Picnic PD Workshop Series

Want a Quick Overview? Download the 2026 Schedule

JHU faculty, teaching assistants, and academic staff are invited to attend CTL’s annual Picnic PD (Professional Development) summer series, which includes several practical workshops on effective teaching, learning, course development, and technology. Every year, our CTL instructional designers craft a relevant theme that weaves through our series of workshops. However, each workshop stands alone, giving attendees the freedom to pick the ones that spark their interest. While attendees don't have to attend every session, we encourage them to join as many as they can to fully immerse themselves in the experience and reap all the benefits.

The Human Touch: Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Generative AI can make your life easier, but it shouldn’t replace the humanity of teaching and learning. The theme for the 2026 Picnic PD is The Human Touch: Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In an era where generative artificial intelligence is reshaping how knowledge is created, shared, and applied, educators face a pivotal opportunity: to design learning experiences that are both technologically enhanced and deeply human. Picnic PD 2026 invites participants to explore how generative AI can support the intellectual curiosity, empathy, creativity, and rigor that define public health education. The series will emphasize thoughtful adoption of generative AI over novelty and hype to empower faculty to make pedagogically informed decisions about when, why, and how to use AI in teaching and learning.

You’re Invited to 2026 Picnic PD

Learn more about the theme by watching this short promotional video:
Introducing The Human Touch: Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, a Professional Development Opportunity (# minutes) | transcript
March 2026
Emily Haagenson, Lauren Dana, Amy Pinkerton

(Video coming soon)

Logistics

These virtual workshops occur over Zoom on Tuesdays at 12:00 PM (noon) ET in July. Recordings will be posted on our On-Demand Workshop Videos Page.

Format:

30 minutes of interactive, practical workshop followed by
30 minutes of Q&A and open discussion

Cost:

All workshops in the series are free.

If you have questions about the series, please email BSPH_Toolkit@jhu.edu.

Registration

Zoom registration is required.

2026 Picnic PD Schedule

Download and share the 2026 Schedule with your colleagues.

Human First: Applying the AI Sandwich Framework in Public Health Teaching

Date: Tuesday, July 7th at 12:00 PM ET

Amy Pinkerton, Senior Instructional Designer

This workshop foregrounds human curiosity, empathy, creativity, and intellectual rigor in an era shaped by generative artificial intelligence. It highlights how AI can support, but not overshadow, the human judgment and expertise that remain essential to public health education. Through practical, hands-on exploration, attendees will learn how to determine when, why, and how to use or not use AI in their courses using the AI Sandwich Framework. They will leave the workshop with strategies to avoid AI hype while strengthening human‑driven teaching and learning.

Keywords: generative AI, teaching and learning, human-centered

HopGPT as a Concierge Service to Promote and Support Learners’ Agency in Building Knowledge

Date: Tuesday, July 14th at 12:00 PM ET

Celine Greene, Senior Digital Teaching & Learning Strategist

“Welcome, {{preferred name}}! We’re delighted you’ve chosen HopGPT and look forward to serving you!”
HopGPT, the university’s secure generative artificial intelligence platform, is a resource available to JHU students, faculty, and staff. Putting this equitable access to use, this hands-on session experiments with prompts that capitalize on students as individuals: their personal strengths and goals, coupled with the constraints and realities of daily living. Participants will work with structured prompts that contain open-ended variables for a VIP experience (the personal narrative) plus defined variables (the desired output) to use HopGPT as a concierge service recommending tailored learning strategies. Afterwards, these structured prompts can serve as models for personal or classroom use.

Keywords: generative AI, prompt writing, teaching and learning

The Human-Heart of the Feedback Process in the World of AI

Date: Tuesday, July 21st at 12:00 PM ET

Lauren Dana, Instructional Designer

Emily Haagenson, Instructional Designer

For teaching teams, one of the tasks that weighs most heavily on our teaching commitment is grading and feedback. While artificial intelligence can improve efficiency, thoughtfulness, support, motivation, and even inspiration of feedback that makes an impact should not be rushed or generated by AI.

Our students deserve the benefit of your insight and expertise -- this is how they become the future of public health, and this requires meaningful human-to-human interaction.

How do we reconcile these conflicting needs? How can we capitalize on some of what AI can offer to streamline a time-consuming task, while maintaining the very human heart of the feedback process? Our workshop will seek to discuss these questions by looking at realistic scenarios and providing practical tips.

Keywords: Feedback, Grading, Student Connection, AI, Time Management

The Human Touch: Teaching in the Age of artificial Intelligence (Special Guest Panel)

Date: Tuesday, July 28th at 12:00 PM ET

Brian Klaas, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning

This special guest panel brings together faculty and staff from a variety of backgrounds to explore what it means to teach with humanity in a time when generative artificial intelligence is reshaping higher education. Panelists will share diverse perspectives on how AI is influencing their work, what opportunities and challenges they see emerging, and how they continue to center human judgment, empathy, and expertise in their teaching and support roles.

Through conversation and audience engagement, the session will highlight practical strategies for navigating AI in ways that strengthen, rather than diminish, the human connections that define meaningful learning. Attendees will gain insight into how colleagues across campus are approaching AI, how they are supporting students in this changing landscape, and how we can collectively preserve the human touch at the heart of education.