Summer Technology Week
Summer Technology Week, formerly Summer Software Day, is now an expanded weeklong event that took place on June 8–12, 2026, exploring people-centered tools across software, hardware, and AV that support teaching, learning, and operations at Austin Community College (ACC). Centered on this year’s theme, Intentional Technology: Designing for People First, the event was delivered virtually via Zoom and features vendor-led sessions Monday through Thursday, followed by practical sessions led by ACC faculty and staff on Friday, June 12.
This is your opportunity to stay current with evolving technology, discover new tools, and contribute your own expertise to the ACC community.
Watch the session recordings!
Use the option below to view full recordings of the 28 sessions held from Monday, June 8 through Friday, June 12 2026.
Session recordings will continue to be added over the coming weeks. If you have an issue with any recordings, please contact the Summer Technology Week planning team.
Have a Question?
Do you have a question about this event, submitting a proposal, or anything else related to Summer Technology Week?
Please contact us via:
Session Schedule
Session Recordings
Please note full recordings of all sessions will be available in the coming weeks.
Opening
10 — 10:30 a.m.
Presented by:
Summer Technology Week Planning Team
Learn more
Kick off Summer Technology Week with an engaging opening session designed to introduce this year’s program, highlight opportunities for learning and collaboration, and set the stage for a week focused on innovation in teaching and learning at ACC. Attendees will receive an overview of the week’s sessions, explore key themes and goals for faculty engagement, and learn how the program supports effective, student-centered uses of technology across the College.
Beyond the “Gotcha”: Rethinking AI Detection and Academic Integrity
11 a.m. — Noon
Presented by:
Ri Cantlin, Senior Curriculum Consultant
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In the age of AI, the “Integrity Dilemma” is often framed as a search for better detection tools. This session challenges that narrative by asking a better question: How do we improve student outcomes while preventing academic dishonesty? Using recent data on student attitudes toward AI, we will explore a “bottom-up” approach to integrity that prioritizes coaching over punishment. Discover how transparent assessment and instant, AI-supported feedback can reduce plagiarism by over 95% and improve overall student grades.
Build Engaging Course Content in Blackboard
1 — 2 p.m.
Presented by:
Carolyn Ponce, Senior Educational Consultant
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Learn how to efficiently create and edit Blackboard documents, use auto‑generated layouts to design structured content, and add knowledge checks to support student engagement and comprehension using Blackboard’s built‑in tools.
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Create and edit Blackboard documents using native tools
- Apply auto‑generated document layouts to organize course content
- Build knowledge checks to reinforce learning and measure understanding
Box Basics: Getting the Most Out of Your Content Platform
2 — 3 p.m.
Presented by:
Daniel Zarazua, Box Customer Success Manager
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This session introduces ACC faculty and staff to the core features of Box, ACC’s enterprise content management platform. Participants will learn how to organize, store, and share files securely, collaborate with colleagues in real time, and streamline everyday workflows. The session will cover tips and tricks for effective use, highlight lesser-known features, and demonstrate how Box can reduce friction in day-to-day tasks — helping staff and faculty spend less time managing files and more time focused on student success.
Building Community: Creating Vibrant Digital Spaces for Meaningful Connection
9 — 10 a.m.
Presented by:
Ri Cantlin, Senior Curriculum Consultant
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This session explores how Packback’s full platform—from inquiry-based discussions to AI-supported writing—ignites curiosity and ensures every individual feels truly heard. Beyond just delivering content, we’ll dive into how to spark a deep sense of belonging by fostering a supportive environment where authentic interest and peer interaction thrive. Learn how to transform digital interactions into a vital, living community where every member feels seen and valued.
Innovations in Online Proctoring: New Features for Respondus Monitor
11 a.m. — Noon
Presented by:
Respondus Customer Success and Training Team
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This session is for new and experienced users of Respondus Monitor, the automated proctoring solution licensed by ACC. An overview of both applications will be provided, and participants will learn about the latest enhancements for LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor, including using MS Word and Excel during a secure exam, recording only the screen during an assessment, supporting a second camera, flagging handheld devices, and much more. You will also learn how LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor support the many ways online testing occurs across campus, including exams delivered in classrooms, testing centers, remote environments, and hybrid/hyflex courses.
Generating Online and Offline Assignments in Blackboard
1 — 2 p.m.
