Scaling Up
A Pedagogy Workshop
Monday, May 4, 2026, 12:00–2:00pm, Humanities Institute Conference Room, HBL 4th Floor
This event will also be livestreamed with automated captioning and recorded for later viewing.
Register to attend virtually.
In the age of generative AI, we hear a lot about “scaling up” as a goal we should be striving for. But bigger is not always better, especially when it comes to teaching. This pedagogy workshop is an opportunity for instructors across UConn who are being asked to teach larger classes to talk together about how to make these shifts sustainable.
How can our pedagogy continue to reflect our values and our care for our students, yet without massively increasing our workload? What sorts of assignments develop critical and creative skills that are crucial for students’ futures, rather than the “cognitive offloading” that can result from uncritical dependence on generative AI? How do we assess student work fairly without overburdening instructors and TAs or using digital surveillance? What strategies work to keep student attention and promote genuine learning in a lecture format? Is it possible to meet individual student needs and build community in a larger class?
A panel of five instructors in CLAS at UConn who have successfully scaled up to teaching larger classes will address these and other questions, in a two hour conversation among all participants that we plan to continue beyond this session into next year.
Panelists: Ariana Codr, Jane Gordon, Alexander Menrisky, Qazi Arka Rahman, Fiona Somerset.
Please send questions about the event, or issues you hope the panelists will consider, to fiona.somerset@uconn.edu
Access note
If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpretation, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities. Requests should be made at least five business days in advance whenever possible
