FY2026 Accomplishments
Advancing the Teaching & Learning mission
The ITS Teaching & Learning team provides a world-class academic technology environment to the University of Michigan community.
Generative AI
Instructor Tools
Teaching & Learning has partnered closely with the Emerging Technology team over the past year to co-develop, deploy, and support innovative tools that directly impact the academic landscape. Central to this effort was the creation of Custom GPTs, ‘Instructor Tools,’ integrated within Canvas to provide personalized, 24/7 course-specific support. These tools aid instructors by streamlining course creation, administrative tasks, and assessment management. Key highlights from this suite include:
- AI Prompt Coach: Helps users craft precise prompts to maximize the effectiveness of any AI tool.
- Course Design & Learning Objectives Assistants: Enable instructors to quickly build engaging courses and create measurable learning objectives rooted in instructional best practices and learning science.
- Multiple Choice Questions Assistant: Develops scenario-based assessment questions with rich feedback to support deep student understanding.
- Letter of Recommendation Assistant: Saves valuable administrative time by generating personalized, high-quality draft letters that showcase an applicant’s unique strengths.
GenAI Workshops
Building on the success of previous GenAI workshop series, Teaching & Learning delivered over 60 AI-themed workshops to more than 1,200 participants over the last year. Attendees represented a wide variety of roles and units across U-M, with ⅓ of participants being faculty and the remaining ⅔ being staff. This snapshot of participants underscores the broad, institutional reach and impact of Teaching & Learning’s services as they work to provide critical support for AI integration within course design and more. The team also introduced a new, tiered micro-credentialing program through Canvas Credentials, offering basic, intermediate, and advanced badging opportunities for faculty, staff, and students to showcase their GenAI proficiencies on platforms like LinkedIn.
Alongside the synchronous workshop series, the team also expanded its asynchronous offerings to support student-led learning. This year marked the successful launch of the self-paced course, “Learning with GenAI,” which achieved a major milestone of over 600 student enrollments shortly after its release.
Testimonials
Attendee feedback from Introduction to GenAI: Unpacking Key Concepts:
“This was a great overview! The exercise using different models was helpful also.”
— Raymond Muscat, Lecturer I in Industrial and Operations Engineering, College of Engineering
“The Maizey workshop covered information that I could easily apply.”
— Edith Mei, Programmer Lead, Medical Affairs
“I appreciated the support documentation provided and learning that consultations are available.”
— Cindi Plummer, Business Administrator Assoc, Office of VP for Research
Online Learning Expansion
Teaching & Learning continued to expand its online learning support to campus units, both in revenue-generating and pro bono educational experiences. Central to this growth is Canvas Catalog, which saw its active customer base increase by an impressive 35% while retention of the existing base remained exceptionally stable at 91%. The total number of licensed partners has now increased to 16, allowing units to lower administrative costs, tap into new revenue streams, and expand their overall reach to internal and external audiences. Interest continues to grow in the service, and the Teaching & Learning team has delivered numerous administrator training sessions across campus to onboard new users.
Other expansion efforts include Parchment Credentials integration into Canvas Catalog, a comprehensive platform that allows users to seamlessly request, verify, and receive transcripts, diplomas, and alternative credentials. Looking forward, the team is also collaborating with the Registrar’s Office and the Provost’s Office to plan and support official Co-curricular transcripts, creating a standardized way to validate student achievements outside the traditional classroom.
Leaders in Higher Education Academic Technology
Teaching & Learning continued to work to represent U-M as a national leader in the academic technology space this year, driving critical conversations around enterprise-level AI integration, learning analytics, and industry standards.
National Voice and Consortial Leadership
The team’s pioneering work in the GenAI space led to numerous invitations to showcase U-M’s strategies at major national venues, including InstructureCon, as well as prominent conferences within ITS, the broader university, and beyond. Mirroring this event visibility, Teaching & Learning spearheaded institutional efforts with premier higher education consortia—such as the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), 1EdTech, Unizin, and EDUCAUSE—to actively collaborate on and set industry standards for AI in education.
Resource Sharing and Local Impact
- Academic Technology at Michigan (AT@M) Website: Created in direct response to campus demand for centralized academic tech insights, the AT@M site reached an impressive 13,000 unique users this year, serving as a vital digital hub for resource sharing.
- Enriching Scholarship Conference: As a commitment to providing professional development opportunities for the U-M community, 7 members of the Teaching & Learning team dedicated their expertise in leading this landmark campus conference, directly engaging hundreds of U-M faculty and staff with emerging educational technologies.
- K-12 Cybersecurity and AI Outreach: To extend impact beyond just higher education, several T&L team members, alongside the Information Assurance team, participated in a forum, co-hosted by ITS and the Marsal School of Education, to share critical AI knowledge and best practices with Michigan K-12 superintendents, aiming to influence the state of Michigan’s broader educational landscape.
- Learning Analytics in Action 2026: The team hosted this second annual event to showcase how data from tools like Canvas, MiVideo, and Annoto can transform classrooms and enhance student success. Bringing together faculty, instructional designers, and advisors, the event featured innovative teaching approaches, practical use cases, and resources for leveraging analytics to identify student needs and improve educational outcomes. This progress is reflected in the increased adoption of MyLA tool to reach 29,289 students, up from 19,385 in 2025.
Operational Excellence at Scale
Teaching & Learning remains deeply committed to digital equity. Over the last year, the team has expanded its partnerships with the ITS Accessibility team and the Equity, Civil Rights, and Title IX Office (ECRT) by way of the newly-organized Canvas Accessibility Planning group. This collaborative body will steer the long-term strategy for accessible digital environments at U-M.
Additionally, the team has scaled several high-impact initiatives to eliminate technological barriers and provide equitable access to learners campus-wide.
Accessibility Compliance Project
To strengthen the university’s digital landscape, Teaching & Learning launched the Accessibility Compliance Project (ACP), with Teaching & Learning team members coordinating with the ITS Accessibility Team to thoroughly evaluate documentation and test software for compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Prioritizing tools based on campus usage levels, the team has already completed or initiated these reviews for roughly 75% of the 120 third-party applications integrated within Canvas.
Advanced Video Accessibility
Building on the success of previous auto-captioning projects, Teaching & Learning continued to upgrade MiVideo over the last year, working with Kaltura (the platform provider that powers MiVideo) to focus on bringing MiVideo tools and media into better compliance with instructional captioning requirements. A key milestone this year was the development and deployment of Extended Audio Descriptions (EAD) within V7 Players. While the team works on remediating the university's massive backlog of legacy media content, these structural upgrades ensure that all new instructional materials going forward are accessible to all.