**ONLINE** Faculty Panel: What Makes Courses Feel Like Community?

About

Thursday, November 5, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM Most faculty can tell you exactly which course felt like a community. The students talked to each other, not just to the instructor. People came back after a hard week. Teaching felt less like broadcasting and more like being part of something.

It's harder to describe how that happened, and harder still to make it happen on purpose. AI tools now sit inside how students write, research, and respond, which raises a real question: what keeps a course human when so much of the work can be generated?

Community is often discussed in terms of humanities seminars. Dr. Ronald Guymon, Senior Lecturer of Accountancy at Gies College of Business, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, teaches Python and accounting analytics. In technical courses, AI can now write code and run analyses in seconds.In this workshop, Ron will share what that means for the way students learn from each other and what keeps a technical course feeling like a group of people learning together.

Ron is joined by two other experts for this panel: Dr. Jean E. Starobin, Online Undergraduate Portfolio Senior Associate Manager at Gies College of Business, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Valerie Akbulut, Faculty Success Manager at Bryan University.

In this live panel, faculty will talk candidly about the trust, presence, and shared experiences that keep students engaged. They'll share what has worked, what hasn't, and why community still shapes persistence, participation, and their own satisfaction with teaching. Topics will include:

How faculty build trust and presence in online, hybrid, and in-person courses Where AI makes connections harder, and where it can make room for it What community changes for persistence, participation, and faculty satisfaction Ideas instructional designers and leaders can use to support faculty doing this work Workshop is hosted by Yellowdig. Register Now!