Summer Institute 2026
It takes a village: Coming together to rediscover the value and means of transformative learning and student success
Since 2014, the Summer Institute has provided faculty, staff, administrators, and graduate students the chance to gather for 2.5 days in May to learn, share, and grow in a passionate, collaborative, and supportive teaching and learning community.
This year’s iteration will tackle the most pressing issues of the day including:
- Educating in the era of AI
- Supporting student development, growth, and belonging
- Teaching in an accessible manner that serves all students
- Honing the foundations of good teaching and learning
- And many more...
The event is free, in-person, and open to anyone involved with the undergraduate teaching and learning enterprise at Virginia Tech. We will cap attendance at 300.
We hope you will join us! Please complete your registration using the link below.
May 20, 21, and 22
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Josh Eyler, Senior Director of Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and Assistant Professor of Teacher Education, The University of Mississippi
Ariadne's Thread: Finding Our Way through Challenging Times by Focusing on Human-Centered Learning
Higher Education finds itself at an inflection point right now. Internal and external pressures, ongoing crises, and existential questions about our mission threaten to derail our central focus: working with students to help them build meaningful lives. We can find our way through the labyrinth of the moment by recentering our efforts to help students learn effectively. As we seek to find out more about the ways in which human beings learn, we often run into misconceptions and neuromyths that muddy the waters much more than they help us to understand what is happening when we learn something new. In this talk, we will explore some of these misconceptions and then look toward the science of learning for more productive answers by exploring intersections between anthropology, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and educational research that can yield important insights into student learning--particularly in terms of curiosity, sociality, emotion, empathy, authenticity, and failure.
What attendees said about last year's event:
"This conference helped to recharge me from a harder-than-average semester. It gave me ideas to try and inspired me to want to make changes in how I teach. I now feel ready to dive in and prepare for the fall."
"This was an outstanding conference. I'm so glad I was finally free in May and hope to attend consistently for the rest of my career."
Feedback from last year's event:
This year’s participants ranked "I learned things that I can apply to my work” as 4.81/5, “I plan to attend the institute next year” as 4.73/5, and “I would recommend the institute to a colleague” as 4.74/5.
Schedule-at-a-Glance
| Time & Location | Information |
|---|---|
| 2:00–4:00 p.m. | Welcome with Vice Provost Jill Sible Keynote presentation with Josh Eyler Overview of the incoming student class with Juan Espinoza |
| Time & Location | Information |
|---|---|
| 8:00–9:00 a.m. | Registration |
| 9:00–10:00 a.m. | Opening Interactive All-Call Workshop |
| 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | Morning Concurrent Sessions |
| 12:00–1:00 p.m. | Catered Lunch |
| 1:00–4:00 p.m. | Afternoon Concurrent Sessions |
| 4:30–6:30 p.m. | Offsite Social Gathering, Sponsored by CETL |
| Time & Location | Information |
|---|---|
| 8:00–9:00 a.m. | Registration |
| 9:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m. | Assorted workshops and cohort gatherings with catered lunch |
Sponsors
Career and Professional Development, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Office of Undergraduate Curriculum, Student Success Initiatives, Technology-Enhanced Learning and Online Strategies, and Hokie Wellness