Welcome to this month’s Newsletter! Here you'll find updates, highlights, and important announcements.
As the semester unfolds, we continue to explore new ways to enhance student engagement, improve accessibility, and integrate innovative tools into our teaching practices.
Read on for resources, updates, and opportunities to enhance your teaching, and see our upcoming events to register for workshops.
The FCPE has prepared some tech tricks (and treats) to facilitate both teaching and research this month!
In this issue, we cover Anchoring AI in Academic Rigor with Gemini Notebook and getting started with Python for your research. We also invite you to invite your students to join us in celebrating Academic Integrity Awareness Week (AIAW).
Don’t forget to explore some of the resources the FCPE offers and make sure to visit our events page often; workshops and events are added frequently.
Keep an eye out for important upcoming announcements in the coming weeks!
As we continue to grapple with the evolving landscape of higher education in the age of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), it can be difficult to determine how best to teach students to use these tools to facilitate critical thinking rather than simply offload cognitive work. However, several Gen AI tools offer options which provide affordances such that faculty no longer have to compromise on academic rigor or source validity. These tools can empower student independence, build scaffolds for critical thinking, and promote multimodal learning.
One such tool that is available to Adelphi faculty and students is Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM). Imagine evaluating a comprehensive term syllabus in a single pass, or seamlessly converting your class notes into a dynamic audio overview. Gemini Notebook allows you to execute both workflows effortlessly, elevating your instructional efficiency within a few simple steps. Gemini Notebook can also help you conduct research on the web, review documents and notes, and generate content to help you learn and understand subject matter on a more thorough level. Further, Gemini Notebook provides Studio tools such as Audio and Visual Overviews, Mindmaps, Quizzes/Exams, and more; all are accessible via your Adelphi Google account.
Unlike conventional artificial intelligence tools that retrieve information across the open internet, Gemini Notebook is grounded strictly in the specific files you upload, such as PDFs, Google Docs, websites, or slide decks. As a result, the platform relies exclusively on your provided documents, while the risk of fabricated answers or factual errors is significantly reduced. Every generated response features in-line citations linking directly back to the exact passage in your original source text. Furthermore, your uploaded materials remain private and are never reviewed by humans or used to train public AI models.
By anchoring AI-generated insights directly to sources, educators and researchers can maintain scholarly rigor while fostering critical and original thinking, modeling academic integrity, and demonstrating pedagogically sound ways for students to use GenAI in their coursework.
If you are interested in discussing ways to scaffold human-centered AI in your classroom and exploring how AI impacts everything from daily lesson planning and grading to student engagement and professional burnout, bring your coffee, your candid thoughts, and your classroom stories to our upcoming in-person discussion: “Between the Bot and the Blackboard: How We’re Really Feeling About AI” (October 27th, 11:00 in the FCPE classroom – Alumnae 132).
Recommended Reading:
Samuel, Y., Brennan-Tonetta, M., Samuel, J., Kashyap, R., Kumar, V., Krishna Kaashyap, S., Chidipothu, N., Anand, I., & Jain, P. (2023). Cultivation of human centered artificial intelligence: culturally adaptive thinking in education (CATE) for AI. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 6, 1198180. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2023.1198180
Managing large datasets and workflows can quickly become a bottleneck for academic research. When dealing with spreadsheets, sanitizing data and extracting valuable insights from it can become a significant undertaking. Jupyter Notebooks solves these challenges by combining live Python code, data visualizations, and explanatory text into a single interactive document. Instead of running scripts in a terminal, or limiting work to the bounds of spreadsheets, researchers can process data step by step in individual cells. Researchers can also view real time figures, import additional tools and data sets, and document methodology alongside their data.
Jupyter Notebooks accomplish this by integrating Python, one of the most readable programming languages, with markdown, a simple syntax for formatting text. If you have approached coding languages like C++ or Javascript before but found the syntax to be too daunting to make use of, Python may be a better option. It is much easier to read and work with than most other programming languages and is used for a wide range of projects, including web development, game development, scripting, cybersecurity, machine learning, and of course, research.
