Office of IDEAS

Training Opportunities

Below you will find our upcoming workshops and training opportunities. Please register to attend the sessions that interest you.
Don't see what you need or can't attend during the scheduled time? Let us know and an Instructional Designer can meet individually with you.

Spring 2026 AI Fridays Workshops

Join our "AI Fridays" workshop series this spring facilitated by our faculty AI Champions and the Office of IDEAS team. Explore generative AI tools, share your experiences, and learn from your peers to enhance your teaching and learning experiences. Session descriptions and calendar below.

Teachable Machine for Faculty – A No-Code AI Demonstration

This 50-minute interactive workshop introduces faculty to Google’s Teachable Machine, a browser-based, no-code platform for building image, audio, or pose recognition models. Participants will learn how machine learning classification works in real time and explore instructional and research applications in their own disciplines. This session is ideal for faculty looking to experiment with AI without needing to code.

Facilitator: Dr. Hovannes Kulhandjian, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Date: February 6
Time: 10:00 AM
Modality: In-Person

How to Beat Everyone Cheating with AI

Learn how to cheat with AI and create authentic exams, assignments, and quizzes that can't be fooled with AI.

Facilitator: Dr. Christian Wandeler, Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction
Date: February 13
Time: 10:00 AM
Modality: Zoom

Creating Imaginative Bridges with Google Gemini

This interactive faculty workshop explores how AI can be incorporated into digital projects to increase creativity and student connection to the material being taught and discussed. The session covers several practical prompts and modes of assessment for final projects that can supplement or replace a final exam that draws upon and demonstrates students’ critical understanding of course readings.

Facilitator: Dr. J. Ashley Foster, Associate Professor of English
Date: February 20
Time: 10:00 AM
Modality: In-Person

Zoom AI Companion as a Teaching Tool

Learn how to use Zoom AI Companion as a teaching aid for online synchronous courses, groupwork, lecture capture, and more.

Facilitator: Jason McGensy, Instructional Designer
Date: February 27
Time: 9:00 AM
Modality: Zoom

AI-Powered Canvas Course Design

Learn how to use generative AI to help design elements in Canvas for more engaging and effective visual content presentation online.

Facilitator: William Hardaway, Instructional Designer
Date: March 6
Time: 9:00 AM
Modality: Zoom

Custom Chatbots w/ ChatGPT

Learn how to create custom chatbots with ChatGPT and how they can be used in the context of teaching and learning.

Facilitator: Dr. David Ruby, Lecturer of Computer Science
Date: March 13
Time: 1:00 PM
Modality: In-Person

Developing Student Support Materials with Google Notebook LM

In this workshop, participants will examine various tools that can easily be developed in Notebook LM to help students grasp course material.

Facilitator: Dr. Scott Sailor, Professor of Kinesiology
Date: March 20
Time: 10:00 AM
Modality: In-Person

What Can Access Mean in an AI Era

A conversation about how AI can be used to support a variety of personas and learning needs, and also the biases and barriers that it can create or exacerbate.

Facilitator: Ashley Abrahamson, Universal Design for Learning Accessibility Specialist
Date: April 10
Time: 10:00 AM
Modality: In-Person

Ethical AI-Assisted Feedback for Essay Grading

Reduce grading time and cognitive load without outsourcing judgment, assigning grades, or sharing student work with AI.

Facilitator: Dr. Natalie Muñoz, Director of CFE and Associate Professor of French
Date: April 17
Time: 10:00 AM
Modality: Zoom

One Year In

Come together with colleagues to discuss the first academic year of AI integration.Bring success stories, challenges, and/or strategies you would like to share.

Facilitator: Dr. Amber Hammons, Chair and Associate Professor of Child and Family Studies
Date: April 24
Time: 9:00 AM
Modality: In-Person

📩 Have questions or a workshop idea? Contact the Office of IDEAS

Learning with AI is a self-paced course for students to learn about responsible and ethical use of AI as a learning aid in their academic career.

Self-enroll in Learning with AI: A Guide for Students

DISCOVERe Essentials is a self-paced online training required for faculty who wish to be certified to offer DISCOVERe-tagged classes.

The training features online modules with some flexible in-person sessions required.

Self-Enroll in DISCOVERe Essentials

Open Educational Resources is a self-paced course to introduce faculty participants learn to create, reuse, remix, redistribute, revise, and retain open-licensed content to combat course material costs and improve content relevance for students.

Self-enroll in Open Educational Resources course

Growing with Canvas

Growing with Canvas is a self-paced online tutorial for faculty who are new to using Canvas LMS who prefer to learn on their own, can't attend face-to-face workshops, or would like to review how to accomplish a certain task.

Self-Enroll in Growing with Canvas

You may also want to enroll in the Faculty Toolbox to get the latest information and suggestions from the Office of IDEAS: https://fresnostate.instructure.com/enroll/CLR7ER

Organizational Development (HROD)

Organizational Development, a sub-unit of HR, creates and leads organizational and professional development programs designed to nurture a culture of change, continuous improvement, and innovation and build organizational and individual capacities within the Fresno State community. They support efforts to pursue excellence as a learning organization committed to innovation, improvement, workplace quality and wellness. HROD is a collaborative partner with the Office of IDEAS.

Fresno State is committed to developing our employees by providing training opportunities that will help participants LEARN personal and professional leadership skills, IMPROVE Fresno State and reduce administrative burden, SHARE ideas for improvements, innovations, and best practices, and CELEBRATE accomplishments, years of service, and success stories.

Visit the Organizational Development website

CSU Learn
- CSU Learn is Fresno State's one-stop shop for on-campus and cross-campus learning opportunities.
Microsoft 365 Training Library
- Access tutorials and templates for a range of Microsoft Office products such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and One Note.
Fresno County Public Library
- Anyone with a Fresno County address can sign up for a Fresno County Public Library card electronically, to get immediate access to electronic resources and ebooks. To check out physical items, you will need to visit an FCPL branch to activate your account.
  
  FCPL digital resources include Mango Languages, Kanopy, Overdrive eBooks, Peterson's Test Prep (online test prep/practice tests including GRE), and several digitized local history collections. If you don't live in Fresno County, check your local public library system's online resources. All libraries in the San Joaquin Valley Library System (SJVLS) allow residents of their services areas to sign up for an electronic card online, and many offer access to their online resources.
  
  FCPL Resource Spotlight: LinkedIn Learning
  
  LinkedIn Learning is an online tutorial service available through FCPL. It offers thousands of videos teaching everything from Adobe Photoshop to Microsoft Word & Powerpoint to Business and Finance.

Request a Workshop

The IDEAS Instructional Designers are available to come to your department meetings (or other scheduled time) to provide custom workshops to meet your needs. Here's a list of sample topics we have presented: Artificial Intelligence, Canvas course building, Exam development, Zoom Workspace, Panopto, Google Workspace, Academic Integrity, Project-Based Learning, Active Learning, Digital Badging, and more.

Request a workshop