AI in Teaching and Learning Conference 2026
The AI in Teaching and Learning Conference 2026 brings academic practitioners and education leaders together to explore how AI can strengthen learning, teaching and graduate capability.
Across one practical, innovation-led day, discover how universities are responding to changing student behaviour, redesigning curriculum and assessment, and turning emerging tools into effective practice. Gain ideas for building staff confidence, protecting quality and creating more personalised, active and human-centred learning.
The Conference will explore practical strategies for:
- Using AI to personalise learning, deepen engagement and give students more timely support
- Designing active learning, simulations and feedback that strengthen rather than bypass learning
- Redesigning curriculum and assessment for an AI-present world
- Embedding critical, ethical and discipline-specific AI literacy across programmes
- Building academic confidence, capacity and a practical route from experimentation to effective delivery
Context
Why Now?
Multimodal and agentic tools can now explain, create, analyse, simulate and complete complex tasks. Teaching practice must keep pace.
Use is widespread, but access, confidence and the educational value students gain remain uneven.
Universities must prepare students to work critically and confidently with AI while developing the human judgement their professions will continue to require.
Meaningful change requires more than guidance: staff need practical examples, protected time, shared frameworks and permission to experiment.
What to Expect
Why attend the conference?
See what AI can now make possible across personalised learning, feedback, simulation, student support and academic practice—and where human teaching adds the greatest value
Explore real approaches to curriculum, pedagogy and assessment that respond to how students already use AI while strengthening learning, inclusion and academic quality
Build a practical roadmap for moving from isolated experimentation to sustainable delivery, with academic staff equipped and supported to lead the change
Opportunity Context
The Opportunities Ahead
Discover where AI can create more personalised, active and human-centred learning across higher education.
Personalised learning at greater scale
Students can receive alternative explanations, targeted practice and support adapted to their level and context, while academics retain ownership of the learning design.
Feedback when it can change learning
AI-supported formative feedback can help students test ideas, improve drafts and act on feedback before final assessment rather than after the learning opportunity has passed.
Active and experiential learning
Simulated patients, clients, negotiations and professional scenarios can give students repeated opportunities to apply knowledge and practise judgement safely.
More authentic assessment
Assessment can focus less on a polished final output and more on application, process, critique, explanation and accountable professional judgement.
AI-ready graduates
Discipline-specific AI literacy can equip students to collaborate with AI, verify its outputs, recognise its limits and remain accountable for the decisions they make.
Putting the human learning experience first
Used carefully, AI can reduce repetitive work and create more space for dialogue, intellectual challenge, mentoring and targeted support.
Join higher education teachers and leaders shaping AI-enabled learning
Explore the real opportunities and build a practical route from innovation to effective delivery.
Programme
Agenda
Chair’s Welcome and Opening Remarks
Opening Keynote: The Learning Transformation Ahead – What AI Makes Possible
- Look beyond automation to the ways AI can expand how students learn, practise and receive support
- What the latest generation of multimodal and agentic tools means for higher education teaching
- Designing human–AI collaboration around learning science, academic expertise and student agency
- The real prize: more personalised, active and human-centred education at scale
Panel Discussion: From Experimentation to Reinvention – Where Should Universities Focus Now?
- Which AI-enabled approaches can deliver meaningful learning gains now, and which remain speculative?
- Moving beyond isolated pilots towards coherent programme and institution-level change
- How universities can create safe conditions for academics and students to experiment together
- Balancing pace with evidence, inclusion, educational purpose and human oversight
Break and Networking
Inside the Student AI Reality: How Students Learn, What They Need and Where Support Falls Short
- Understand how students are already using AI to explain concepts, summarise material, develop ideas and complete assessment-related work
- The gap between widespread student use and meaningful support from teaching staff
- Where AI can strengthen confidence, accessibility and independent practice—and where it can weaken deep learning
- Building AI approaches with students rather than around assumed patterns of behaviour
Building an Institutional Environment for AI-enabled Learning
- Connecting AI strategy with digital pedagogy, curriculum and academic practice
- Building multidisciplinary support around programme teams rather than expecting academics to change alone
- Using co-creation to make innovation inclusive, evidence-led and relevant to disciplinary needs
- Lessons for taking AI activity from individual enthusiasts into mainstream educational delivery
AI-enabled Learning in Practice: Feedback, Simulation and Personalised Support
- Practical ways to use AI for case-based learning, adaptive activities and opportunities for practice
- Designing formative feedback that helps students improve without outsourcing judgement or final assessment decisions
- How students can interrogate, compare and improve AI outputs through active learning
- Starting small: choosing use cases with clear educational purpose and manageable risk
Lunch Break
Preparing Graduates for an AI-shaped World
- Define what graduates must know and be able to do when AI is embedded in professional work
- Move beyond generic prompting towards critical, ethical and discipline-specific AI literacy
- Strengthening creativity, social intelligence, adaptability and professional judgement alongside technical capability
- Mapping where students should learn with AI, about AI and without AI across the programme
Assessment Beyond Detection: Making Learning, Process and Judgement Visible
- Redesign assessment for an AI-present world rather than attempt to make every task AI-proof
- Use staged work, processfolios, dialogue and reflection to reveal how students think and make decisions
- Create a purposeful mix of AI-integrated, AI-permitted and AI-independent assessment
- Protect fairness and academic standards without turning teaching staff into AI police
Break and Networking
Building Academic Confidence and Capacity for AI-enabled Teaching
- What teaching staff need beyond one-off demonstrations and generic AI guidance
- Designing sustained, discipline-based development around real modules and assessment challenges
- Creating communities of practice, reusable examples and safe spaces for honest experimentation
- Turning training into delivery through protected time, practical support and clear institutional expectations
Chair’s Closing Reflections: Turning Opportunity into Delivery
Ready to unlock AI’s potential for teaching and learning?
Join HE colleagues turning AI innovation into stronger teaching and learning.
Who Should Attend?
Audience
This Conference is designed for higher education teachers, academic practitioners and leaders responsible for developing curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and AI-enabled learning. Those in attendance will include:
- Pro Vice-Chancellors and Deputy Vice-Chancellors Education
- Deans, Associate Deans Education and Faculty Education Leads
- Directors and Heads of Learning and Teaching
- Academic staff, lecturers, tutors and teaching fellows
- Programme Directors, Course Leaders and Module Leaders
- Academic Developers and Educational Developers
- Digital Education, Learning Technology and AI Leads
- Assessment, Academic Quality and Standards Leads
- Student Partnership, Student Experience and Academic Skills Leads
- Employability, Curriculum Innovation and Graduate Outcomes Leads
Registration
Secure Your Ticket
HE and Public Sector
£195 + VAT
- Full-day live conference access
- Latest sector insight
- Applied approaches from across HE
- Live chat functionality
- Breakouts and networking
- Access to event resources
Private Sector
£395 + VAT
- Full-day live conference access
- Latest sector insight
- Applied approaches from across HE
- Live chat functionality
- Breakouts and networking
- Access to event resources
HE Team of 3
£526.50 + VAT
- Full-day live access for three delegates
- Latest sector insight
- Applied approaches from across HE
- Live chat functionality
- Breakouts and networking
- Access to event resources
For group discounts and enquiries about your registration please contact us on enquiries@heprofessional.co.uk