A faculty summer playlist

Books

Quick Hits for Creativity in the Classroom
Edited by Goodspeed-Chadwick, et al.
E-book access for IU Columbus and Indianapolis

A collection of practical contributions from faculty across disciplines, each describing a specific strategy for sparking creativity in the classroom. The "quick hits" format makes it ideal for browsing. With over 40 essays in the collection, you can easily pick up an idea over coffee and try it next semester.

Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning
James Lang
E-book access for all IU campuses

Lang argues that meaningful change in teaching doesn't require overhauling your course. Using small, evidence-based adjustments to how you open class, structure practice, or close a session can produce outsized effects on student learning. Each chapter pairs cognitive science with concrete classroom strategies.

Distracted: Why Students Can't Focus and What You Can Do About It
James Lang
E-book access for all IU campuses

A diagnostic look at student attention in the age of phones, laptops, and ambient distraction. Lang reframes distraction as a teaching design problem, rather than a student-discipline problem, and offers strategies for building courses and class sessions that earn and hold attention.

Course

eLearning Essentials: Instructional Design
Samantha Calamari

A walk through the fundamentals of designing online learning that engages a diverse set of learners. A useful primer for faculty who are interested in online learning, the course coverss instructional design methods and theories, course organization, tone and engagement, active learning environments, and assessment design.

Books

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel
E-book access for all IU campuses

A readable synthesis of cognitive science research on how learning works, and why many of the study habits students rely on are surprisingly ineffective. The book makes the case for retrieval practice, spacing, and interleaving as durable strategies for learning that lasts.

How Learning Works: Eight Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching
Susan A. Ambrose, et al.
E-book access for all IU campuses

A foundational text that distills decades of research on learning into eight principles instructors can act on, covering topics like prior knowledge, motivation, mastery, and self-directed learning. Each principle is paired with concrete teaching implications, making it a reference faculty can return to across a career.

Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead)
Edited by Susan D. Blum
E-book access for all IU campuses

A collection of essays from instructors who have moved away from traditional grading. The book explores why grades can interfere with learning and what alternatives, from contract grading to self-assessment, look like in practice. A useful read for faculty curious about the conversation, whether or not they're ready to make changes themselves.

Course

Using Neuroscience for More Effective L&D
Stella Collins

Collins draws on neuroscience and psychology to explain why some learning sticks, and some doesn't, contrasting a "BASIC" approach that reduces learning with a "LEARNERS" framework designed to make it stick. The course itself is designed using these principles, so you experience the ideas firsthand as you work through the material.

Books

Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning
José Antonio Bowen & C. Edward Watson
E-book access for all IU campuses

A practical, classroom-focused guide to teaching in a world where students have access to generative AI. Bowen and Watson cover assignment design, academic integrity, AI literacy, and how to use AI tools as part of teaching.

AI and the Art of Being Human: A Practical Guide to Thriving with AI While Rediscovering Yourself in the Process
Jeffrey Abbott & Andrew Maynard
E-book access for IU Columbus and Indianapolis

Abbott and Maynard explore what it means to live, work, and create intentionally in a world where AI can replicate much of what we do. Built around four guiding principles and twenty-one practical tools, the book offers framing faculty can use to help students think about purpose, judgment, and human flourishing in an AI-shaped future.

AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future
Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan
Request through the IU Library Catalog

A collaboration between an AI researcher and a science-fiction writer, structured as ten short stories set twenty years in the future, each followed by an analytical essay grounding the fiction in current AI research. A useful read for faculty looking to spark discussion about where AI is heading and what it means for the disciplines they teach.

Courses

AI Skills in Minutes: Quick Wins for Prompting, Research, and Productivity
Rachel Woods

A short, practical course on using AI tools to support everyday work in research, writing, organization, and presentations. A good entry point for faculty who want quick, applied wins rather than a deep theoretical dive. The videos feel like well-designed YouTube Shorts or TikToks, which makes the course easy to dip into in spare moments.

