Teaching and Learning
The Pros and Cons of Co-Created Course Policies (Beckie Supiano, April 6, 2023): Supiano passes on the insights of readers who’ve worked with students to co-create course policies, and adds a note of caution for those who might be thinking along these lines.
Teaching Reading in the Digital Age (Shakil Rabbi, Inside Higher Ed, April 5, 2023): How we remember, understand and pay attention is simply worse whenever we read on the screen, the author writes and suggests two ways to help students deal with that.
How to Create Compelling Writing Assignments in a ChatGPT Age (James M. Lang, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 4, 2023): A recent book offers a road map to new kinds of assignments to inspire your students to write. Review of Jessica Singer Early’s Next Generation Genres: Teaching Writing for Civic and Academic Engagement (Norton).
Gen Ed: Its Past, Present and Possible Future (Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, April 2, 2023): Moving beyond today’s smorgasbord of disconnected courses.
AI, Tech, and Higher Ed
The CTL sponsored a webinar on “ChatGPT: Moving from Perils to Potentials” on March 26. You can access a 29-minute video of the “presentation” part of the session by Lew Ludwig here. You can view (but not edit) the “Jam Board” notes put up in the different break-out rooms, a folder with a very useful article by Ryan Watkins (“Get Creative With Your Assignments”), and some other materials here. And, finally, a Google doc to which you can add topics or themes related to ChatGPT that you’d like to discuss in the future. Thanks for all who participated, and keep your eye on the CTL website for these and other resources on A.I. and ChatGPT in the classroom.
Will ChatGPT Change How Professors Assess Learning? (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 5, 2023): It won’t be easy without their colleges’ support.
The 4 Stages of AI (Edward J. Maloney, Inside Higher Ed, April 3, 2023): A framework for thinking about the impact of artificial intelligence in higher education.
Can Turnitin Cure Higher Ed’s AI Fever? (Liam Knox, Inside Higher Ed, April 3, 2023): The plagiarism detector will introduce its AI detection tool tomorrow, hoping to protect academic integrity in a post-ChatGPT world. The speedy launch and lack of an opt-out have academics worried. (And, in a quick follow-up, this from the Washington Post: We Tested a New Chat-GPT-Detector for Teachers. It Flagged an Innocent Student, Geoffrey A. Fowler, April 3, 2023 at 9:47 AM).
The Case for Luddism Against ChatGPT (Patrick Luiz Sullivan De Oliveira, Inside Higher Ed, April 3, 2023): The author argues the case for resisting this technology in order to retain autonomy as educators.
Why Some College Professors Are Adopting ChatGPT AI as Quickly as Students (Carolyn Chun, CNBC.com, April 2, 2023): Adoption by educators may be critical to making the case that AI will augment the jobs humans are doing rather than replace them.
DEI and CRT
Anti-CRT Measures Exploded Last Year, Report Finds (Liam Knox, Inside Higher Ed, April 7, 2023): Lawmakers across the country tried to enact 563 measures to restrict the teaching of “critical race theory” from 2021 to 2022, according to a new report from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law.
How Can ‘Inclusion’ Be a Bad Word? (Kelly A. Hogan and Viji Sathy, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 31, 2023): What it’s like to be asked by state lawmakers to justify your life’s work.
Liberal Education
Colleges Should Be More Than Just Vocational Schools (Bret C. Devereaux, New York Times, April 2, 2023): Is a university a university without the liberal arts? The author argues that the liberal arts are essential if America is to thrive.
On the Bookshelf
Bryan Alexander, Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Climate Crisis (John Hopkins University Press), review in Inside Higher Ed by Matt Reed (April 3, 2023).
Webinars
Helping Students Navigate the ‘Hidden Curriculum’ (Chronicle of Higher Education). April 18, 2023: Success in college goes beyond academic achievement. Webinar will examine how institutions can help first-generation students understand the nuances of life outside the classroom. Register here.
Have a short article or some news related to teaching and learning at your institution that you’d like to share with colleagues? Send your contribution along to us. Also, please email Charla White (white@glca.org) if you have colleagues who would like to receive this weekly report.
GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning
Co-Directors:
Steven Volk (steven.Volk@oberlin.edu)
Colleen Monahan Smith (smith@glca.org)
Charla White (white@glca.org)