This month's featured panel session:
"Engaging Faculty in Professional Development that Supports Engaging Online Learners in the AI Era: Panel Session Q&A"
We are excited to welcome two outstanding leaders in teaching, learning, and AI innovation:
🔹 Dr. Kiran Budhrani is dedicated to leading transformative change in teaching and learning to impact the future workforce and a better world. Her dynamic energy, creative systems thinking, and bold ideas drive her as the Director for Teaching and Learning Innovation at UNC Charlotte. She leads strategic initiatives and extending capabilities within teams to drive growth, excellence and student success through faculty-centered programming and curricular innovation involving teaching strategies, generative AI, personalized and adaptive learning, learning analytics, online learning, instructional design strategies, and academic technology solutions. She has spearheaded AI transformation in Academic Affairs as the co-chair of the inaugural AI Taskforce and lead for the AI Accelerator for Teaching and Learning and serves in the campus AI Steering Committee, with strong collaboration between the Innovation team at Center for Teaching and Learning and the Office of the Provost. She founded the AI Faculty Fellows program and co-leads the annual Charlotte AI Summit. Kiran holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership in Learning, Design and Technology from UNC Charlotte. She earned her Masters degree in Computer Applications with a specialization in Instructional Systems Technology and a B.S. in Computer Science with a specialization in Instructional Systems Technology from De La Salle University-Manila. Her research focuses on design epistemology and course design. Currently she is working on an NSF IUSE grant on scaling adaptive learning in Engineering across UNC system schools. Shas earned multiple awards including the Employee of the Year Award for Innovation (2022) at UNC Charlotte and publication awards from the Association for Education Communications Technology (AECT). She holds leadership credentials from OLC's Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning, Quality Matters, and the EDUCAUSE Digital Learning Leaders Institute.
🔹 Dr. Travis N. Thurston is Executive Director of the Center for Empowering Teaching Excellence at Utah State University, where he leads system-wide faculty development initiatives, including digital badges for professional development pathways. His work supports scholarly teaching, instructional innovation, online learning, and effective AI pedagogy through collaborative, evidence-informed approaches.
Together, they will discuss institutional leadership, faculty development, online learning innovation, and effective AI pedagogy in higher education.
📅 Friday, May 15, 2026
⏰ 4:00–5:00 PM EST
💻 Zoom Meeting
🔗 Register here:
https://maine.zoom.us/meeting/register/VuyvokL7RPeBcoKiY4DHWA?_x_zm_rtaid=QKfInGOnRrWgXn5Puhj6MQ.1776182182735.972ea6365ab0a9bf0355f49ead999b4e&_x_zm_rhtaid=159#/registration
We look forward to seeing you there!
#AECT #LearnerEngagement #HigherEducation #FacultyDevelopment #AIinEducation #OnlineLearning #InstructionalDesign #TeachingInnovation
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Nesma Ragab Nasr
LED Communication Officer
Ph.D. Candidate, Northern Arizona University
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