Presented by:
Carolyn Ponce, Senior Educational Consultant
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This training session guides participants through creating both online and offline assignments in Blackboard. Attendees will explore the assignment creation process, with a focused look at using offline assignments to support hands‑on and experiential coursework. The session will also clarify the key differences between offline assignments and gradebook columns created manually, helping instructors choose the best approach for tracking and grading student work.
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Create online and offline assignments in Blackboard
- Use offline assignments to support hands‑on or non‑digital coursework
- Distinguish between offline assignments and gradebook columns created manually
Box AI: Smarter Ways to Work with Your Content
2 — 3 p.m.
Presented by:
Daniel Zarazua, Box Customer Success Manager
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This session explores the AI-powered capabilities available within Box and how they can transform the way ACC faculty and staff interact with their content. Participants will see how Box AI can instantly summarize documents, answer questions directly from file content, and surface key information without manual searching. Designed for practical application, this session will highlight creative and advanced use cases relevant to higher education — from reviewing policy documents to supporting research and administrative workflows — and demonstrate the value of enabling AI across the institution.
Panopto Video Quizzes
9 — 10 a.m.
Presented by:
Crystal Garcia, Account Manager
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This session explores Panopto Video Quizzes, where we turn one-way broadcasts into interactive dialogues. We’ll demonstrate how to embed knowledge checks directly into the timeline to boost retention, capture actionable learner data, and bridge the gap between “watching” and “mastering.”
Grading with Intent: Balancing Faculty Workload and Student Success
10 — 11 a.m.
Presented by:
Lisa Patterson, Senior Account Executive
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This session explores how Gradescope serves as a people-centered tool to transform the grading of handwritten assessments from a time-consuming chore into a meaningful instructional bridge. By focusing on Intentional Technology, we will demonstrate how faculty can significantly reduce administrative workload and combat burnout while providing the consistent, high-quality feedback essential for student success. Whether you are managing multi-section exams or detailed lab write-ups, this workshop focuses on making your workflow more sustainable and your grading more transparent.
We will dive into practical strategies for fostering clear communication, utilizing tools like dynamic rubrics to provide detailed feedback and regrade requests to handle student questions directly within the platform. This approach not only professionalizes the dialogue between faculty and students but also ensures fairness in every evaluation. Join us to discover how to streamline your grading and feedback workflows, allowing you to spend more time on the teaching and mentoring that supports the ACC community.
Utilizing Advanced Gradebook Techniques in Blackboard
1 — 2 p.m.
Presented by:
Carolyn Ponce, Senior Educational Consultant
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This training session explores advanced gradebook features to help instructors align grading practices with their instructional strategy. Participants will review grading schemas, create and manage gradebook categories, set up the overall grade, and customize calculated columns. Emphasis is placed on building a clear, accurate, and transparent grading structure that supports both instructors and students.
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Explain and apply grading schemas
- Create and manage gradebook categories
- Set up and review the overall grade calculation
- Customize calculated columns to align with course grading strategies
Panopto Auto-Captioning Alignment with Title II
2 — 3 p.m.
Presented by:
Crystal Garcia, Account Manager
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Accessibility is at the heart of the modern classroom. This session explores how Panopto’s captioning tools can help you create a more inclusive learning environment for all students—not just those with formal accommodations.
The Future of Faculty Workflow: Transforming Education with Google’s AI Ecosystem
10 — 11 a.m.
Presented by:
Tyler Allen, Google for Education
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As higher education navigates the rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence, the ability to leverage advanced tools is becoming essential for faculty efficiency and student success. This presentation explores the transformative potential of Google’s Gemini and NotebookLM, demonstrating how these distinct platforms act as force multipliers for the modern educator. We will examine how Gemini serves as an adaptive creative partner for curriculum design, rubric generation, and personalized feedback, while diving deep into NotebookLM’s unique ability to synthesize dense academic texts and course materials into grounded, hallucination-free artifacts like study aids and engaging Audio Overviews. By mastering these tools, faculty can streamline administrative burdens, foster deeper student engagement, and reclaim valuable time for mentorship and research, ensuring that AI serves as a reliable extension of their pedagogical expertise.
Optimize Your Classroom with Qwickly
11 a.m. — Noon
Presented by:
Rachel Jamison, Client Success Advocate
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Discover how Qwickly Attendance and Qwickly Course Tools eliminate administrative hurdles, allowing you to focus on what matters most: teaching and learning.
