Center for Teaching, Learning, and Leadership

Incoming faculty for fall semester are encouraged to attend NFO for helpful onboarding guidance.

Incoming faculty for fall semester are encouraged to attend NFO for helpful onboarding guidance

The 2026 Evening New Faculty Orientation (NFO) will be held Thursday, August 6, 2026. All incoming faculty are invited to attend this event for important information regarding working at UNG. This orientation will be offered online in Zoom. 
 
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Academic Advising at UNG: An Overview
Led by Erin Connelly
This workshop will provide an overview of undergraduate academic advising at UNG. It will look at the organizational structure of advising at UNG, discuss the blended academic advising model, and provide a picture of the student lifecycle at UNG. It will also look more in-depth at the function of academic advising, as well as the role of academic advising within the operational structure of UNG.
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Access, Not Advantage: Busting Common Accommodation Myths
Led by Tracey Hurd, Director of Student Accessibility Services

This workshop will explore some of the most common myths surrounding student accommodations. During this interactive workshop, faculty will have a chance to ask questions, as well as examine how they might respond in classroom scenarios presented.

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Sessions on policies and portfolio for faculty coming up for pre- and post-tenure. Six virtual workshops will be offered for fall - three for pre-tenure and three for post-tenure. You only need to attend one of the sessions offered.

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Practice Before Placement: Using Role Play and Technology to Strengthen Student Soft Skills
Led by Jennifer Sears
This professional development session will explore ways faculty can help students strengthen essential soft skills before beginning an internship experience. Participants will examine how classroom-based role play and mixed reality simulation can give students opportunities to practice difficult conversations in a supportive environment. The session will highlight a course project in which students prepare in advance, interact with an adult through an actor-supported simulation, and receive immediate feedback to improve their communication, professionalism, and confidence.

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Thinking About Getting Students to Think About Thinking
Led by Lori Furbush and Alison Hite
This presentation will focus on metacognition in college classes. We will discuss ways to help students recognize the learning strategies they are using, evaluate whether those strategies are working, and adjust when needed. The session will also explore practical approaches instructors can use to encourage reflection, planning, monitoring, and flexibility so students can become more intentional and effective learners.

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Universal Design for Learning: Principles and Practice
Led by Jennifer Sears
This introductory workshop explores what Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is and why it represents a fundamental shift in how we approach course design and instruction. Participants will learn the core principles of UDL—multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement—and discover how these principles directly benefit all students while addressing the needs of all leaners.

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Introductory Session: Why Should I Bother?
Led by the Writing Across the Curriculum Network

In this session, we look at strategies for combatting AI-driven futility: Why bother learning something if an AI can already do it? And why bother grading if an AI can give reasonable feedback? We begin by examining the problem (which did not begin with the advent of AI), and then we introduce two tools from Engineering professor Josh Brake for talking—and thinking critically—about the relation between assignments, learning, assessments, and technology (both its affordances and constraints). All of our subsequent sessions will build on this introductory discussion.

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Sessions on policies and portfolio for faculty coming up for pre- and post-tenure. Six virtual workshops will be offered for fall - three for pre-tenure and three for post-tenure. You only need to attend one of the sessions offered.

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AI is Already in the Room
Led by Chuck Robertson
In this session we will discuss Eaton's AI 101, Mollick's Homework Apocalypse, and Vee's Critical AI Literacy to develop a shared vocabulary, reduce anxiety surrounding AI, and clarify what faculty and students need to know about AI and its role in higher ed.

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Budgeting: Meeting Expectations and Maximizing Resources
Led by Ruth Maher

Effective leaders must make strategic decisions with limited resources. This session examines how to manage budgets, allocate time and personnel, and maximize resources while meeting departmental goals.

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Academic Advising: Training Resources
Led by Erin Connelly
This workshop will provide an overview of undergraduate academic advising training and reference resources available to all academic advisors at UNG. It will provide an in-depth overview of the Academic Advisor Training course shell in D2L, information that is available, and how to use provided resources.

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Sessions on policies and portfolio for faculty coming up for pre- and post-tenure. Six virtual workshops will be offered for fall - three for pre-tenure and three for post-tenure. You only need to attend one of the sessions offered.

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Balance or Burnout
Led by Carl Ohrenberg
In this session, we will explore practical strategies for maintaining well-being, managing competing responsibilities, prioritizing work that matters, and building sustainable habits that support long-term success in academia by setting boundaries creating routines that protect well-being and career progress.
 
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Sessions on policies and portfolio for faculty coming up for pre- and post-tenure. Six virtual workshops will be offered for fall - three for pre-tenure and three for post-tenure. You only need to attend one of the sessions offered.
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Register

Providing High Quality Undergraduate Research Experiences in the Classroom
Led by Amanda Halliburton
In this session, we will discuss how to effectively incorporate undergraduate research into required or elective classes. Topics will include assessing student readiness and goals, building motivation, scaling based on class size, and elevating the experience for students who want to go the extra mile.

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Demystifying Quantum Computing
Led by Xiuping Tao, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Cybersecurity
Quantum computing is no longer a distant theoretical concept confined to physics labs; it is rapidly becoming a transformative force across the global economy. As our university prepares to launch its first official course in the field (CSCI 4020) in Fall 2026, this session provides faculty and staff with a foundational, "low-barrier" introduction to the quantum landscape. This talk is specifically designed for a non-specialist audience, requiring no prior background in advanced mathematics or physics.

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Shut Up & Write provides participants with a structured time to make progress on research and writing. Participants will work in a fifty-minute block with a five-minute block of discussion at the beginning and a five-minute block of rest and discussion at the end.

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All the World's a Stage: Setting the Scene for Motivation, Engagement, and Belonging
Led by Lori Furbush, Kelly McFaden, and Alison Hite
This presentation focuses on practical, high-impact strategies for creating a welcoming and purposeful start to the semester. While a clear syllabus is essential, the "stage" is truly set through the intentional development of instructor-student rapport. We will explore how early efforts to build connection directly fuel student motivation, increase classroom engagement, and foster a deep sense of belonging. 
 
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Attention Please: Demystifying Artificial Intelligence for a General Audience
Led by Yong Wei 
How do ChatGPT and other modern AI systems actually work? This talk demystifies the fundamental ideas behind large language models and multimodal foundation models, including transformers, attention mechanisms, and vision-language models. Designed for a general audience, the presentation provides an accessible introduction to the algorithms that enable AI to understand and generate text, images, and more.

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Sessions on policies and portfolio for faculty coming up for pre- and post-tenure. Six virtual workshops will be offered for fall - three for pre-tenure and three for post-tenure. You only need to attend one of the sessions offered.

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Teaching with Library Resources and Partnerships
Led by Melissa Lockaby and Amanda Nash
In this session, we will discuss how collaborating with UNG librarians and leveraging library resources can strengthen student learning, research skills, and course design.

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Why Bother? Writing Lab Reports 
Led by the Writing Across the Curriculum Network

In this session, members of the WAC Network partner with colleagues in Psychology to look at why we write lab reports, ways we can teach and assess the report genre, and how to help students value the research and writing processes they are practicing when drafting lab reports.

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Sessions on policies and portfolio for faculty coming up for pre- and post-tenure. Six virtual workshops will be offered for fall - three for pre-tenure and three for post-tenure. You only need to attend one of the sessions offered.

Website
Register