The Hub

Backward Design Leveraging Generative AI - Fall 2025
2025-10-31 10:00 - 11:00 (America/New_York)
This workshop introduces faculty to the principles of backward design, enhanced by the capabilities of generative AI. Participants will learn how to start with clearly defined learning outcomes and use AI tools to inform the development of assessments and instructional strategies that align with those outcomes. This hands-on session will demonstrate how generative AI can streamline course design, foster creativity, and ensure a cohesive learning experience for students.

The ABCs of Motivating Learners: Competence (In-person at TPSS)
2025-10-31 10:30 - 11:30 | ST 331, Takoma Park
How can we help students feel capable and confident in their learning? This third session in our First Faculty Fridays series about motivation explores Competence—the experience of making progress and feeling effective in one’s efforts. When students experience mastery and receive feedback that supports growth, their motivation and engagement increase (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Robbins et al, 2004). We’ll first examine competence through the lens of Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy, then discuss seven strategies that help build students’ sense of competence. You’ll be invited to share your own classroom strategies and identify at least one new one you would like to try.
Note that you do not need to have attended previous workshops in the series in order to participate in this one.

Blackboard Ultra Open Lab - Takoma Park
2025-10-31 12:30 - 14:30 | ST 328, Takoma Park
Faculty are invited to join the MC Learn Ultra transition team for in-person Blackboard Learn Ultra open labs. Open labs are available on all three main campuses on a drop-in basis with no registration required. Open labs are structured as group Q&A sessions where we work with each attendee in turn to answer questions and provide feedback and resources around MC’s transition to Blackboard Learn Ultra. Please note that open labs do not replace our existing training offerings.
• We encourage everyone to bring your own laptop, charger, and mouse (if desired) to in-person open labs.
• Virtual 1:1 office hours consultations are also available and may be scheduled here: https://outlook.office.com/book/UltraVirtualOfficeHours@montgomerycollege0.onmicrosoft.com

Blackboard Ultra Open Lab - Rockville
2025-10-31 12:30 - 14:30, 2025-11-04 12:30 - 14:30, 2025-11-07 09:30 - 11:30 | MT 214, Rockville

Teaching for Impact Anywhere: Virtual Service Learning (In-person at GT)
2025-10-31 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-11-07 11:00 - 12:00 | BE 146, Germantown
Learn how to adapt service-learning for online delivery, including virtual advocacy, nonprofit support, and remote storytelling projects.

AI Explored: What Every Instructor Needs to Know About Generative AI
2025-10-31 14:00 - 15:00
Curious about ChatGPT, Claude, or how AI is transforming education? Join us for an engaging, non-technical introduction to the world of generative AI. You’ll gain a solid understanding of what generative AI is, how tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and DALL·E work, and how they’re already reshaping teaching, learning, and administrative processes. We’ll also explore the ethical dimensions of AI use in education through the RESPECT Framework, addressing bias, misinformation, academic integrity, and privacy concerns, including FERPA and ADA compliance. Whether you’re skeptical, intrigued, or ready to dive in, this workshop will ground you in what matters most.

Blackboard Ultra Open Lab - Germantown
2025-11-04 09:30 - 11:30, 2025-11-07 12:30 - 14:30 | PK 170, Germantown

Blackboard Ultra Open Lab - Takoma Park
2025-11-04 14:00 - 16:00 | P3 206, Takoma Park

Faculty Friday Workshops
2025-11-07
Please note: Sessions are encouraged but not required.

Inclusion by Design Summit, Fall 2025: Creating Spaces where Everyone Thrives
2025-11-07 09:00 - 15:00
The Universal Design Center (UDC) at Montgomery College is excited to host the Fall 2025 Inclusion by Design Summit: a gathering of educators, industry professionals, and advocates dedicated to universal design, equity, and accessibility.
This semester’s summit, themed “Creating Spaces where Everyone Thrives,” will showcase emerging research, best practices, and innovative strategies for fostering inclusion across education, workplaces, and digital environments. Attendees will gain actionable insights through hands-on workshops, thought-provoking discussions, and dynamic presentations.

