TOPkit Workshop 2025
Let’s explore together!
Get ready to “pack-up” your potential at our annual TOPkit Workshop 2025 live virtual event for three half-day sessions, Tuesday – Thursday, March 25-27, 2025. Half-day session times are to be determined.
This isn’t just another online event—it’s an expedition to empower those who are passionate about faculty development and online teaching. Whether you’re guiding faculty on their path to success or designing impactful development programs, this workshop is your trailhead to fresh-air ideas and practical strategies.
Join us for packed lively sessions, where you’ll explore new ways to plan, develop, and evaluate faculty programs. But it’s not all work! There will be plenty of opportunities to network with like-minded professionals and enjoy some fun along the way.
Bring your curiosity and get ready to discover your inner nature with TOPkit Workshop 2025.
Registration
Ticket Prices:
- State University System of Florida & Florida College System – FREE
- General Registration – For participants outside of the State University System of Florida & Florida College System:
- Early Bird (Ends on February 7, 2025) – $30.38
- Regular (Begins February 8, 2025 to March 21, 2024) – $50.49
Meet the Keynote and Chair
Keynote
Angela Gunder
Dr. Angela Gunder is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Opened Culture (OEC), a pioneering collaboratory that empowers educators and institutions to advance access to education through open collaboration, academic innovation, and community engagement. Through leading-edge research, professional development, and strategic guidance, she and her team support educational communities in guiding and sustaining cultures of openness to instantiate a more inclusive future of learning.
Prior to founding OEC, Angela served as the Chief Academic Officer and Vice President of Learning for the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), where she was responsible for leading the strategy and operations of a comprehensive portfolio of services and initiatives reaching educators at over 850 member institutions across the globe. This included guiding the Center for Professional Learning, the Research Center, strategic partnerships and consulting, grants, quality initiatives, programming and global events, and community engagement. From 2020-2024, she served as the OLC lead for Every Learner Everywhere, a solutions network funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation focused on advancing digital learning equity. In this capacity, she has co-authored numerous open-knowledge products on high-quality digital learning, caring for students, and effective practices for culturally-affirming instructional design.
As praxis informs her leadership, Angela is an online instructor for The University of Arizona College of Information Science, teaching undergraduate and graduate-level courses on instructional design, digital media, web design, gameful learning, and artificial intelligence (AI). Her research focuses on open remix practices, opened culture, digital literacies, narrative digital learning practices, and emerging technology for language acquisition. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Fine Art from Fordham University, a M.Ed. in Education Technology from Arizona State University, and a Ph.D. in Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies from The University of Arizona, where in 2020 she was named an Erasmus Scholar by the College of Education for her commitment to the college, the university and to the community.
Chair
Maikel Right
Maikel Right currently serves as the Associate Director of Instructional Learning Technology at FIU Online, leading the Learning Design Innovation team. Alongside this role, he is a professor teaching online, face-to-face, and hybrid courses at Florida International University’s Honors College and Liberal Studies Program.
His educational background includes cultural anthropology, healthcare, and business, with research interests and publications in aging, cardiovascular molecular biology, collaborative online international learning, cyborg anthropology, educational technology, generative AI, social media, and online pedagogy. Maikel is deeply committed to student support structures and systems that equip students with the knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary to support and provide for their families and communities.
He serves as a faculty mentor, curriculum committee co-chair, and a member of the Academic Integrity and Student Conduct Committees, as well as the Faculty Senate. He is the proud faculty advisor for the Geek Club and the Chief Digital Officer for a consulting company focused on developing and growing minority and women-run businesses.
Opening Discussion – “The Future of ID Work and Faculty Development – Continuing the Conversation”
Led by Kevin Corcoran from the University of Central Florida, this session continues the conversation from the 2024 panel on the evolving landscape of instructional design (ID) and faculty development in higher education. Panelists Page Jerzak (Santa Fe College), Whitney Kilgore (iDesign), Tina Parscal (Colorado Community Colleges Online), and Maikel Right (Florida International University) will build on last year’s discussion, exploring new trends, challenges, and opportunities for instructional designers in supporting faculty. The panel will focus on adapting faculty development programs, integrating emerging technologies, and improving teaching and learning in a rapidly changing educational environment. Attendees will leave with actionable insights on the future directions of ID work and faculty development.
Moderator
Kevin Corcoran
Kevin Corcoran is the Assistant Vice Provost of the Center for Distributed Learning at UCF. Kevin has over 25 years of experience in the development and support of strategies for the effective use of digital learning tools and content that focuses on quality standards and practices, student engagement, accessibility, and affordability. Kevin has supported system, state, and national open education efforts over the past decade, including chairing the statewide Connecticut OER Coordinating Council and the DOERS3 collaborative.
Panelists
Santa Fe College
iDesign
Colorado Community Colleges Online
Florida International University
Student Panel Discussion
At Every Learner we believe that through digital learning, faculty can adapt instruction to students’ needs and capabilities, promote active and collaborative learning, more easily support learners with timely feedback, and improve academic outcomes. Intentionally bringing students into the conversation is how we catalyze institutional transformation through evidence-based teaching and learning practices. In this session, student panelists will discuss their experiences with digital learning, and ways faculty can maximize the use of digital learning for student engagement and equitable student success.
Emilie Cook – Student Panel Moderator
Emilie Cook joined Every Learner Everywhere in April 2021. In her role, Emilie manages content, internal and external communications, marketing and network partner engagement and collaboration. With 15 years of marketing and communications experience, she brings vast knowledge and expertise with a steadfast commitment to equitable digital learning in higher education. In addition to her Every Learner role, Emilie served as an adjunct instructor for the Salisbury University Perdue School of Business, where she taught marketing and implemented adaptive courseware. Emilie is the lead for the Every Learner student internship program, partnering with students across the nation to share their thoughts, insights and lived experiences through various student panels, webinars, and publications.
Workshop Deadlines
| Sign up to be a proposal reviewer | CLOSED |
| Proposal Submissions | CLOSED |
| Proposals Distributed to Reviewers | by Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024 |
| Proposal Reviews DUE | by Friday, December 13th, 2024 |
| Notification of Session Acceptance | by Monday, January 13th, 2025 |
| RSVP to present | by Tuesday, January 21st, 2025 |
| Workshop registration closes | on Friday, March 21st, 2025 |
| TOPkit Workshop 2025 | on Tuesday-Thursday, March 25, 26, 27, 2025 |
Virtual Event Platform
TOPkit Workshop 2025 will be presented using a different platform, Whova. Optional training for presenters and attendees TBD.
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Contact Us for Information
Email: topkit@ucf.edu
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Revisit Past Workshops
Thank you everyone for making TOPkit 2024 such a success. You can revisit past TOPkit Workshops at the link below.
TOPkit Workshop past events
Enjoy the TOPkit Workshop? Attend the Innovation Summit?
The TOPkit Workshop and Innovation Summit focus on digital learning and occur around the same time every year so participants can benefit from attending both events. Innovation Summit offers a more general, broad focus. The Workshop offers a variety of interactive sessions that empowering faculty development professionals with innovations and best practices.