Installation and Set Up:
For faculty who prefer to just work directly with their data and skip the command line or any kind of installation, cloud-based notebooks may be the best option. Jupyter Lab, Google Colab, and Kaggle all offer cloud-based notebooks that not only simplify the setup, but make notebooks collaborative.
If you would like to keep your data on your own computer, Python can be installed on Windows, macOS, and Linux computers. It can even be run on your iPad with apps like Juno, or your Android tablet with apps like JuNote. There are multiple ways to install Python and work with Jupyter Notebooks on your own computer and the installation process is relatively simple and can be completed quickly. Anaconda is one of the most popular choices since it comes pre-packaged with Python, Jupyter, Notebooks, and other essential tools.
Resources for Learning Python:
There are several types of online resources available for anyone interested in learning Python. Feel free to reach out to the FCPE with questions!
Online Resources and Tutorials:
Community Forums and Support:
Hosted by the Provost’s Committee for Academic Integrity
Join us in celebrating Adelphi’s commitment to academic integrity and the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage that strengthen our academic community. From October 20-22, students are invited to stop by the UC Lobby between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. for interactive activities, games, snacks, raffles, and giveaways—including Academic Integrity Awareness Week T-shirts.
Along the way, students can learn more about academic integrity, test their knowledge, and explore how the choices we make as members of the Adelphi community contribute to a culture of integrity.
Faculty and staff are encouraged to spread the word and invite students to participate throughout the week.
Visit the committee’s website for more information about its work.
Catch the spirit! Watch our short video of Fall 2025’s AIAW Event for a preview of the fun and impact!
Need assistance with Moodle or any of Adelphi’s educational technology platforms? Looking for support to implement a concept from one of our workshops?
Drop by in-person, email us at fcpe@adelphi.edu, or set up a one-to-one Zoom or in-person appointment.
There are some new faces on campus, and we’re excited for you to meet them! The Faculty Center for Professional Excellence recently sat down with some of Adelphi’s newest faculty members to learn more about the expertise they bring to our community, the courses they’ll be teaching, and a few things you probably won’t find in their official bios.
We asked about favorite foods (pizza was off the table!), memorable and unexpected classroom moments, and even what might be playing on their soundtrack during office hours.
What begins as a personal exploration of family history can often lead to broader questions about history and the archival record. For Christopher A. Barnes, PhD, Assistant Professor and Digital Publishing Librarian, researching his family history led to the discovery of a connection between his own family and the history of slavery. That discovery evolved into sustained scholarly research examining the archival records of slavery.
Dr. Barnes’s work focuses on what can be learned from records that are often fragmented, dispersed, and difficult to access. His research considers how these materials can help recover the names and experiences of enslaved African Americans while also making those records more accessible to researchers and the public.
His 2025 article, “Manumissions in the Brooklyn Old Town Records Collection, 1797–1825,” draws on a dataset he created for Enslaved.org to document enslaved African Americans who were manumitted in Brooklyn, New York. The project reflects Dr. Barnes’s broader interest in bringing archival research and digital scholarship together to make historical materials easier to discover and explore. To learn more about his research and explore the project’s interactive features, visit cowenhoven.org.
In this video, Dr. Barnes discusses the personal and scholarly journey behind his work, including how the discovery of his family’s connection to slavery shaped his research, the challenges involved in uncovering difficult histories, and the importance of identifying and remembering the individuals represented in the archival record.
References
Barnes, C.A. (2025). Manumissions in the Brooklyn Old Town Records collection, 1797-1825. Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation, 6(1), 25-35. https://doi.org/10.14321/jsdp.6.1.0025
Interested in being featured? Contact Leeann Mello at FCPE to learn how you can be part of an upcoming Faculty Fridays issue.
Adelphi University enters the 2026–2027 academic year with a wave of new faculty joining its colleges and schools, bringing decades of combined experience in health education, the arts, nursing, environmental policy, physician assistant studies and creative writing. Below is an introduction to this year’s class of new professors and a glimpse into their expertise and accomplishments.