Event Details & Registration Information
For more information and Summit Registration, visit the UDC website.

Have Questions?
Contact Dr. Paul Miller at paul.miller@montgomerycollege.edu
We look forward to welcoming you to the Fall 2025 Inclusion by Design Summit!

Blackboard Ultra Open Lab - Takoma Park
2025-11-07 09:30 - 11:30 | ST 331, Takoma Park

The ABCs of Motivating Learners: Belonging
2025-11-07 13:00 - 14:00
What helps students feel like they matter, belong, and are seen in your classroom? This second session in our First Faculty Fridays series about motivation focuses on Belonging—a foundational human need and a powerful factor in learning. When students feel a sense of connection to their instructors, peers, and learning environment, they are more likely to succeed academically and have a higher sense of well-being (Ryan & Deci, 2000; Kessel et al., 2025).
We’ll examine the power of belonging in our classrooms and discuss seven inclusive strategies to foster community, connection, and psychological safety. You’ll be invited to share and reflect on your own classroom strategies for creating a sense of inclusion and belonging.
Note that you do not need to have attended previous workshops in the series in order to participate in this one.

Open Pedagogy: The Gift that Keeps Giving (In-person at RV)
2025-11-07 13:00 - 14:00 | SV 416, Rockville
No more disposable assignments for an audience of one! Open Pedagogy gives students the opportunity to create authentic materials for others to use beyond their current course. In this workshop, we will examine a variety of open pedagogy examples and resources and explore ways to integrate the practice into our courses.

AI + UDL: Creating Adaptive Course Materials
2025-11-07 14:00 - 15:00
This workshop guides faculty through using AI tools combined with Universal Design for Learning principles to create flexible, inclusive course materials. Participants will explore examples, test tools, and draft adaptive resources they can use immediately.

Cognitive Load Made Simple (In-person at RV)
2025-11-07 14:00 - 15:00 | SV 417, Takoma Park
In this workshop, you will learn how to optimize learning by reducing cognitive overload. We will discuss how to breakdown content into manageable and accessible chunks, diversify delivery formats to enhance information processing, and integrate check-ins throughout the learning process. This approach to teaching ensures that students are building a solid foundation of knowledge, ultimately leading to deeper understanding and retention.

Staff Professional Development Day - Fall 2025
2025-11-10
Join us for CTL’s Fall 2025 Staff Professional Development Day!

This special day is a time to learn, connect, and grow together. The event celebrates the dedication and excellence of our staff through engaging workshops, inspiring speakers, and opportunities to strengthen our shared commitment to student success. Let’s recharge, collaborate, and continue building a stronger MC community!

How to Use ChatGPT to Save Time
2025-11-10 09:00 - 09:45
Presenter: Dr. Paul Miller
Unlock the potential of AI to streamline your daily tasks in our hands-on workshop, How to Use ChatGPT to Save Time. Designed specifically for staff, this session introduces practical ways to use ChatGPT to boost productivity, improve communication, and simplify routine responsibilities. Whether you’re drafting emails, creating reports, organizing information, or brainstorming ideas, this workshop will show you how AI tools like ChatGPT can make your work faster, easier, and more efficient.

Finding Reverence in the Workplace and Escaping the Daily Grind
2025-11-10 09:00 - 09:45
Presenter: Philip Bonner
Finding reverence at work sounds like an impossible task, but is it? Can we find such a profound emotion in the daily grind? We spend a huge part of our lives in the workplace, and making those hours as meaningful as possible serves to enrich our lives and make us more productive employees. Through discussing ways of seeing the workplace through new eyes and participating in exercises on “reverential collaboration,” and attendees will be able to turn the daily grind into a daily exultation.