- Qwickly Attendance: Benefit from flexible, customizable attendance tracking options tailored to the unique needs of your classroom.
- Qwickly Course Tools: Streamline your workflow by creating and distributing content and communication across multiple courses from a single, centralized hub.
Designing Interactive Learning Experiences with AI Conversations in Blackboard
1 — 2 p.m.
Presented by:
Carolyn Ponce, Senior Educational Consultant
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In this session, participants will examine how AI‑driven discussions and role‑playing can support deeper learning and engagement. Topics include the instructional benefits of AI conversations and hands‑on guidance for adding AI Role Play activities that encourage student interaction, reflection, and scenario‑based learning.
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Describe the benefits of AI‑supported discussions and conversations
- Create AI discussion prompts to encourage learner engagement
- Add and use the AI Role Play feature to support interactive learning activities
Opening
8:30 — 9 a.m.
Presented by:
Summer Technology Week Planning Team
Learn more
Join the Summer Technology Planning Team in kicking off ACC faculty- and staff- led sessions for the final day of Summer Technology Week!
Intentional Technology: Choosing Tools That Actually Support Learning (and Reduce Overwhelm)
9 — 10 a.m.
Presented by:
Lauren Montagnino
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Faculty are often encouraged to adopt new technologies, but more tools do not always lead to better learning. This session introduces a practical, people-centered framework for making intentional decisions about technology use in the classroom. Grounded in research on faculty perceptions and real-world instructional challenges, participants will learn how to evaluate digital tools based on learning impact, ease of use, and student experience.
Through guided activities, attendees will apply a simple decision-making model to tools they currently use (or are considering), helping them move from overwhelmed to intentional. Participants will leave with a clear framework, actionable strategies, and renewed confidence in choosing technology that supports teaching and learning.
Adventures with Notebook LM
9 — 10 a.m.
Presented by:
Herb Coleman
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This session will share with faculty how to use and share Notebook LM with their students in ACC’s ecosystem. We will also explore the updates in Notebook LM with Gemini connections.
Gradescope: Faster Grading with Better Feedback
10:15 — 11:15 a.m.
Presented by:
Anne Vance
Learn more
All faculty members are cordially invited to attend this session. However, it is important to note that ACC’s current Gradescope license is exclusively applicable to Science, Engineering, and Mathematics (SEM) courses. During this session, we will provide a comprehensive demonstration of Gradescope’s functionalities, including its seamless integration into Blackboard and its impact on the student experience. Gradescope is a versatile tool that can be utilized for both in-person and online courses.
Introducing AIM Version 5: What Faculty Need to Know
10:15 — 11:15 a.m.
Presented by:
Lauren Matthys, Andres Benavides, Jamie Coughlin
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This session will introduce faculty to Version 5 of the AIM accessibility management system and highlight the updated tools, workflows, and features designed to improve the accommodation process for faculty, students, and Student Accessibility Services staff.
As accessibility needs continue to evolve across higher education, it is important that faculty have clear, efficient, and user-friendly systems for managing accommodation notifications, testing requests, communication, and student support. AIM Version 5 provides several enhancements intended to simplify faculty interaction with accessibility processes while improving efficiency, compliance, and student experience.
This presentation will provide faculty with an overview of the updated interface, demonstrate key features and functionality, and offer practical guidance for navigating common accommodation-related tasks within the new system.
More Than a Ticket: Using TeamDynamix (TDX) for Success
10:15 — 11:15 a.m.
Presented by:
Jenni Hilton
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Need help? There’s a portal for that—and a mountain of intentionality behind it. This session introduces faculty and staff to the TDX client portal, focusing on how to quickly submit a request, report a problem, and find answers in our Knowledge Base. We will pull back the curtain on how IT uses this platform to ensure you get the support you need. Most importantly, we will share how we use service data to continuously improve our internal processes and how this single portal could open up opportunities in other areas of the College.
Keynote: From Access Gap to Access Revolution
11:30 a.m. — 12:30 p.m.
Presented by:
Dr. Cynthia Pascal, Northern Virginia Community College
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Community colleges were built to open doors. But in today’s digital world, opening the door is no longer enough if students cannot fully access what’s waiting on the other side.
At ACC, the future of student success sits at the intersection of technology, equity, workforce mobility, and human-centered design. As higher education races toward AI, automation, and increasingly digital learning environments, too many students are still trying to succeed with unreliable internet, limited devices, competing life responsibilities, and systems that were never designed with their realities in mind.
