Teaching and Learning
Stress and Memory (Althea Need Kaminske, Learning Scientists, June 27, 2024): When we experience a stressful event our memory is improved for whatever was stressing us out. So in this way our memory is improved. However, we are less able to pay attention to and remember other aspects of the event and have difficulty with critical thinking and learning new thought patterns.
Remembering What It’s Like to Be a Student (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 27, 2024): Supiano shares what two professors have learned about teaching from their experiences learning to dance.
Inclusive Syllabus Design
A DEI Course Design Rubric: Supporting Teaching and Learning in Uncertain Times (Kim DeBacco and Nick Mattos, Educause, March 13, 2023): A working group of the University of California Instructional Design and Faculty Support (IDFS) community of practice developed this DEI Course Redesign Rubric with a goal of sharing the rubric with as many faculty and instructional designers as possible across higher education, so as to foster thoughtful dialogue and careful, DEI-informed improvements to courses and to teaching and learning.
Inclusive Syllabus Design with Kirsten Helmer (Lillian Nave, Think UDL): 52-minute podcast featuring discussion of universal design application to syllabus writing. Includes additional resources.
All Things AI
Three resources from Lew Ludwig: Consider these as different inspirations to guide your thoughts on AI in education:
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- An AI Policy Flowchart from UMass Amherst. This handy flowchart helps you navigate the implications of using generative AI tools in your courses. It walks you through key decision points, helping you and your students make informed choices. Plus, it’s packed with relevant questions and links to further resources.
- Syllabus Resources from Besty Barre and her team at Wake Forest University. The Center for the Advancement of Teaching at Wake Forest University has put together some fantastic resources on developing an AI approach, setting AI expectations, and using a decision tree to determine AI appropriateness. The “six steps” link is a great starting point. I know Betsy, and she and her team always deliver top-notch work!
- Assessment Ideas for an AI-Enabled World from the University College London. This resource lets you access a PowerPoint by Isobel Bowditch, Digital Assessment Advisor at UCL. It features over 40 assessment cards using six types of summative assessments. The deck includes detailed breakdowns of assessment types, learning goals tied to Bloom’s taxonomy, AI literacy, and discipline-specific suitability. Make sure to put the slide deck in presentation mode to use all the links.
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Toward a More Critical Framework for AI Use (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, June 27, 2024): 51-minute podcast with Jon Ippolito on a more critical framework for AI use that goes beyond simply putting words together; we need to think about what other values we want to promote and encourage and teach that go beyond intelligence.
Generative AI and the Problem of (Dis)Trust (Jacob Riyeff, Inside Higher Ed, June 27, 2024): A year and a half into the generative “AI” moment, the ability to trust students may be the biggest casualty.
MIT Releases Guide for Responsible AI Use in Higher Ed (Lauren Coffey, Inside Higher Ed, June 26, 2024): A “strategy guide” for responsibly using generative AI, pointing to several institutional practices that have reaped positive results in the past two years.
A New Digital Divide: Student AI Use Surges, Leaving Faculty Behind (Lauren Coffey, Inside Higher Ed, June 25, 2024): While both students and faculty have concerns with generative artificial intelligence, two new reports show a divergence in AI adoption.
Murky Guidelines on Using AI Recording Devices in Classrooms (Lauren Coffey, Inside Higher Ed, June 24, 2024): Concerns about privacy and access mount as more colleges and students use the devices. Experts say the technology should be embraced using “common-sense” guidelines.
Generative AI and Postsecondary Instructional Practices: Findings from a National Survey of Instructors (Dylan Ruediger, Melissa Blankstein, and Sage Love, Ithaka-S+R, June 20, 2024): Findings from a survey of 2,654 responses from all sectors of higher education conducted in February and March 2024.
Campus Protests
Criminal Trespassing Charges Dropped Against 79 Arrested in UT [Univ. of Texas] Pro-Palestinian Protest (Lily Kepner, Austin American-Statesman, June 26, 2024): Travis County Attorney Delia Garza announced that there wasn’t evidence to prove the criminal trespass charges.
Manhattan DA Drops Charges Against Most of the Columbia University Protesters (Erik Ortiz, Daniel Arkin and Melissa Chan, NBC News, June 20, 2024): Of the 46 people charged with trespassing in connection with the building’s occupation, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office dismissed cases against 31 people largely due to a lack of evidence. Prosecutors told 14 others that their cases would be dropped if they avoid being arrested in the next six months.
Free Speech and Academic Freedom
A Dean Called for Silencing Harvard’s Faculty Critics. He’s Been Roasted (Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed, June 26, 2024): Lawrence D. Bobo’s argument that professors should face sanctions for inciting “external actors” to “intervene” at the university has been roundly lambasted. But it tapped into an ongoing debate: When is outside intervention warranted?
It’s Time for Progressives to Recommit to Academic Freedom (Tascha Shahriari-Parsa, The Nation, June 25, 2024): The same justifications we’ve used to restrict conservative speech are being used to silence us on Palestine. We need a different approach.
DEI
‘A Slap in the Face’: How UT-Austin Axed a DEI Division (Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 27, 2024): The 49 staffers thought their jobs were safe. Then they were summoned to a Zoom call.
Race on Campus: The Latest Weapon Against DEI – Bureaucracy (Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 25, 2024): To stamp out diversity work in higher ed, lawmakers are adding oversight.
The New Anti-DEI Bureaucracy (Maggie Hicks, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 21, 2024): Republicans believe DEI is so deeply ingrained in higher education that simply banning it is not enough. And so they’ve enacted a new layer of oversight and bureaucracy to monitor administrators’ and professors’ actions.
Future Imperfect
Jawboning: When Educational Censors Don’t Bother Passing a Law (Jeffrey Adam Sachs and Jeremy C. Young, PEN America, June 24, 2024): Censorship advocates have increasingly responded to this growing resistance to passing educational censorship laws by trying to achieve the same results without passing a law at all.
These 2 Utah Universities Are Eliminating All Cultural Centers – Going Beyond the State’s Anti-DEI Requirements (Courtney Tanner, The Salt Lake Tribune, June 25, 2024): The University of Utah and Weber State University are banning all cultural centers.
Extra Credit Reading
Managerialism as a Threat to Academic Freedom (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, June 27, 2024): Those with the power are using it to silence others. This trend goes back further than you may think and isn’t ending soon.
The Crisis of Civic Despair (Marilyn Cooper, Liberal Education, Spring 2024): Does higher education hold the remedy for society’s divisions?
How Colleges Can Prepare for a Chaotic Fall (Eboo Patel, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 21, 2024): Hint: It’s not all about free speech.
US Universities Are Reinstating SAT Scores. Experts Say It Will Exacerbate Racial Inequality (Melissa Hellmann, Guardian, June 20, 2024): After offering test-free admissions, some US schools are reversing course, claiming it will help under-resourced students – but critics say it will do the opposite.
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.
Steven Volk (steven.volk@oberlin.edu), Editor
GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning
Co-Directors:
Lew Ludwig (ludwigl@denison.edu)
Colleen Monahan Smith (smith@glca.org)