Microsoft Word: The Magic of Styles
2025-11-10 09:00 - 09:45
Presenter: Megan Calvert
Unlock the hidden power of Styles in Microsoft Word and transform the way you create documents. In this lively, hands-on session, you’ll discover how Styles can instantly clean up messy formatting, create structure for easy navigation, and even redesign your entire document with one click. You’ll also learn how Styles unlock features like automatic tables of contents and structured, screen-reader-friendly PDFs. This session is especially timely—using Styles is a critical skill for creating accessible documents, and there will be a major college-wide emphasis on accessibility beginning this spring. Whether you write reports, memos, or instructional materials, you’ll leave with practical skills that make your work faster, cleaner, and fully aligned with accessibility best practices.

Microsoft Forms Tips & Tricks
2025-11-10 10:00 - 10:45
Presenter: Ketsia Masse
This workshop will give an overview of Microsoft Forms and introduce tips and tricks to help you use this powerful tool more efficiently in conjunction with Excel. We will cover how to create, customize and share Forms, as well as highlighting specific tips to help structure Forms for streamlined results analysis in Excel. All levels of Forms users are welcome in this workshop.

Instructional and Developmental Feedback – telling or asking?
2025-11-10 10:00 - 10:45
Presenter: Richard Forrest
Feedback is essential for growth and continuous improvement but can be difficult to both give and receive. Learn how to take the sting out of giving feedback and how to ask for feedback that works more as advice than painful medicine.

Design Smarter: Tools and Tips to Create PowerPoint Presentations Faster and More Accessible
2025-11-10 10:00 - 10:45
Presenter: Gloria Barron
Need to create a presentation but short on time? This workshop is perfect for anyone who regularly uses PowerPoint and wants to create presentations more efficiently, effectively, and accessibly. You’ll learn how to build slides quickly while enhancing design quality and ensuring ADA compliance. Through guided demonstrations, you’ll explore time-saving tools and apply design strategies that make it easy to produce visually compelling, professional presentations that communicate your message clearly and inclusively.

Taming Your To-Do List
2025-11-10 11:00 - 11:45
Presenter: Philip Bonner
No one has more time than another, yet some people are more productive. Learn how to create and manage your to-do lists to help you increase your productivity. Upon completion of this session, you will be able to get more accomplished each day with your improved lists.

Hidden Gems in Microsoft 365: Time Saving Tools for Inclusive and Efficient Workflows
2025-11-10 11:00 - 11:45
Presenter: Gloria Barron
Did you know Microsoft 365 offers powerful features that can save you time, enhance accessibility, and elevate your work?
In this hands-on session, you’ll explore quick, practical ways to streamline your workflow and create professional, inclusive communications using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. We’ll try to cover as many strategies as possible from the list below:
Discover how to quickly check and fix digital accessibility using built-in tools; design and send flyers directly in email without breaking accessibility standards; collect data with Microsoft Forms and instantly analyze it in Excel dashboards; add clickable, descriptive links that are both professional and accessible; create fillable Word documents to guide user input and reduce errors; use PowerPoint’s AI tools and Rehearse with Coach to polish your presentations; translate Word documents, web pages, and Blackboard content into over 100 languages; and create banners or turn hundreds of images into a slideshow or short movie in PowerPoint.

Turn Minutes into Mastery with Microlearning
2025-11-10 13:00 - 13:45
Presenter: Angela Lanier
Microlearning is an approach that offers short learning modules to support learners’ mastery of concepts in small chunks. This session will present the components of micro learning and offer tools and tips for how to create a microlearning module to support personal, academic, and professional development.

Microsoft Bookings
2025-11-10 13:00 - 13:45
Presenter: Ketsia Masse
This hands-on workshop will introduce Microsoft Bookings, a web-based tool that helps you schedule and manage meetings with your colleagues or students more efficiently. We will discuss possible uses, such as setting up consultations, and walk through the steps of how to set up and use both personal Bookings pages and pages for a group or department.
The workshop will be conducted via Zoom. To fully participate, it is best to join from a device with two screens or from two side-by-side devices so that you can follow the instructor’s demonstrations.
