Your students are already using AI. The question isn’t whether AI belongs in higher education; it’s how you can engage with it thoughtfully and effectively in your teaching practice.
Our new workshop series offers two distinct pathways, designed around where you are right now rather than where you think you should be.
Reality Check
Most academic conversations about AI swing between extremes: revolutionary disruption or existential threat. Meanwhile, educators are left with practical questions: What exactly are my students doing with these tools? How do I maintain academic integrity while embracing useful innovation? How do I separate legitimate pedagogical applications from technological hype?
These workshops cut through the noise to focus on what matters: your teaching, your students, and your professional judgment.
1: Demystifying Generative AI for Educators
60 minutes, Zoom
For educators who need clarity before action. This isn’t “AI will change everything” rhetoric; we design it to be practical demystification. We use pre-session polls to address your actual concerns, whether that’s understanding student AI use, navigating ethics and policy, or identifying where AI might genuinely enhance your teaching.
You’ll gain: Clear understanding of AI capabilities and limitations, practical safety guidelines, and concrete examples relevant to your discipline. No jargon, no overwhelming technical details, aka the knowledge you need to make informed decisions.
Bring a colleague: Learning about AI is more effective when you can process it with a peer who understands your teaching context.
2: Educate with Generative AI: Choose Your Own Adventure
60 minutes, in-person or Zoom
For academics ready to experiment with purpose. Three hands-on labs let you focus on what matters most to your teaching practice. You’ll workshop strategic integration that serves your pedagogical goals.
Choose your focus:
- Lab 1: Advanced prompting – Learn effective prompting techniques and steps. Practice refining prompts, creating dual-purpose prompts for learning and feedback, and comparing outputs across different AI tools, including a brief dip into Cogniti.
- Lab 2: AI as creative assessment partner – Transform a creative assessment in 60 minutes. Discover how AI can enhance debates, performances, and projects while maintaining authenticity for educators and students.
- Lab 3: Student-centred activity prototyping with AI – Design and prototype a meaningful, ethical AI activity for students. Choose your tools and focus level, leaving with lesson plan elements that incorporate AI appropriately for your discipline.
You’ll create: Concrete strategies tested through hands-on practice, ready for immediate implementation in your teaching.
Which Path Fits Your Needs?
Choose path 1 if you: Need foundational understanding before making changes, want to build confidence in AI literacy, or prefer comprehensive overview before targeted application.
Choose from our path 2 labs if you: Have basic AI familiarity, learn best through hands-on experimentation, or want targeted strategies for specific integration challenges.
All workshops and labs can stand alone: Choose based on your current needs, not external expectations about where you “should” be with AI.
The Bigger Picture
These sessions recognise that effective AI integration is more than just keeping up with technology, but also about enhancing the teaching and learning outcomes that already matter to you. The goal is sustainable, thoughtful practice that serves your students and respects your professional expertise.
Whether you need clarity or hands-on experimentation, these workshops meet you where you are and help you move forward with confidence.
Ready to start?
Registration and upcoming dates:
- Path 1: Demystifying generative AI for educators (multiple dates available – register here)
- Path 2:
- Lab 1 Advanced prompting: Thu 31/07/2025
- Lab 2 AI as creative assessment partner: Thu 14/08/2025
- Lab 3 Student-centred activity prototyping with AI: Mon 11/08/2025
Questions about which workshop suits your needs? Contact: [email protected]
You don’t need to be an AI expert to begin. You just need to be a thoughtful educator.
AI Acknowledgement: This article was drafted using Claude (Anthropic) to synthesise workshop content into a cohesive narrative for Teaching@Sydney’s academic audience. The AI assistant helped structure ideas, refine tone for the target readership, and ensure clarity while maintaining the original workshop objectives and pedagogical approach.
