns related to the AI paradox, academic and digital information integrity, institutional governance, curriculum considerations, professional development, and teaching and learning. This forum will also integrate anecdotal information on current AI-classroom dilemmas and will provide recommendations to approach ethical issues in teaching and learning. Participants will be continually engaged in interactive activities throughout the forum, including engaging in an AI-adoption survey, quick polls, anticipating research findings through different digital games, and discussing their unique institutional experiences in AI adoption and implementation.

Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI), as defined by the U.S. Department of Education ([DOE], 2020), distinguishes distance education from correspondence-style learning and sets the standard for meaningful online teaching. Research shows that the quality of instructor-initiated, frequent, and academically substantive engagement is a key driver of student satisfaction, persistence, and sense of belonging (Archambault et al., 2022; Cole et al., 2021).

This session uses the University of Arizona Global Campus’s Standard Instructional Expectations (SIE) framework as a case study for operationalizing RSI through individually relevant interaction. Participants will explore strategies for embedding substantive engagement into announcements, discussions, assignments, and grading feedback—moves that align with evidence that dialogic feedback and instructor social presence enhance online learning (Whiteside et al., 2023).

The session will also address sustainability by demonstrating how emerging AI tools and LMS features can amplify instructor presence without replacing it. Practical examples will show how technology can support personalized announcements, discussion replies, and feedback templates while keeping instructors firmly in control of initiating and shaping interaction (Winstone & Boud, 2020; U.S. DOE Office of Educational Technology, 2023).
Attendees will be able to design actionable strategies for meeting compliance requirements, define approaches to improve student engagement, and document methods for creating transparent records, all while maintaining a human-centered approach to online teaching.

Educators frequently rely on static handouts to support reflective learning, yet these materials can unintentionally increase cognitive load and restrict opportunities for meaningful student engagement. Research on inclusive design, belonging, and metacognitive practice highlights the importance of creating structures that help learners process ideas clearly while maintaining their voice and autonomy (Felten and Lambert, 2020; Strayhorn, 2018; Tocco, 2023). This session will demonstrate a practical, replicable process for transforming a traditional classroom handout into an interactive Gemini based learning tool that strengthens clarity, supports reflective thinking, and promotes equitable participation.

The presenter will introduce an original handout designed to help students identify their personal style of motivation. The session will outline challenges that emerged when the handout was delivered in static form, including ambiguity, uneven access to language, and limited opportunities for agency. The redesigned Gemini version will then be demonstrated to show how guided prompts, structured steps, and transparent scaffolding can reduce confusion, support intentional reflection, and preserve ethical boundaries by keeping human judgment at the center of the learning experience.

Participants will take part in a brief structured activity in which they revise one instruction from a sample handout using three guiding principles introduced in the session. They will leave with a clear method for converting their own instructional materials into interactive AI supported learning experiences that align with human centered, purpose driven educational practice.

This workshop on human-tech synergy and leveraging digital tools for engagement and efficiency in higher ed, focuses on empowering educators with the knowledge and skills to integrate generative AI into teaching and learning. Participants will explore AI literacy as a vital skill for both instructors and students, learning how to responsibly and creatively apply AI in classroom settings to boost engagement, efficiency, and equity while incorporating Universal Design Learning.

The session introduces frameworks for developing AI-integrated curricula that foster creativity, critical thinking, and digital fluency. Prompt engineering and course and assessment development. Educators will see firsthand how AI can personalize instruction, automate routine tasks, and enhance student participation. Through interactive exercises such as collaborative whiteboarding, guided AI demonstrations, and curriculum sprints participants will gain practical experience with AI tools and reflect on their ethical and pedagogical implications.

By the end of the workshop, attendees will leave with actionable strategies, draft lesson ideas, and renewed confidence in leveraging technology to support human connection and creativity in the classroom.

This interactive session discusses the results of a research study on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) role-playing chatbots to support classroom management skill development among pre-service teachers. Presenters will share details regarding the creation of the chatbot to simulate common disruptive or defiant student behaviors as well as role-playing scenarios. Key findings demonstrated statistically significant gain in classroom management self-efficacy. Participants will learn how to create and train their own coach GPT chatbot for use in their respective academic contexts.

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the steps of staging an AI chatbot classroom intervention for scaffolding skills acquisition.
2. Discuss potential applications of AI-chatbot role-playing exercises on skills and competency development.
3. Create a customized coach GPT chatbot for use within various instructional or programmatic contexts in K12 or higher education.

As artificial intelligence reshapes learning, the most essential work for educators is not only technological adaptation, but emotional capacity. This session introduces Emotional Technology™, a human-centered leadership framework that helps educators understand and regulate their nervous systems in order to lead with clarity, creativity, and connection in AI-supported learning environments.

