Volume 6, Issue 4
With Gratitude for Our GEP Faculty
As we enter this season of reflection and gratitude, we want to extend our deepest appreciation to the faculty and staff who make the General Education Program (GEP) a strong foundation for student success.
We are grateful for your time, expertise, and unwavering commitment to help our students thrive at UCF and beyond.
Warmest regards,
The GEP Team
Fall 2025 Assessment Updates
By Annabelle Conroy
A huge thank you to everyone who participated in the GEP assessment process this fall! We truly appreciate the time and effort you put into submitting your data—especially knowing how many other responsibilities you juggle throughout the semester.
If you haven’t had a chance to submit your assessment, good news: there’s still time! I’m here to help you complete your submission as long as the assignment was finished before the deadline (Friday, October 31, 2023, at 11:59 p.m.).
For detailed GEP assessment instructions, please visit the GEP Faculty Learning Community or reach out to me. I’m more than happy to assist you. Let’s get those submissions in!
I want to invite you to join the GEP Assessment Task Force, which will begin meeting soon. If you are interested in participating in this valuable service opportunity, please let me know. The task force generally meets about once a month.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me or the GEP Team.
Catalyzing Creativity: How a GEP Award Transformed Our Teaching Practice
By Martha Hubertz and Alisha Janowsky
Receiving the GEP Professional Development Award in 2024 provided us with an invaluable opportunity to engage more deeply with the scholarship of teaching and learning. Using the award funds, we attended the AAC&U Conference on Learning and Student Success (AAC&U CLASS), where we explored perspectives on innovation and engagement in higher education in general and the GEP in particular.
The conference profoundly shaped the trajectory of our teaching and research. Through dialogue with colleagues from diverse institutions and disciplines, we began to reconceptualize our early efforts to use visual design and gamification to enhance engagement in GEP courses. Our focus on using graphics to scaffold learning evolved into a broader inquiry: How do narrative, interactivity, and design elements influence motivation and knowledge retention?
This question has driven our work ever since. Our current work investigates how generative artificial intelligence can extend the principles of gamification and visual engagement. Specifically, we are experimenting with AI roleplay and adaptive content generation—tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot can simulate interactive dialogue and generate contextually aligned materials that reinforce our graphic and narrative themes. After collecting data on our initial implementations, we were honored to receive additional GEP funding this year, providing us the opportunity to share our findings with colleagues from around the world and continue to learn from their experiences and expertise.
The GEP Professional Development Award served as a catalyst for this line of inquiry, fostering both pedagogical innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration. We encourage faculty colleagues to apply for this opportunity—not only to support individual growth but to contribute to the broader conversation about creativity, technology, and student engagement in general education.
Congratulations Fall 2025 GEP Professional Development Award Recipients!
Your commitment to academic excellence and innovative teaching is key to student success. We are proud to recognize the recipients of the Fall 2025 GEP Professional Development Awards. These individuals will receive funding to support opportunities such as GEP-related research, workshops, and conferences.
Congratulations to this semester’s award recipients:
$1,000
- Tong Wan, Lecturer, Department of Physics
- Suzy Prentiss, Lecturer, Nicholson School of Communication and Media
- Pamela Baker, Associate Lecturer, Department of Writing and Rhetoric
$500
- Stacey DiLiberto, Associate Lecturer, Department of Philosophy
- Martha Hubertz, Associate Lecturer, Department of Psychology
- Alisha Janowsky, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Watch for GEP faculty award opportunities in Spring 2026.
Bites and Banter Series Wrap-up: Thank You and Looking Ahead
This fall, the GEP team hosted the Bites and Banter series “Building Communication Infrastructure”—a space for open dialogue, collaborative problem-solving, and intentional planning. Thank you to the faculty and department chairs who participated and generously shared their time, insights, and expertise.
Together, we created three guiding documents: the GEP Communication Model, the GEP Coordinator Role Description, and the GEP Co-leads Role Description. These foundational resources will strengthen communication, define roles, and drive collaboration as we prepare for Spring 2026 implementation.
We invite faculty to stay tuned for next semester’s Bites and Banter sessions, where we’ll continue advancing this work and exploring new ways to enhance teaching, learning, and engagement within the GEP
Thank you for being part of the conversation—we look forward to what’s ahead!