New students need to wait up to 24 hours after registration to gain access to Brightspace. The system updates at approximately 8 PM daily.
In this issue of the CTRL Newsletter, we want to bring you up to speed on all of the updates you'll need to kick off the fall semester, including information on the resources you'll need for courses, upcoming training and support opportunities, and updates from the summer that we think both faculty and staff will be interested to hear.
Wishing you the best of luck this academic year!
Carlow provides access to Microsoft Office tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and more—but we know many of us haven't had formal training to make the most of them. We're developing training sessions to match your needs and skill levels, and we need your input. Let us know which tools you use, what you'd like to learn, and how you prefer to learn it.
Your feedback will help us design training that's practical, relevant, and ready to use in your day-to-day work.
This year's Summer Institute focused on the powerful intersection of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), offering practical strategies to make teaching more inclusive, efficient, and engaging. Participants explored how intentional design, supported by the right tools, can reduce barriers and better prepare students for independent, professional success.
In From Prompt to Practice: Understanding & Applying Generative AI with Purpose, keynote speaker Tracie Yorke likened AI to a turntable—you control the mix. She introduced the ACES framework (Ask, Check, Expand, Source) for crafting equity-aware prompts, demonstrated how to compare AI models, and guided participants in designing custom GPTs to meet specific teaching and learning needs. She emphasized purposeful, context-driven AI use that balances efficiency with human oversight.
In Universal Design for Learning & AI: Taking Work Off Your Plate, Tom Tobin shared five strategies for applying UDL in everyday teaching: start with text, create alternates, offer flexible ways for students to demonstrate learning, break tasks into smaller steps, and remove barriers to access. He showed how AI can help both educators and learners generate multiple content formats, build self-quizzing tools, and customize study supports, shifting from instructors providing all options to empowering students to design on their own.
In addition to these two great speakers, a team from Brightspace shared information on new features in the learning management system, as well as changes that are coming to the look and feel of the course shells beginning this fall (more on this in Brightspace Updates!).
Breakout sessions each day provided hands-on opportunities to go deeper into instructional design, UDL, and AI. All sessions were recorded and are available on the CTRL's Summer Institute page.
