CTL Highlight: On November 10, Professor Jennifer Hayward and Caitlyn Deeter from the College of Wooster led a CTL webinar focused on the seven-week AI literacy course they piloted earlier this semester. Follow this link to find a recording of the presentation, “ChatGPT and Chill: AI Literacy and Next-Generation Student Empowerment,” their slide deck, and a resource list.
Teaching and Learning
Which Is Better, Active Learning or Lecture? (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 16, 2023): New research suggests that’s the wrong question.
Spaced Practice and Working Memory (Megan Sumeracki, Learning Scientists, November 16, 2023): Spaced practice is about when you engage in practice; it’s better to spread practice over time rather than cramming.
Students Crossing Boundaries (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 14, 2023): Aggressive demands. Inappropriate classroom behaviors. Faculty members who feel pressured to be endlessly flexible. These and other challenges are becoming more common, and faculty worry that if they resist student demands, they will be accused of being unreasonable.
Can You Grade Essays Better Than an Auto-Grader? (Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, November 16, 2023): In too many instances, the answer is no.
Teaching Conflict, Not Violence (Pamela E. Barnett, Inside Higher Ed, November 15, 2023): In teaching about the Middle East, a framework from the French psychologist Charles Rojzman can help engage students in conversations characterized by conflict, not violence.
Six Check-in Ideas to Build Community in College Classrooms (Christina Janise Wickard, Stacia Miller Whitworth, and Suzanne F. Lindt, Faculty Focus, November 15, 2023): Using check-ins to touch base with students about how they are feeling, to get to know the students, and to build classroom community.
Transparency in Learning and Teaching: Higher Ed Examples and Resources: Designed to help faculty apply the Transparency Framework (of purpose/task/criteria) in contexts including assignments, curricula, and assessment.
A.I. in the Classroom
ChatGPT and Chill: AI Literacy and Next-Generation Student Empowerment (Jennifer Hayward and Caitlyn Deeter, The College of Wooster and CTL, November 10, 2023): A webinar focused on a seven-week AI literacy course piloted earlier this semester. Materials include a recording of the presentation, the presenters’ slide deck, and a resource list.
Why You Should Rethink Your Resistance to ChatGPT (Flower Darby, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 13, 2023): How to teach with AI tools in ways that meet faculty concerns about ethics and equity.
Guide, Don’t Hide: Maximizing Course Assignments with ChatGPT Integration (Lauren E. Burrow, Faculty Focus, November 13, 2023): The author doesn’t weigh in on ongoing ethical debates about AI use, nor offers a comprehensive how-to guide, but rather shares one professor’s initial use of the AI tool and how it successfully accomplished the learning objectives and expectations for one course assignment.
Campus Speech Roiled by the Israel-Hamas War
My Students Wanted to Talk Israel-Palestine. Here’s What We Did Instead (Michael S. Roth, Slate, November 13, 2023): A turn to Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents allowed Wesleyan’s president find ways to help his students come to terms with the violence of our civilization.
Polarizing Times Demand Robust Academic Freedom (AAUP, November 15, 2023): A statement by the AAUP “rejects the characterization of pro-Palestinian speech or critiques of the Israeli state as invariably antisemitic,” arguing that “efforts to control what is thought, said, taught, and researched are antithetical to the educational mission of a university and the democratic values upon which it rests.”
College Presidents Debate When to Speak Out – and When to Keep Quiet (Charlotte Matherly, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 16, 2023): When world events have ripple effects on campuses, four leaders said, they can’t make everyone happy.
Professors Shouldn’t Simplify the Conflict in Gaza (Aaron Tugendhaft, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 16, 2023): Solidarity statements are poor models for critical thinking.
Extra Credit Reading
The Right-Wing Attack on Academia, With a Totalitarian Twist (John K. Wilson, Inside Higher Ed, November 16, 2023): New model legislation, ostensibly meant to overhaul general education, proposes a radical assault on faculty and academic freedom.
How Do Humanities Majors Fare in the Work Force? (Audrey Williams June, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 14, 2023): A new report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences contradicts the narrative that humanities degrees are a waste of money. You might want to read this in conjunction with an op-ed by Beth Ann Fennelly, in the New York Times (November 15, 2023): Stop Corporatizing My Students which stresses the invaluable skills of communication and critical thinking, and a new report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce: After Everything: Projections of Jobs, Education, and Training Requirements through 2031, which argues that a college education will become more important in the job market, not less, in the next decade.
The Dangers of Donor Revolt (Lila Corwin Berman and Benjamin Soskis, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 13, 2023): The Israel-Hamas war has empowered higher-ed benefactors. That’s distressing.
A report from the Modern Language Association found that enrollments in foreign-language programs in the United States tumbled nearly 17 percent between the fall of 2016 and the fall of 2021. Foreign-language enrollments slumped by 24 percent at two-year institutions compared with 15 percent at four-year colleges. See, as well, It’s a Bleak Climate for Foreign Languages as Enrollments Tumble (Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 15, 2023).
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GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning
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