GET SET RESET
VIRTUAL CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Wednesday, August 12th, 2026
8:30 AM TO 3:30 PM
GET SET RESET is held annually the week before the start of the fall semester, and features concurrent sessions focused on actionable strategies that instructors can apply to their teaching in the coming semester/academic year.
- Live captioning will be provided for all concurrent sessions.
- Audience tags are provided to help you identify sessions that may be particularly relevant to your role or stage of teaching. They are intended only as a guide to support session selection, rather than limiting it. You are welcome to attend any session that aligns with your interests, goals, or professional development needs.
8:30 - 9:45 am • Opening Session
Opening Remarks & Keynote Talk
Opening Remarks: Welcome to Get Set Reset 2026!
Speaker: Dr. Erin E. Shortlidge, Executive Director, Center for Teaching and Learning; Professor of Biology.
Keynote: Welcoming Critical Dialogue into the Classroom: Teaching Practices for Sustaining Interconnectedness and Intellectual Growth
Speaker: Dr. Jamal Martin, Lecturer III, Professor of Africana Studies and Public Health, Department of Africana Studies.
Description: As educators striving to foster meaningful engagement, curiosity, intellectual vitality, and well-being in our classrooms in the midst of the crosscurrents impacting the higher education landscape, we may feel challenged to foster dialogue, nurture relationships, and support learning across differences. In this session, we will explore approaches for creating interconnected and supportive learning spaces in which students and instructors can grapple with challenging questions, explore diverse perspectives, and sustain mutuality in learning communities even when conversations become most difficult. Participants will leave with strategies for fostering critical conversations and the kinds of classroom communities that nurture both substantive inquiry and collective well-being.
Audience: Recommended for All Instructors
10:00am - 11:00 am • Concurrent Sessions
Presenters: Dr. Eva Rodríguez-González, Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of New Mexico; Dr. Evan Ashworth, Senior Lecturer, Department of Communication & Journalism, University of New Mexico; Dr. Caitlin Lippitt, Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, University of New Mexico.
Description: Elevate Gen Ed is a faculty-developed, Academic Affairs supported framework that helps instructors connect General Education course content with essential skills students can use across academic, professional, and community contexts. In this session, members of the Elevate Gen Ed working group will showcase activities they have developed and used in their own courses, demonstrating how short, adaptable learning experiences can strengthen skills such as communication, information literacy, data analysis, critical reflection, intercultural competence, and AI literacy while supporting existing course goals. Participants will also learn how to access these ready-to-use activities through the Elevate Gen Ed Canvas site for use in their own courses.
Audience: Recommended for New to UNM Faculty and TAs
Presenters: James Michael, Ph.D. Student, Biomedical Engineering; Sierra Ramirez, Ph.D. Student, History; Luis Sanchez Martinez, Ph.D. Student, Health, Exercise and Sport Sciences, College of Education & Human Sciences; Salika Dulanjali, Sooriyage, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, RA/TA (PhD Candidate), Organic Chemistry Laboratories.
Description: Whether you are a first-time Graduate Teaching Assistant facilitating a laboratory course or an experienced GTA leading your lectures independently, this hour-long session will offer practical insights on how to strengthen your role as a GTA. UNM Graduate Teaching Assistants across multiple disciplines will share key teaching strategies and classroom practices that support learning at the beginning of the semester and beyond. GTAs' approaches to building connection and community with students while fostering an authentic engagement in the discipline will be discussed. Further, the presenters will share experiences and ideas to building supportive networks with fellow GTAs. Join us to be ready for the upcoming fall semester!
Audience: Recommended for TAs
Presenters: Dr. Marissa Greenberg, Professor, English; Special Advisor, Division for Change and Empowerment (DiCE); Presidential Teaching Fellow, CTL-TEC; Laura Franklin MS, Director, Accessibility Resource Center; Dr. Naomi Yavneh Klos, Dean, Honors College.
Description: This session will focus on how instructors can plan for accommodating students' disability needs and religious observances. Presenters will speak from expertise and experience about communicating information about accommodations as well as following up and following through with students, including when the unexpected invariably occurs. Participants are encouraged to bring draft syllabi to the session.
Audience: Recommended for All Instructors
11:15 am - 12:15 pm • Concurrent Sessions
Presenters: Ari McGuirk and Bill Swann, Educational Developers, Center for Teaching and Learning.
