University of North Texas 
2026 UNT Symposium
Designing Meaningful Learning Experiences in the Era of AI and Beyond
You are invited to UNT's symposium, Designing Meaningful Learning Experiences in the Era of AI and Beyond, led by Dr. Julie Schell from The University of Texas at Austin.
Meaningful learning is learning that is resilient, enduring, and transferable in the future. While such learning is often hard won, the human mind is wired to avoid difficulty in favor of efficiency. With AI offering limitless opportunities to offload cognitive work for students and educators alike, how do we design experiences that do not short-circuit the processes that lead to meaningful learning outcomes?
In the morning keynote, Dr. Schell will introduce the concept of fusion skills as a future-forward framework for teaching and learning in the era of AI and beyond. Fusion skills are capabilities that combine human expertise with AI processes to generate new abilities of value. Importantly, fusion skills also foster curiosity, discovery, critical thinking, and creativity — all of which are technology agnostic.
Following the keynote, participants will take part in a hands-on workshop to apply the fusion skill framework directly to their own courses and programs. All faculty and staff are invited to attend and leave with practical strategies they can apply right away.
What to expect: A keynote presentation, a hands-on workshop, and practical strategies for designing meaningful learning experiences in the era of AI and beyond.
Featured Speaker
Dr. Julie Schell
Assistant Vice Provost of Academic Technology and Director of the Office of Academic Technology
The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Julie Schell is the Assistant Vice Provost of Academic Technology and the Director of the Office of Academic Technology at The University of Texas at Austin. She is at the forefront of stewarding the changing landscape of higher education in the age of AI.
Her current passion project is UT Sage, an AI tutor and instructional design agent she conceived to drive innovative and responsible adoption of AI in the university classroom.
Dr. Schell is also an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Departments of Design and Educational Leadership and Policy, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses. In her current studio, Dr. Schell and her students are partnering with generative AI to prototype speculative objects and environments designed to improve teaching and learning.
Dr. Schell has over 25 years of experience in higher education and has held positions at the nation's top research universities, including Stanford, Columbia, Harvard, and Yale.
She completed her doctorate in Higher and Postsecondary Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a four-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Mazur Group at Harvard University.
She was named one of Ed Tech Magazine's 2026 Higher Education Influencers to Follow in the category of Digital Learning Pioneer. Dr. Schell serves on the Higher Education Advisory Board at Anthropic.
Register
Faculty and staff are invited to attend and explore practical, future-forward approaches to teaching and learning.