Events

Guest Lecture with Featured Speaker, Dr. Eddie Watson 

Dr. Watson, co-author of Teaching with AI, will join us to deliver an engaging guest lecture, answer questions, and sign copies of his book (available online at NJIT Library).

Date: October 21st, 12:30pm 

Location: Campus Center Ballroom A 

Audience: NJIT faculty, Staff, and TAs

Registration for this event is required. Fill out the registration form to save your spot!

Speaker Bio:

C. Edward Watson, Ph.D. is Vice President for Digital Innovation with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and formerly Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Georgia. Dr. Watson is nationally recognized for expertise in general education best practice and reform, evidence-based teaching and learning practices, as a futurist for higher education. He is also an expert in artificial intelligence in higher education, faculty development, open education resources, ePortfolios, and digital equity.

Beyond the Syllabus: Handling Plagiarism and AI Misuse in Partnership with the Dean of Students

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the higher education landscape, maintaining academic integrity has become an increasingly complex task. While traditional plagiarism remains a core concern, the rise of AI-generated content presents new, nuanced challenges for instructors striving to uphold academic standards and fairness.

Join the Center for Educational Innovation and Excellence (CEIE) and the Office of the Dean of Students (DoS) for an essential professional development workshop designed to demystify academic misconduct processes at NJIT. Led by Mark Bullock, Associate Dean of Students, and Rachel Williams, Hearing and Development Officer, this collaborative session provides faculty with a clear, actionable roadmap for identifying, addressing, and reporting traditional and AI-based plagiarism.

Whether you are looking to streamline your reporting workflow or want guidance on how to navigate difficult conversations with students, this workshop will ensure you feel supported and confident when academic integrity situations arise.

Key Takeaways
During this session, participants will:

• Explore the DoS Workflow: Gain a transparent, step-by-step understanding of the Dean of Students' processes, including what happens after a violation is reported and how the office supports both faculty and students. 
• Discover Streamlined Reporting Tools: Explore suggested tools and resources designed to simplify the reporting process, significantly reducing the administrative burden on instructors. 
• Learn Actionable Best Practices: Acquire effective strategies for addressing suspected misconduct, communicating expectations clearly to your classes, and managing these situations fairly and professionally.

Date: September 30th, 2:30pm 

Location: Eberhardt 112 

Audience: NJIT Faculty, Staff, and TAs

Registration for this is required and space is limited! Fill out the reservation form now to reserve your spot.

Pedagogy Parlor 

The Center for Educational Innovation and Excellence (CEIE)  invites you to our Pedagogy Parlor (click for the flyer)—a virtual gathering for NJIT faculty, staff, and graduate students, devoted to informal, open-ended discussion on a variety of pedagogical topics. There are no PowerPoint presentations and no preparation required, just meaningful reflection and collaborative discourse on teaching. 

We know how packed your schedules are. Between research, service, grading, and lecturing, there is rarely a moment to simply stop and think about why and how we teach.

Pedagogy Parlors will occur Friday during common hour (11:30 AM - 12:30 PM) every other week during the Fall 2026 semester. 

• 9/11: Trust Me –Shifting the Narrative from Surveillance to Trust
• 9/18: F.A.I.L.: First Attempt In Learning
• 10/2: What is rigor anyway? 
• 10/16: Upgrading Grading
• 11/6: High Tech and High Touch
• 11/13: Empathic Teaching and Socioemotional Learning Outcomes

NJIT faculty, staff, and graduate students can Register via Zoom! When registering, please select the date and topic you plan to attend and use your NJIT email. 

Please note, you must register for each meeting date. Along with registration, you will receive a zoom link. 

How it works - The Circle Way:

• We start with a quote or excerpt to guide our discussion.
• Everyone takes 5 minutes with cameras and audio off to reflect on the quote/except.
• Each participant gets 2 uninterrupted minutes to share their perspective.
• We open up the floor for collective dialogue.
• We wrap up with each participant sharing a single word or takeaway from the session.

AI Webinar Series

The AI Teaching and Learning Working Group is offering a series of webinars for instructors related to AI and teaching. The CEIE is happy to support this initiative, featuring many of our previous AI Curriculum award winners. These webinars are designed to be quick and digestible (30 minutes!), focused sessions on specific topics across four tracks. See the tracks below, and check the AI Teaching and Learning Working Group site for the full schedule. 

Track A: Technical Skill-Building: Training to give faculty practical confidence in navigating AI tools and understanding the underlying principles 

Track B: Teaching with AI:  Exploring ways to intentionally integrate AI into courses to enrich learning experiences and expand instructional possibilities. 

Track C: Teaching for AI: Preparing students to critically and competently engage with AI as a core skill for their academic and professional

Track D: Teaching against AI: Building critical thinking skills to evaluate AI output by probing AI's capability, reliability, and sustainability. 

