Through guided examples and hands-on activities, your will learn how accessibility barriers may affect users and how to identify and address common issues in digital materials. You will have opportunities to practice applying accessibility techniques, evaluate sample content, and make improvements using accessibility tools and checkers. By the end of the workshop, you will leave with a stronger understanding of compliance requirements and concrete skills you can apply immediately to create more accessible digital content.

Session #1 March 23, 2026

Session #2 March 30, 2026

Session #3 April 6, 2026

Session #4 April 13, 2026

Feedback is one of the most powerful tools instructors have to support student learning鈥攂ut only when students actually use it. Research shows that feedback is most effective when it is timely, actionable, and connected to future work, helping students understand not just what went wrong but what to do next.

In this interactive workshop, we鈥檒l explore practical, evidence-based strategies for designing feedback that promotes learning, motivation, and engagement in in-person, online, and competency-based courses.

Participants will:

• Learn key principles of effective feedback
• Explore strategies that promote student engagement
• Review examples of feedback across different types of assignments
• Identify one聽simple change they can implement immediately聽in their own teaching

Join us for a session focused on practical ideas you can use right away to make feedback more meaningful鈥攁nd more likely to stick.

 including slides and sample assignments with feedback.

In this webinar, you will learn about the Ally Alternate Formats tool available to your students, as well as how to make quick edits to your content to ensure that students can choose their preferred format for engaging with the content. If you type content into a page in Brightspace, upload PowerPoint slides, or upload a reading in a pdf file, your students will have the option to read the content directly in Brightspace as usual, or download an mp3 version to listen to while they read or go for a walk or download an immersive reader version that helps them more deeply engage with the reading improving comprehension.

Join us to learn about some quick fixes you can make to your Brightspace content to take advantage of the Ally Alternate Formats tool to improve the learning experience for all of your students.

Practice your skills

1. Download this file and try out the OCR tool in Adobe Acrobat to recognize the text. Next, use the auto-tagging feature to provide metadata for screen readers to navigate the file. Use the alt text tool to add descriptions to images or mark them as decorative.
2. Download this file that was exported from a PDF and work on the following steps to make it accessible:
   • Modify the section headings to keep the formatting but assign the appropriate heading level (Heading 2).
   • 91桃色 Heading 1 style to the title of the article while maintaining the format.
   • Increase the color contrast of the blue font to make it easier to read.
   • 91桃色 a header row to the table.
   • Add alt text or mark images as decorative.

For more resources on making simple edits to improve accessibility, visit the following pages:

Please provide your feedback on the workshop if you watch the recording: .

Agenda

• 2025-2026 Highlights: Enrollment, Budget, Academic Program Development, Teaching & Learning Survey, EAB
• University Day planning
• Advising updates
• General Education Curriculum
• Title II Core Group
• Q&A with Tricia Bertram Gallant (not recorded)
• Ally demo
• YourPace
• AI Committee

Friday, December 12, 2025

1. The Law of the Whole Person: Reclaiming your right and responsibility to act as a unified person, refusing to separate yourself into discrete work and life components.
2. Consistency Beats Performance: Discovering how showing up regularly for your most important work is more vital than chasing high-stakes outcomes or occasional bursts of intense effort.
3. Small Steps within Coherent Systems: Learning that daily, sustainable action within a well-structured personal system creates more progress than ambitious, high-profile “wins.”

We’ll explore how to translate these principles into practical, everyday faculty life to make it possible for you to be fully present for everything you hold to be important — both work and life — and pursue a more coherent, fulfilling, and productive career. 

About the Speaker

Dr. Robert Talbert is a Professor of Mathematics at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, where he teaches courses for Computer Science majors and writes about practical, faculty-centered approaches to improving higher education. His scholarship focuses on teaching innovation, which he shares on his blogs  and . He is the author of Flipped Learning: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty and co-author of Grading for Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices that Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education.

A Tennessee native, Talbert earned his B.S. in Mathematics from Tennessee Technological University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mathematics from Vanderbilt University, specializing in algebraic topology and category theory. Before joining GVSU in 2011, he held faculty positions at Bethel College and Franklin College, where he began blogging and experimenting with flipped instruction.

He lives in Allendale with his family and has been a bass guitarist for over 30 years, performing with several Grand Rapids鈥揳rea bands.