Sparking Success 8th Annual Faculty Development Conference

Thank you for attending Sparking Success!

Wednesday, January 7, 2026 | Plenary Session and Reception  Thursday, January 8, 2026 | Breakout Sessions and Lunch

Complete the feedback for each session you attended.
Amy Baldiwn, Ed.D during her breakout session Feedback That Fuels: Moving Students from Stuck to Successful with faculty on Thursday, January 8, 2026!

January 7

Plenary Session with Amy Baldwin!

From Setbacks to Success: Reframing Failure for Student Growth and Resilience

What can we do as educators to help students embrace failure as a powerful catalyst for growth? Drawing from current research on learning mindsets, we will focus on proven strategies to shift undergraduate and graduate students from "failure-phobic" to authentic confidence. Attendees will learn innovative strategies for fostering resilience and growth mindsets to help all levels of students learn from setbacks and achieve deeper, more sustainable success.

AY 25 -26 Conference Chair: Robert Dotson, Senior Professor of Practice, Cell & Molecular Biology | rdotson@tulane.edu

2026 Plenary Speaker

Amy Baldwin, Ed.D. is a the First-Year Seminar Coordinator and Senior Lecturer in the Student Transitions department at the University of Central Arkansas where she served as the chair of the department for seven years. Prior to her roles at UCA, she spent 18 years working with community college students, which led to her first textbook for two-year college students The Community College Experience (Pearson).  Her research and writing focuses on student success topics such as belonging, resilience, engagement, and transition. Amy is the author of OpenStax's College Success, College Success Concise, and Preparing for College Success and a co-author of  Promoting Belonging, Growth Mindset, and Resilience to Foster Student Success (Stylus). She also serves up teaching strategies on Instagram @thecuriousprofessor.

Wednesday, January 7, 2026 Robert Dotson, Toni Weiss, Amy Baldwin, Robin Forman
All conference events took place on the Tulane University, Uptown Campus. 
2023 - 2024 Sparking Success: Faculty Development Conference with Sam Wineburg

Thursday, January 8, 2026

Howard-Tilton Memorial Library (HTML) | 7001 Freret Street, New Orleans, LA 70118

9AM - 9:50AM Breakout Sessions

Beyond the Grade: Rethinking Assessment That Drives Student Success
Disrupting the Algorithm: Critical Writing in the Age of AI
Looking for an AI Resistant/ AI Ready Teaching Method? Consider Project Based Learning!

10AM - 10:50AM Breakout Sessions

Prepping Myself & My Course for Unprepared First-Generation College StudentsHoward
Harnessing AI to Build Assessment Question Banks for Education
Let Them Drive: Steering Your Class Towards Student-Centered Active Learning

11AM - 11:50am Breakout Sessions

Feedback That Fuels: Moving Students from Stuck to Successful
From the Ground Up: Co-Creating AI Policies That Bridge Classroom and Campus
From Social Loafing to Shared Success: Using Short Team Challenges to Build Collaboration and Accountability

12PM - 12:50PM Breakout Sessions

Co-Authoring Course Policies to Create a Welcoming Classroom
Seeing is Believing: Simulation Learning for Higher Education and the Future of Workforce Readiness
Bootcamps: Creating Connections for Success

Sparking Success | Sponsors

  • Center for Public Service
  • Connolly Alexander Institute For Data Science
  • Goldman Center for Student Accessibility
  • Newcomb -Tulane College
  • Phyllis M. Taylor Center
  • School of Architecture
  • A. B. Freeman School of Business
  • School of Law
  • School of Liberal Arts
  • School of Medicine
  • School of Professional Advancement
  • Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
  • School of Science & Engineering
  • School of Social Work
  • Tulane Libraries
  • Wave of Support

If you have any questions regarding Sparking Success, please contact the conference coordinator Ariel McFarland at amc@tulane.edu or sparkingsuccess@tulane.edu
2024 - 2025 Sparking Success with Sarah Rose Cavanagh