Teaching for Engagement: Driving Student Motivation and Success

Date: August 27, 2026
Time: 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM
Location: CKB G08

The Center for Educational Innovation and Excellence (CEIE) invites current NJIT faculty, staff, and TAs to its Second Annual Summer Conference, Teaching for Engagement: Driving Student Motivation and Success. This year’s theme focuses on exploring innovative strategies to enhance how students think, feel, and actively participate in their learning. The day will kick off with a panel discussion on student engagement, featuring NJIT’s 2025 Master Teachers, who will share insights from their instructional practices and experiences. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Ashish Borgaonkar, offering an engaging and thought-provoking start to the day. The remainder of the conference will feature interactive breakout sessions on a variety of topics and strategies to promote student engagement and success.

• Keynote Panel: Strategies for Building An Engaged Classroom
• From Passive to Active Learning: Designing Videos and Slides for Engagement
• Student Engagement and Learning Outcomes in First-Year Physics
• The Community of Inquiry - A Framework for Engagement
• Student Study Skills Development to Aid in Transition to College
• Citation and Disclosure: Engaging Students with AI and Scholarly Dialogue
• TRACE the Learning: Making Understanding Visible When Answers Are Immediate
• Engagement at Scale: Lessons from Coordinated First-Year CS Courses
• Engagement, Persistence, and Resilience by Design: A Learning Cycle Framework

Winter Workshop 2026: Instructor Prep for AI Exploration Day

Attention NJIT instructors! Do you want help making sure your Spring 2026 is syllabus is clearly communicating expectations for your students about AI Exploration Day? Want to brainstorm ideas for pre- or post-event assignments? Curious about how to track day-of participation? Do you need help importing ready-made resources and content from Canvas Commons into your spring course?

Join us for a hands-on workshop designed to help instructors prepare their courses for AI Exploration Day (scheduled for March 26, 2026).

CEIE staff will be supported by the Office of Digital Learning and members of the Academic and Curriculum working group supporting AI Exploration Day.

Date: January 13, 2026

Time: 9:00am-11:30am

Location: CKB 116

Hot breakfast will be served! Bring your laptop! Register here.

Questions? Email ceie@njit.edu

Service Learning as Experiential Learning: Engaging Students, Impacting Communities

Date: November 12th, 2025
Time: 2:30–4:00 PM
Location: Weston Hall, Lecture Hall 1

Service learning connects classroom learning with real-world community engagement, creating opportunities for students to apply their knowledge while making a tangible impact. Join us for a 90-minute interactive workshop exploring service learning as a powerful form of experiential education. Faculty panelists will share how they have integrated community partnerships into their courses, highlighting both student learning outcomes and community impact. Participants will gain an understanding of service learning fundamentals, hear real-world examples from peers, and have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss ideas for their own courses. 

Participants will:

• Learn the fundamentals of service learning as a pedagogy
• Hear real-world examples from NJIT faculty across disciplines
• Explore strategies for building meaningful community collaborations
• Discuss ideas for incorporating service learning into their own teaching

This session underscores NJIT’s commitment to experiential learning as outlined in the university’s strategic plan and provides faculty with practical tools to bridge classroom innovation and community impact.

Light refreshments will be served. Please RSVP for this event to reserve your seat!

Learning in Action: Experiential Pedagogy, Practices, and Pathways 

Date: August 27th, 2025

Time: 8:00am - 5:00pm

Location: Weston Hall, NJIT 

The day’s activities will conclude with a trip to the Makerspace, where you will witness demonstrations of various machines first hand. 

Please see below for the conference agenda: 

8:00am- Check-in, Breakfast, and Networking (Gallery)

8:45am- Welcome, CEIE Director, Nicole Bosca (Gallery)

9:00am- Morning Keynote: “Experiential learning: A framework for Student Success," Ms. Padma Natarajan (Gallery)

10:00am- Break

10:15am- Breakout Session #1

• Integrating AI-Driven Virtual Adaptive Learning Platforms
• From Theory to Practice: Exploring the efficacy of service learning
• An engaging approach to understanding fundamental statistical concepts
• Biomedical Engineering Technology: Enhancing Learning Through Experiential Learning

11:15am- Breakout Session #2

• Improving Public Speaking Skills with XR Technologies
• Learning by Doing: Student Experiential Learning in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness
• Authentic learning experience through problem-solving within the university
• Career Development Services Is Your Partner

12:00pm-1:15pm- Lunch and Afternoon Keynote: "Community Interactions in Experiential Learning," Dr. Maria Stanko (Gallery)

1:30pm- Breakout Session #3

• Aliases in Waves - Digital Approximations to Streaming Music
• Reimagining the Final Presentation: Introducing the Digital Pitch Poster
• Your Brain on Experiential Learning: Relevance and Neuroplasticity in Action

2:30pm- Breakout Session #4

• Work Study to Conference Presentation: Being Open to Collaborative Learning
• Newark-focused Urban Design Studio Rewrites Approaches To Site Research
• AI-Powered Engineering Design: A Hands-On Workshop
• Integrating Extended Reality (XR) in Engineering Education

3:15pm- Transition to Makerspace and Closing Experience 

Registrations are Now Closed!

Check out the highlight reel below!

