AI Builder Meet-Up
Our third session: come build with AI, whatever your starting point.
- When
- Tuesday, November 17, 2026, 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM CST
- Where
- Siebel Center for Design Sunset Studio 1050 1208 S 4th St, Champaign, IL 61820 · Open in Google Maps
Add to calendar
RSVP
Tell us who you are and we will email you a link to say whether you are coming.
Educators Who Build is for educators who want to build with AI, not only talk about it. This third session is open to anyone curious about how to use AI tools to improve their pedagogy, whether or not you've come before. We expect a range of backgrounds, from complete novices to seasoned experts, and the goal is to come together to inspire and support each other as we explore how to use these powerful new tools, and to grow a community among the people using them.
People will be on hand to help with everything:
- getting started with installing and using AI tools,
- integrating them with existing campus apps like Canvas,
- all the way to creating and deploying custom pedagogical tools.
Bring a laptop, and bring a colleague.
How the Session Runs
We'll open with a short show and tell: a few people showing what they've built or are working on, five to ten minutes each. Then the room is yours to build, with help on hand, and we close with demos.
Want to show something? When you RSVP, you can ask to present, at the start or near the end. It doesn't need to be finished. We often have more requests than time, so we'll email you to let you know whether we can fit you in.
What's New This Time
We ask everyone for feedback after each session, and we use it:
- More show and tell. You told us you want to see what others are building, especially small tools that serve a course's goals, so we now open with it as well as close with it.
- An easier check-in page. It's in tabs now (the room, demos, your profile, and music), and it can alert you when demos start or someone messages you.
- Welcome back. If you checked in at an earlier session, your profile carries over, and the assistant just asks what you're hoping to get out of today.
Getting Started Ideas
Not sure where to begin? Here are some places to start, and people will be on hand to help with all of them.
First, install an AI agent on your computer. The rest depends on this, so do it first, before you arrive if you can. Either one works, and each needs an account with its maker, usually a paid plan:
- Claude Code, from Anthropic
- Codex, from OpenAI
Then try one of our new tutorials. You give your agent one line from the tutorial's page, and it walks you through each step and checks that it worked. These are brand new, so you'd be among the first to try them, and what trips you up tells us what to fix.
- Getting a Canvas API Token: connect your agent to your Canvas courses and build one small thing with it. Twenty to forty minutes. At Illinois, Technology Services issues tokens through a request form and they take a while to arrive, so if you'd like to try this one, start it a few days before you come.
- Getting Started With PrairieLearn: run PrairieLearn on your own computer and build a question that generates a new version of itself for every student. An hour or two. It installs Docker and downloads about 6.5 GB, so start the download before you come if you can.