Emotional Technology™ bridges somatic awareness, trauma-informed practice, and decolonial approaches to emotional literacy. In an era where AI tools accelerate workflow, intensify decision-making, and alter educator–student dynamics, nervous system literacy becomes foundational to maintaining purpose, presence, and human trust. When educators feel overwhelmed or dysregulated, they are more likely to misuse technology, disengage from creativity, or default to rigid practices that hinder innovation.

This session examines how stress responses shape educator–student relationships, technological adoption, and community culture. Participants will explore the emotional impact of automation, bias, algorithmic influence, and the rapid pace of educational change—while learning practices that support grounded decision-making and purposeful integration of AI.

Attendees will leave with practical, immediately usable strategies that strengthen emotional steadiness, improve communication, and cultivate creative resilience. Emotional Technology™ provides a framework for designing learning spaces that prioritize humanity, equity, and belonging—ensuring that AI enhances the educator’s purpose rather than replaces their presence.

While Generative AI is becoming ubiquitous, effective “prompt engineering” remains a siloed skill. This interactive session moves beyond basic AI introductions to propose a framework for communal prompt engineering—the practice of documenting, sharing, and scaffolding prompts for widespread institutional use.

Participants will learn to transform their personal AI workflows into accessible pedagogical tools using the “Prompt Sharing Kit” model. We will explore how to scaffold prompts so that beginners can achieve immediate results, while advanced users are encouraged to customize and refine the underlying logic.

Key areas of focus include:

Documentation: How to annotate prompts to explain why specific instructions yield results.

Pedagogy: Strategies for embedding shared prompts into assignments to shift focus from text generation to critical analysis.

Ethics: Defining acceptable use boundaries within prompt instructions.

Through hands-on “prompt audits” and collaborative design exercises, participants will create shareable templates to foster a culture of AI transparency and collaboration on their home campuses.

This interactive forum session uses speculative fiction to help educators navigate the polarized high-tech vs np-tech debate. Participants will be immersed in the short story Same Time Tomorrow (2040), which juxtaposes two elementary schools: one embracing hyper-personalized AI-driven learning, the other focused on embodied, social and nature-based education.

The story evaluated against Hrastinski’s (2023) criteria for educational fiction, serves as a neutral driver for critical reflection. Following the audio story, a facilitated discussion will use polling and structured prompts to explore the values and trade-offs like efficiency vs. connection, data vs. experience present in each future. The discussion is framed by critical postdigital theory (Selwyn, 2020; Zuboff, 2019) moving beyond simple tool adoption to examine the political and economic choices shaping our educational systems.

Participants will take away a practical reflective method and critical questions to apply in their own contexts, fostering more intentional, values-driven leadership in an era of rapid technological change.

As generative artificial intelligence continues to reshape the educational landscape, it is important for institutions of higher education to bring faculty together to engage in conversations around the responsible and effective use of these tools in the teaching and learning process. While many may assume faculty are already prepared to integrate AI into the teaching and learning process, it is important the focus is not just on the tools themselves but how to effectively and responsibly use them to enhance the educational experience of students. This session will offer a practical approach to building a faculty learning community from the early planning stages, establishing collaborative partnerships on campus or within your community, designing the educational content, and ensuring a successful experience for all who participate. Although the primary focus is on developing a faculty learning community, these strategies can apply to building a learning community across your institution or in the community you serve. Data will be presented during this session to provide context to what faculty want to learn through an experience like this.

Adult learners are often described as self-regulated and highly motivated, yet many struggle to sustain engagement while balancing full-time work, family responsibilities, and academic demands. Although they have strong autonomy, they still rely on meaningful support from peers and instructors. As generative AI (GenAI) becomes increasingly integrated into professional contexts, adult learners are curious about how these tools can enhance their learning. While concerns remain about reduced learner agency, recent studies suggest that guided and intentional use of GenAI can support motivation and strengthen self-regulated learning (SRL) by helping learners brainstorm, clarify understanding, and engage in reflective dialogue.

This study examined how GenAI can function as a thinking partner to support adult learners’ SRL within the first cycle of an ongoing design-based research project. GenAI was integrated into a fully online course for non-traditional students in a degree-completion program. After completing an AI literacy module in Week 1, students selected from three structured AI-supported strategies, including clarifying understanding, exploring ideas, and seeking feedback, to complete weekly course activities.

Using students’ AI interaction dialogues and end-of-semester reflections, this initial cycle investigated which AI-supported strategies students used most, how the three phases of SRL (forethought, performance, and self-reflection) appeared in their AI dialogues, and what design considerations are needed for future GenAI integration. Based on student experiences and observed patterns of SRL, the presentation will offer recommendations for designing GenAI-enhanced coursework and implications for instructional designers and online instructors who aim to integrate GenAI into adult online learning environments.