Description: New to working in Canvas this semester? Returning Canvas user who would like to refresh your skills? In this session we'll discuss how to work with key Canvas tools and other valuable resources that can help you build and launch your course.
Audience: Recommended for New to UNM Faculty and TAs
Presenters: Natalie Kubasek, PhD, CTL Supervisor Educational Developer, Center for Teaching and Learning and Adjunct Instructor, Valencia Branch Campus; Aretha Matt, PhD, Associate Professor of English, Liberal Arts & Education Division, UNM Gallup Campus.
Description: This session examines culturally responsive approaches to scaffolding reading and writing across disciplines, asking how we can help students make meaningful cultural connections through literacy practices. Drawing on literacy narratives and scaffolded literary analysis, we share actionable strategies that build confidence and help students see themselves in course texts and assignments. Participants will explore how integrating reading, writing, reflection, and intentional scaffolding deepens engagement and transfer, and leave with adaptable strategies for their teaching contexts.
Audience: Recommended for All instructors
Presenters: Dr. Vanessa Svihla, Professor, Organization, Information & Learning Sciences, College of University Libraries & Learning Sciences; Professor, Chemical & Biological Engineering; Presidential Teaching Fellow 2026-2028.
Description: Instructors are reconsidering how students demonstrate learning in light of Generative AI. In this interactive session, we explore Tuning Protocols—a structured process for giving and receiving feedback—that support documenting learning processes. Participants will try out a Tuning Protocol and explore how they can adapt it for their classrooms. Tuning protocols scale from small seminars to large lectures, from in-room to on-Zoom. Participants are encouraged to bring an assignment they would like to revise.
Audience: Recommended for All instructors
12:15 pm - 1:00 pm • Lunch Break
1:15 pm - 2:15 pm • Concurrent Sessions
Presenters: McMarshal Hartzenberg, Doctoral Student and Teaching Assistant, Physical Education, Sports and Exercise Science, College of Education & Human Sciences; Dr. Nicholas R. Jaegers, Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering.
Description: This cross-disciplinary conversation will explore practical strategies that can support student learning, confidence, and participation across a range of courses. Presenters from engineering and physical education will share examples of short activities, physical demonstrations, contextualized problems, and low-stakes dialogue that help students engage with disciplinary ideas. The session will also consider how instructors gather and provide feedback, assess outcomes such as confidence and belonging, and adapt these approaches over time. Participants will be invited to reflect on and share which strategies fit their own disciplines, teaching styles, and course priorities.
Audience: Recommended for All instructors
Presenters: Erza Depperman, Ph.D. Senior Lecturer III, Chemistry; Diana Torrez, Ph.D. Lecturer III, Sociology
Description: Students bring different experiences, perspectives, questions, and levels of confidence to the classroom. Effective group work leverages these differences to create richer learning opportunities for everyone but implementing it can be challenging for both instructors and students. In this session we will present some of the strategies that have worked for us in both face-to-face and online modalities. We will all work together to brainstorm ways you can either begin to use groupwork or use it to better advantage in your classroom.
Audience: Recommended for Returning Instructors
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Presenters: Nick Humphries and Mitch Marty, Educational Developers, Center for Teaching and Learning
Description: This session will discuss the ways that digital accessibility can help instructors design learning experiences that benefit all learners. We will also share a few practical tips to get started on your digital accessibility journey. Attendees will leave with an increased understanding of the importance of digital accessibility, as well as resources to go deeper into the topic.
Audience: Recommended for All instructors
Presenters: Glenn Koelling, Associate Professor, College of University Libraries & Learning Sciences (CULLS); Alyssa Russo, Associate Professor, College of University Libraries & Learning Sciences (CULLS); Tammi Duncan-Teller, Associate Professor of Biology and Science Coordinator, Science and Wellness, UNM Valencia.
Description: Find out how you can incorporate Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs), library skills, and information literacy into your classes. Biology and Library faculty will discuss how they’ve jump-started their students’ research journeys. Participants will learn about CURE and see an example of how it has been implemented. They will also learn about different ways to incorporate the library and librarians into class.
Audience: Recommended for Returning Instructors
1:1 Instructional Designer Consultations
We welcome all instructors to attend our scheduled 1:1 Instructional Designer Consultations for course design and Canvas assistance that fits their individual needs. Whether you have questions about digital accessibility, building your course from scratch or simply setting up your grade book so students can accurately track their progress, we are here to support you. Virtual Meetings are available throughout the semester. To find your most convenient dates and times, please see our schedule.
