Resources: USC Faculty


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AI and Accommodations: Office of Student Accessibility Services

For this Spring 2026 Faculty Showcase on Accessibility and AI, Crystal Velasco, USC Office of Student Accessibility Services, along with Jason Dove and Sakib Shariar from the USC Brightspace Team, explore how AI technology intersects with student accommodations, highlighting how tools like speech-to-text, captioning, screen readers, and note-taking tools are already part of many students’ learning. They also demonstrate how Brightspace’s Panorama tool supports accessible course design by identifying barriers, flagging issues, and generating alternative formats that help ensure course materials work effectively with assistive technologies.

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Accessible AI, Authentic Learning: Centering the Learning Process in the AI Era

In this Spring 2026 Faculty Showcase on Accessibility and AI, Kendra Walther, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, argues for centering the learning process rather than polished AI-generated outputs. Drawing on examples from active learning and computer science, she shows how instructors can redesign assessments to reveal student thinking through reflection, explanation, and low-stakes checkpoints that support accessibility and accountability.

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AI From Day One: Supporting Accessibility and Student Self-Regulation

For this Spring 2026 Faculty Showcase on Accessibility and AI, Helena Seli, USC Rossier School of Education, and Julie Loppacher, Kortschak Center for Learning and Creativity, explore how faculty can embed AI from day one to support accessibility and student self-regulation through evidence-based strategies focused on goal setting, organizing learning, and time management. They show how AI can help students create SMART goals, turn dense course material into visual study aids, clarify assignment instructions, and build weekly calendars that highlight busy periods and reduce procrastination.

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Accesso-Bot: Scaling Accessible Course Materials Across USC Marshall with AI-Assisted Remediation

In this Spring 2026 Faculty Showcase on Accessibility and AI, David Melone, USC Marshall School of Business, demonstrates how “Accesso-Bot,” a custom GPT developed with Marshall’s Teaching and Innovation Office, helps rapidly remediate course materials into accessible formats for students, including transcripts, readable documents, and detailed image descriptions. He shows how the tool cuts turnaround time from days to hours while preserving instructional intent and supporting students who rely on screen readers and other assistive technologies.

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Teaching Research Judgment Through Annotated Bibliography

In this Spring 2026 Faculty Showcase on AI in Teaching, Deborah Natoli and Minh Trinh, USC Price School of Public Policy, share how they redesigned an annotated bibliography assignment using AI tools like NotebookLM, including a structured guide for students to log AI use and verify sources while building AI literacy and critical evaluation skills.

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The 24/7 Office Hour: Bridging the Communication Gap with Custom GPTs

For this Spring 2026 Faculty Showcase on AI in Teaching, Wanmeng Li, USC Dornsife (East Asian Languages and Cultures), demonstrates how custom GPTs and retrieval-augmented generation can automate routine student questions, reduce repetitive emails, and create course-specific Q&A bots grounded in syllabi and other class materials.

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Design, Test, Refine: Using AI to Build Better Assignments

For this Spring 2026 Faculty Showcase on AI in Teaching, Mathew Curtis, USC Annenberg School of Journalism and Communication, walks through a framework for using AI at three progressive levels to refine assignment prompts, generate examples, anticipate student confusion, and stress-test assignment design against course learning objectives.

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Prompts and Queries: Guiding Introductory Biology Students Through Effective Use of AI

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.

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Beyond Role-Play: Using AI-Generated Patients to Practice Pain Management Interviews

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.

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