This keynote is bold, practical, and unapologetically student-centered. Dr. Cynthia Pascal challenges institutions to stop treating digital equity like a side conversation and start recognizing it as one of the defining leadership challenges of modern higher education. Because when access fails, opportunity fails. And when community colleges get this right, lives change for generations.
Participants will explore how colleges can move from simply reacting to barriers toward intentionally designing ecosystems of access that fuel belonging, completion, career mobility, and long-term economic impact.
Key Discussion Threads:
- Why digital equity is the new frontline of student success
- Designing for real students living real lives in an AI-enabled world
- How community colleges can lead the nation in equitable innovation
- Turning policy, technology, and leadership into engines for mobility and transformation
- Building systems that do not just enroll students, but empower them to thrive
Building Bridges with Goldi AI: Designing Career Connections That Put People First
1 — 2 p.m.
Presented by:
Jennifer Gray and Kathleen Serra
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What if technology could help students turn strangers into professional advocates? Join the Learning Experience Design team to explore ACC’s partnership with Climb Together and their AI career coach, Goldi — a tool built on six years of research proving that acquaintances and extended networks are essential for career advancement and economic mobility.
In this session, you will discover how Goldi’s empathetic, Socratic coaching approach helps students build the human skills needed for authentic professional outreach — and how faculty across Career and Life Design Skills, Communication Studies, Student Development, and Internships are integrating Goldi into their courses.
You will leave with:
- A working understanding of Goldi AI and the Climb Together/ACC partnership
- Real examples of classroom integration
- Concrete next steps for incorporating Goldi into your own course
Time Savers & Tips for Accessible Digital Design
1 — 2 p.m.
Presented by:
Sandy Kendell and Meg Kareithi
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Accessible design is people-first design. It is also time-intensive. In this session, Meg and Sandy will share tech tips and resources that can help you save time while still creating high-quality accessible resources for courses and websites. Participants should already be comfortable with the basics of accessible digital design, including using alt text for images, formatting document headings with heading styles, and using accessibility checkers in common programs such as Word, PowerPoint, Google Docs, and Google Slides.
PDFs with Purpose: Putting Students at the Center of Design
2:15 — 3:15 p.m.
Presented by:
Lindy Goodman
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Accessibility is about cultivating belonging, not just checking boxes for compliance. While PDFs are a staple of our digital classrooms, their accessibility depends entirely on how we design and implement them. In this session, we will explore how to create accessible PDFs by leveraging the built-in accessibility tools in Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat Pro. Finally, we will review how these documents are processed within the Blackboard Ultra environment to ensure optimal student accessibility. You will leave with practical strategies to optimize your course materials, ensuring that every learner has the equitable access they need to succeed.
Faculty Evaluation Summary System App for Evaluators and Admins involved in Evaluation
2:15 — 3:15 p.m.
Presented by:
Marcus McGuff
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The College first rolled out the Faculty Evaluation Summary System app last year for the fall evaluations. Since then, we have made significant changes and updates to make it easier to use and expand to a wider audience. This session is meant as a walk-through of using the system for anyone working on evaluating faculty this year. It should be helpful for new users as well as a review for users from last year; we will discuss various usage scenarios and answer questions.
Algorithmic Anxiety: Why AI Won’t Replace the Professor
2:15 — 3:15 p.m.
Presented by:
Gabryella Desporte and Stephanie Bogdanich
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In an age where AI is everywhere, a gap seen in higher education is how instructors can properly integrate AI into their curriculum in a meaningful way. Using information and observations from the four AI@ACC series presentations delivered between January and April 2026, this presentation will showcase significant findings from participant survey data and will show how ACC staff and faculty use AI in the classroom currently. This presentation will also provide an opportunity for continuing the dialogue between faculty and staff’s AI use through a survey, and what the future of AI can look like at ACC.
Closing
3:15 — 3:30 p.m.
Presented by:
Summer Technology Week Planning Team
Learn more
Join us for the closing session of Summer Technology Week as we reflect on a week of innovation, collaboration, and discovery across ACC’s academic technology ecosystem. This interactive wrap-up will highlight key takeaways, celebrate faculty engagement, and provide an opportunity to share ideas for the upcoming academic year. We’ll also raffle off ACC technology swag and giveaways to attendees as a thank-you for participating throughout the week. Must be present at the closing session to win raffle prizes.