In this Spring 2026 Faculty Showcase on AI in Teaching, Rita Barakat, USC Dornsife (Biology), shares how she redesigned formative assessments in introductory biology to guide students in using generative AI through carefully structured prompts, problem sets, and reflection questions that build critical thinking and help them evaluate AI output.
For this Spring 2026 Faculty Showcase on AI in Teaching, Mariela Padilla, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC, demonstrates how she uses AI-supported role play scenarios to help students practice pain management conversations, emphasizing clinical communication skills, empathy, and responsible use of AI in patient interactions.
In this Spring 2026 Faculty Showcase on AI in Teaching, Ian Spatz, USC Price School of Public Policy, shares how he incorporates AI into weekly reading assignments, using structured prompts to support student engagement, deepen analysis of course materials, and encourage critical evaluation of AI-generated responses.
For this Spring 2026 Faculty Showcase on AI in Teaching, Liz Blomstedt and Jen Bankard, USC Dornsife Writing Program, demonstrate how they developed and use the AI for Brainstorming and Editing (ABE) tool in Writing 340 to support weekly writing assignments, strengthen hooks and counterarguments, and help students reflect on their writing process and revisions through instructor-visible timelines and change summaries.
This resource supports instructors in designing purposeful, transparent assignments that promote student learning and are manageable to assess. It includes research-informed strategies, templates, and examples adaptable across course contexts.
A practical guide to navigating the opportunities and challenges of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in your teaching. It offers strategies, examples, and prompts to enhance learning, streamline teaching, support students, and address key ethical and pedagogical concerns.
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This resource provides guidance for incorporating community building activities into a course to foster belonging, increase engagement, and build collaboration and communication skills. It includes strategies and considerations for using community building activities as well as sample activities categorized by purpose. Keywords: community building, icebreakers, belonging, inclusion, collaboration, group work.
This is the second of a two-part series on academic dialogue and is a collaboration between The Center for Excellence in Teaching; Quade French, USC Dornsife Associate Dean of Academic Culture and Well-being; and Kamy Akhavan, USC Dornsife Executive Director of the Center for the Political Future. This video features Kamy Akhavan discussing what individuals can do to unite conversations.
This resource describes different kinds of rubrics and considerations for selecting a rubric best aligned with an instructor’s grading practice, assignments, and learning objectives. Examples of rubrics are provided.
Keywords: rubric, assessment, assignment, evaluation, learning objective
This resource provides an overview of creating and using community agreements in a course to support respectful and productive student engagement. It includes options for how to create agreements, tips for implementation, and example agreements.
Keywords: community agreements, discussion norms, discussion guidelines, community guidelines, challenging discussions, academic discussions, dialogue, student engagement.
Center for Excellence in Teaching