Open Pedagogy Pit Stop
About the Program
The Pit Stop Program is a faculty development initiative co-designed by the Libraries, the Office for Faculty Excellence, and DELTA to provide instructors with dedicated time and support to critically examine and enhance their teaching practices. Grounded in the principles of open pedagogy and instructional innovation, Pit Stop brings together an interdisciplinary cohort of NC State instructors to explore how interactive tools—such as Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), educational games, and Extended Reality—can support teaching and learning. Through a mix of facilitated sessions, curated resources, and hands-on experimentation, participants will design or revise course elements that align with their instructional goals.
This program is ideal for instructors who:
- Have a specific teaching problem they want to address
- Are curious about applying interactive or emerging technologies
- Are interested in open pedagogical approaches that promote student agency, co-creation of knowledge, and renewable assignments
- Want to rapidly bridge the gap between inspiration and application by building tangible tools using AI, XR, educational games, or other interactive technologies.
Key Features
Problem-First Approach: Come in with a teaching challenge and a technology you're interested in exploring—like Virtual Reality, educational games, or Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). Leave with a solution you’ve designed, tested, and refined.
Hands-On Labs & Cohort Meetings: Regular lab sessions provide dedicated time and support to build, test, and troubleshoot your ideas. Cohort meetings create space for reflection, peer feedback, and shared inspiration.
Open Education Focus: Explore renewable assignments, collaborative learning, transparency, and educational sharing as strategies to enhance the impact and sustainability of your teaching innovations.
Interdisciplinary Community: Join a supportive, cross-campus cohort of educators committed to improving student outcomes through thoughtful, tech-enabled pedagogy.
Expert Guidance and Support: Guidance from a team of facilitators with deep expertise in instructional design, open education, and emerging technologies, representing the Libraries, the Office for Faculty Excellence, and DELTA.
Sharing Out: The cohort will share their Pit Stop work at the NC State Conference for Faculty Excellence.
Program Outcomes
By the end of Pit Stop, participants will have developed a tangible, technology-enhanced teaching solution rooted in open pedagogical principles. They will leave the program with both a practical deliverable and the confidence to apply emerging tools in support of student-centered learning.
Learning Outcomes
Participants will be able to:
- Critically evaluate how Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), educational games, and Extended Reality (XR) can be used to address specific instructional challenges.
- Design course materials using open pedagogy strategies that promote transparency, collaboration, accessibility, and student agency.
- Integrate interactive technologies into their teaching in ways that align with open, sustainable, and inclusive educational practices.
- Execute a project-based development cycle by working independently between sessions to transition a teaching challenge from initial inspiration to a functional, classroom-ready application with the guidance of the Pit Stop community.
Application & Selection
Applications for the 2026/2027 cohort are closed.
Please visit our FAQ for more information. For questions not addressed in the FAQ, please contact David Tully at dltully@ncsu.edu.
Contact
Do you have questions? Need additional help? Please contact David Tully via dltully@ncsu.edu.