Teaching and Learning
Teaching the Inevitable: Embracing a Pedagogy of Failure (Lydia E. Eckstein, Amelia B. Finaret, and Lisa B. Whitenack, Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 2023): The authors, all from Allegheny College, outline several strategies for using failure advantageously for promoting student growth and learning and to minimize the stigma of struggle in academia, offering concrete suggestions and resources for faculty who want to incorporate a “pedagogy of failure” into their work with students.
How To Create Livelier Asynchronous Discussions (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 18, 2023): Creating a successful discussion board for your classes.
Repairing Gen Ed (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 17, 2023): Colleges are struggling to help students answer the question, “Why am I taking this class?”
Why Faculty Members Should Be Expert Tour Guides (Susan Hibbard, Inside Higher Ed, May 17, 2023): Students don’t have the time to explore the enormous amount of information bombarding them and achieve the learning outcomes they need.
How to Teach About Systemic Inequality and Racism (Steven Mintz, May 17, 2023): …without transforming your classroom into a struggle session.
Hidden Curricula (Matt Reed, Inside Higher Ed, May 16, 2023): The unwritten rules are unevenly known.
How to Become a Mobile-Mindful Teacher (James M. Lang, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 15, 2023): Instead of giving in to frustration over cellphones in the fall, maybe it’s time to put them to good use in class.
Engaging Students Asynchronously with Interactive Videos (Spencer Willis, Faculty Focus, May 15, 2023): By integrating interactive features like quizzes, hotspots, and branching storylines within the video content, instructors can create interactive videos that transform passive viewing into active learning experiences.
AI, Tech, and Higher Ed
The Power of AI and Future of Education is Now: How Teachers and the Taught Can Create the Teaching (Manal Saleh, Faculty Focus, May 17, 2023): To foster a collaborative approach in teaching and learning, here are a few tips on how post-secondary educators and adult learners can create the teaching together, and how AI can empower both.
The First Year of AI College Ends in Ruin (Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, May 16, 2023): There’s an arms race on campus, and professors are losing.
What Higher Ed Gets Wrong About AI Chatbots – From the Student Perspective (Mary Jo Madda, EdSurge, May 15, 2023): Three things that AI can help students: as on-campus tutor; as on-demand editor; and as sparring partner in forging an argument.
Five Ways AI Has Already Changed Higher Education (Tom Williams Jack Grove, Times Higher Education, May 15, 2023): Powerful new technologies are transforming the way universities operate, even before the impact of ChatGPT is truly felt.
I’m a Student. You Have No Idea How Much We’re Using ChatGPT (Owen Kichizo Terry, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 12, 2023): No professor or software could ever pick up on it.
For those interested, there is an “AI in Education Google Group,” which posts resources and meets virtually to discuss the best approaches to technology. Those interested can request to join the group here.
Liberal Arts
Setting an Agenda: The Role of Community-Engaged Scholarship and Practice in Liberal Arts Colleges (Vicki L. Baker, Hannah Apps, Amiee LaPointe Terosky, and Rennie Parker, Collaborations: A Journal of Community-Based Research and Practice, May 9, 2023): An article which emerged from a recent GLCA initiative, focuses on the trends and agenda setting considerations in community-engaged partnerships in liberal arts colleges.
Higher Ed
Documenting the Impact of the Public Humanities in Higher Education: A Toolkit (Younger Oliver, National Humanities Alliance, 2023): Includes overviews of research methodologies, tips and tricks for writing questions, and how to analyze data.
Ohio Senate Passes Sweeping Higher Ed Bill (Laura Hancock, Cleveland.com, May 18, 2023): Bill is designed to bill to tamp down on perceived liberal bias at state colleges and universities by forcing them to add to their mission statements that they don’t favor or disfavor any political, social or religious beliefs; outlawing the ability of faculty and staff to strike; banning mandated diversity training; and requiring for annual faculty performance evaluations and post-tenure reviews. [See, as well, Senators Firing Misguided Projectile at Beloved Ohio Colleges, Universities (Steven Volk, Columbus Dispatch, May 17, 2023)].
Statehouses, Not Student Activists, Are the Real Threat to Free Speech (Eduardo Peñalver, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 17, 2023): Fixating on drama at Stanford Law leads us astray.
DEI
Dear White Faculty, We Must Do Better (Jenn Stroud Rossmann, Inside Higher Ed, May 19, 2023): How are you supporting Black faculty’s flourishing today given the prevalence of bias, invisible labor and other challenges that they regularly confront?
Webinars and Workshops
Towards Post-disciplinary Teaching and Learning in LAS Education (Liberal Arts and Science Collaborative of the Open Society University Network), Wednesday, May 24 (9:00-10:30 AM EDT/GMT-4).
What Works in 2023 (May 31-June 2): Kenyon’s yearly conference, online and free to all, featuring a terrific lineup of sessions from our colleagues at ten schools, exploring themes including collaboration between faculty and staff to support student learning, new applications of educational technology, pedagogies of diversity, equity and inclusion, and new approaches to faculty development. Registration is free, but space is limited.
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 Colleen Monahan Smith (smith@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)