From Idea to Publication: Navigating IRB for Education Research

A collaboration between the Center for Educational Innovation and Excellence and NJIT’s Institutional Review Board

Date: October 1st 2025
Time: 2:30pm – 4:00 PM
Location: Eberhardt Hall, Room 112

Are you experimenting with new teaching strategies and wondering if your work could be published as education research? Many faculty explore new assignments, surveys, or classroom innovations but later discover they cannot share results because IRB approval was not secured in advance.

This 90-minute interactive workshop will help faculty and instructors learn:

• What counts as human subjects research in educational settings
• When classroom projects require IRB review (and common misconceptions to avoid)
• Key steps in NJIT’s IRB process, including timelines, training, and exemptions
• Practical strategies for planning ahead so your results can be published

The session will feature a roundtable Q&A with IRB staff and NJIT faculty who have successfully navigated the process. Participants will leave with practical guidance, resources, and next steps to turn classroom ideas into conference presentations or journal articles.

Whether you’re exploring the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) or simply want to avoid common pitfalls, this session will give you the tools and confidence to move from innovation to publication.

Light refreshments will be served. RSVPs have now been closed!

Donuts & Discussion

This informal discussion series provides a chance for faculty and instructors to connect with colleagues and share teaching strategies throughout the semester. Please join us for coffee, a donut, and conversations about education, pedagogy, best practice, current trends, and more!

Audience: Faculty, Instructors, Instructional Staff, TAs.

Location: All events for Spring 2025 will take place in Campus Center (CTR) 235

Spring 2025 Schedule:

• 2/4/25 (Tuesday), 12:30-1:30pm- “Audits, Probes, and Podcasts: Critical AI in the Classroom,” lead by Dan Estrada
• 2/18/25 (Tuesday), 12:30-1:30pm- “Reimagining the Final Presentation: Introducing the Digital Pitch Poster,” lead by Kathy Naasz
• 3/4/25 (Tuesday), 12:30-1:30pm- “Strategies to Support and Strengthen Learning for Underprepared Students,” lead by Megan LeLay
• 3/26/25 (Wednesday), 12:00-1:00pm- "Using Index Cards to Encourage Participation and Collect Meaningful Feedback," lead by Adam Spryszynski
• 4/9/25 (Wednesday), 12:00-1:00pm- “Active Learning in Graduate Courses: Teaching Students or Training Scholars?” lead by Jonathan Jaquette
• 4/23/25 (Wednesday), 12:00-1:00pm- “Active Learning Strategies for First-Year Engineering Design: Engaging Students Through Real-World Applications and Collaborative Problem-Solving,” lead by Swapnil Moon

CEIE Spring Symposium

Inclusive Teaching in Action: Practical Approaches for Faculty  

Date: March 12, 2025
Time: 12:30pm-2:00pm
Location: CKB 116

Join us for a dynamic, interactive symposium on inclusive teaching, co-hosted by the Center for Educational Innovation and Excellence (CEIE) and the Office for Inclusive Excellence. This session will provide faculty and instructors with a foundational understanding of inclusive teaching, challenge common misconceptions, and offer practical, research-based strategies to create more equitable and engaging learning environments.

The session will begin with an overview of what inclusive teaching is (and what it isn’t), addressing common concerns and misunderstandings. Participants will then engage in discussions and hands-on activities to reflect on their current teaching practices, explore strategies for fostering student belonging, and develop concrete action steps to implement in their courses. By the end of the workshop, attendees will leave with evidence-based tools and approaches they can immediately apply to enhance accessibility, foster diverse perspectives, and support all students’ success. Whether you are new to inclusive teaching or looking to refine your approach, this workshop will provide valuable insights and resources for every instructor.

Kick-Off Event

The Center for Educational Innovation and Excellence (CEIE) hosted a Kick-Off Event, a full day dedicated to celebrating the launch of NJIT’s new hub for advancing teaching and learning. The day featured inspiring talks and presentations on educational innovation, followed by an interactive AI Exploration Experience, where attendees engaged in hands-on activities showcasing cutting-edge AI technologies and their transformative use-cases. Please see a highlight reel of the day thanks to NJIT's MTSS department.

CEIE’s Pedagogical and Instructional Innovation Specialist, Dr. Jessica Simon, will be presenting at the Office of Inclusive Excellence’s Routes and Roots Speaker Series that explores how personal journeys and roots shape professional paths. Through these stories, we celebrate the diverse routes of STE(A)M and honor the roots that ground us.

Dr. Simon’s presentation explores diverse “ways of knowing” beyond traditional science, highlighting Lenape Indigenous knowledge as a model for integrating cultural wisdom into academic learning. Through discussion and storytelling, participants will experience inclusive teaching strategies that connect lived experience with disciplinary ideas. Faculty are invited to join a sharing circle, bringing a meaningful item to share as part of this exploration. All are welcome

Faculty are invited to a circle where they will share an item from their home or office that holds personal meaning–using storytelling to model diverse "ways of knowing" in academic spaces. 

Snacks and refreshments will be provided!