Beyond the Basics: Designing AI Enhanced Learning Experiences
Dr. Sabba Quidwai

For faculty ready to move past "what is AI" and into course design, Quidwai pairs backward design and design thinking with AI tools to build learning experiences that are more interactive, personalized, and adaptable. The course walks through identifying a learning unit, prototyping with AI, and iterating based on feedback.

Adobe Firefly Essential Training
Bart Van de Wiele

A hands-on tour of Adobe's generative AI tool and its integration across Creative Cloud, covering image and video generation from text prompts, vector graphics in Illustrator, generative fill, and scene-to-image features. Useful for anyone exploring AI-assisted visual content for course materials, presentations, or assignments. This course is also the first part of a Professional Certificate from Adobe, so the material is quite comprehensive. (Firefly is available to IU faculty, staff, and students through Adobe Creative Cloud.)

GenAI 101

Indiana University's GenAI 101 course empowers anyone with an IU login to gain practical generative AI skills in a free, self-paced online course with no prior experience needed. Use it to master 20 key GenAI skills across three critical areas: foundational prompt engineering, using AI as a thought partner, and AI as a productivity amplifier.

Books

Augmented Reality in Education: A New Technology for Teaching and Learning
Edited by Vladimir Geroimenko
E-book access for all campuses

A collection of chapters from researchers and practitioners exploring how Augmented Reality (AR) is being used across educational settings, from K-12 through higher education and professional training. The volume covers both the pedagogical case for AR and the practical realities of designing and deploying it in real classrooms.

The Gamification Design Handbook: Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play
Andrzej Marczewski

A practitioner's guide to gamification design built around the User Types Hexad, which is a framework for understanding why different people respond to different game elements. Marczewski moves past the "just add points and badges" version of gamification toward design choices grounded in player motivation. This book is a really good reference, which I have personally and professionally used for years.

The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game-Based Methods and Strategies for Training and Education
Karl M. Kapp
E-book access for IU Bloomington, Columbus, Indianapolis, Kokomo, Northwest, and Southeast

A foundational academic text that brings research on motivation, engagement, and game design together with practical guidance for instructional designers and educators. Kapp distinguishes structural gamification (game elements layered onto content) from content gamification (turning the content itself into a game), and makes the case for both.

Course

Using Gamification to Create Learner Engagement
Karl Kapp

This course covers the essentials of using gamification to drive engagement, including the difference between games and gamification, why gamification works, and how to use techniques like points, badges, contests, and rewards. A natural companion to his book for anyone wanting both theory and applied design guidance.

Courses

7 Simple Steps for Creating More Accessible Digital Content
IU Assistive Technology and Accessibility Centers

This course covers easy techniques that handle most document accessibility concerns, introduces how students with disabilities use assistive technologies, and shows how accessibility features benefit all students, not just those who need accommodations.

ADA Basics for Faculty
IU Assistive Technology and Accessibility Centers

A clear overview of your roles and responsibilities as an instructor under the Americans with Disabilities Act, including how the accommodations process works when students request support, and what resources are available to you during that process. A useful read for any faculty member who wants to feel more confident handling accommodation requests.

Improving Course Accessibility
IU Assistive Technology and Accessibility Centers

This course focuses specifically on making your Canvas site more accessible using Anthology Ally. You'll learn to build effective course navigation, select more accessible content, and improve existing materials. The content is practical and grounded in tools you already have access to through IU.

Creating Accessible PDFs
Chad Chelius

PDFs are one of the trickiest formats to get accessible, and this in-depth LinkedIn Learning course walks through the full picture from why accessibility matters to what an accessible PDF actually includes (tags, bookmarks, alt text), and how to retrofit existing PDFs using Adobe Acrobat. Chelius also covers three workflows for creating accessible PDFs from scratch using Word, PowerPoint, and InDesign, useful if you're producing course materials regularly.