Overview
One of the key programmatic products of my department and unit was the development and delivery of workshops that faculty and staff could attend to learn about new approaches and technologies, develop new skills, and engage with community members outside of their area. Having joined during COVID, I faced significant resistance to learning about digital technologies as the entire community was both worried and burned out with anything digital. So while efforts around digital fluency were hindered, the whole landscape changed for me with the introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022.
Once Artificial Intelligence (AI) came to the attention of the community my portfolio significantly shifted to producing a range of programming to shed light on, teach, encourage, and generally respond to AI. While this included creating a microlearning series, building communities of practice, capturing case studies, and others, workshop delivery was an essential part of service provided by my team. These workshops were a way for us to explore and learn, then pass on lessons and upskill others. Additionally, with each iterated delivery we built awareness of the department and its commmitment to digital learning within the university community.
Artifacts
The following are some examples of workshops I researched, designed, developed and delivered from 2023-2025 while serving as Director of Strategic Digital Learning Initiatives at The George Washington University. Topics include artificial intelligence literacy and digital fluency/literacy. Audiences were faculty (i.e., my clients) and staff with occassional students. Typical attendance was around 15 participants, which was double the department average.
While I selected the topics and preferred to be hands-on in the work, some of these workshops were done in full collaboration with team members and educational developers. If anything, I wish more of this could have been done collaboratively, but with heavy media production cycles and few available staff hours, I worked hard to lead and build a portfolio.
All slide decks were designed using custom templates in PowerPoint or Google Slides. Images are from Getty Stock, Adobe Stock, and ChatGPT.
Artificial Intelligence Literacy
AI focused workshops were developed from 2023-2025. The workshops were designed to address specific topics on the impact of AI in teaching, learning, and work. Topics were determined from needs identified by faculty partners and academic leaders, as well as from trends in research at the time. Each workshop ran multiple iterations and the slide decks presentated are the final state.
Digital Fluency/Literacy
Two sets of workshop series were developed from 2021-2024. The first series was entitled Communicating with Digital Media (CDM) and focused on the use of Adobe Creative Cloud tools. And the second series was entitled Digital Projects in Teaching and Learning. These ran multiple iterations and were delivered asynchonously. Activities were supported with Miro boards and Zoom break-out groups. They concluded with GWU's cancellation of the Adobe Creative Campus Partnership and shift to AI.
Impact
Among the multi-pronged approach I took to address AI literacy and digital fluency among faculty and staff, these workshops had strong impact allowing participants a chance to consider applied technologies and begin to explore use. Where workshops from other units averaged 7-8 participants per session, these averaged 15 participants with others who could not attend reaching out for slides and/or conversation. But they communicated a broader message that my department was ready to be a service, and so people engaged us further across offerings.
Additionally, I enjoyed these a great deal because they allowed me to continue practicing my teaching, facilitation, and speaking skills. Furthermore, they allowed me an avenue to build something, which was something I was not able to do very much in my role.