New from the CTL
Here are the slides from the August 28 presentation on AI, “No Robot Left Behind: AI and Our Fall Classes,” hosted by Lew Ludwig. Lew offers a useful compendium of other AI guides and resources here.
Also, check out the new content on the CTL’s website: “Strategies to Support Student Mental Health in the Classroom” offers the resources from the August 14 workshop by Jan Miyake and Angie Roles of Oberlin, including their slides, a recording of the session, and various other materials. You’ll find everything here.
Teaching and Learning
How Do You Use Our Book “Ace That Test: A Student’s Guide to Learning Better”? (Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel, Learning Scientists, August 30, 2024): The book, written for students in their final years of schooling or first years of college/university, has sections outlining the scientific methods the authors employ, give an overview of some things that are important to understand about mind and body before diving into studying, and a section on effective study strategies.
When to Resist Rule-Bound Teaching, and When to Embrace It (James M. Lang, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 29, 2024): Lang considers the arguments in Susan Blum’s Schoolishness: Alienated Education and the Quest for Authentic, Joyful Learning (Cornell, 2024).
Even More Problems With Grades (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, August 29, 2024): Josh Eyler, in a 48 minute podcast, asks why, if grades don’t measure what they’re supposed to measure, are we using them and putting so much pressure on them?
Zhuzhing Up Your Syllabus (Tony’s Teaching Tips, August 28, 2024): Now is the time to “zhuzh” up your syllabus, make it a little more organized, a little more friendly, and maybe … even a little snazzier?
What Does It Really Mean to Learn? (Joshua Rothman, New Yorker, August 27, 2024): A leading computer scientist says it’s “educability,” not intelligence, that matters most.
Declarations of Dependence: The Many Reasons Students Can’t, or Won’t, Work on Their Own (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 26, 2024): Many struggle to complete coursework independently. How can professors adjust?
Big Ideas for Upending Polarization (Education Week, August 26, 2024): A collection of articles including “The Brain Science of Outrage: What Teachers Need to Know” and “Intellectual Humility: What It Is and Why Schools Need It” – designed for K-12 classrooms but widely applicable.
Why Professors Can’t Teach (Jonathan Zimmerman, Washington Monthly, August 25, 2024): For as long as universities have existed, academics have struggled to impart their knowledge to students. The failing is fixable—if Washington demands it.
Concept Maps as a Teaching and Learning Strategy: Classification of Matter (Patrick Blessinger, LinkedIn, August 23, 2024): Concept maps visually organize how matter is categorized by its physical and chemical properties, enhancing student comprehension and retention.
Re/Designing Democracy: A recording of the AAC&U’s July 30 webinar hosted by their Institute for Democracy and Higher Education. During this hour-long webinar recording, you’ll become acquainted with Democracy Re/Designed, a national effort to encourage classroom and campus discussions about envisioning a democracy that works for everyone. The Democracy Re/Designed toolkit includes a free, downloadable conceptual framework, discussion guide, and institutional self-assessment tool.
How Student Experience and Belonging Interventions Can Support Strong Postsecondary Outcomes (Institute for Higher Education Policy, August 2024): Belonging and student experience are two key factors to student retention and completion, particularly for students from historically minoritized backgrounds, and investing in these kinds of interventions can help them get across the finish line.
All Things AI
Can AI Be Used to Cheat on Multiple-Choice Exams? (Lauren Coffey, Inside Higher Ed, August 30, 2024): A Florida State professor found a way to catch AI cheating on multiple-choice tests. He also found that ChatGPT got a lot of “easy” questions wrong.
AI and the Case for Project Based Teaching (Chad Raymond, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 26, 2024): In the age of ChatGPT, faculty members have no choice to adjust their course design from a focus on “what” to “why.”
Teaching and Learning with AI (Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, August 27, 2024): Inside Higher Ed’s new compilation, “Owning the Unknown: Teaching and Learning With AI” includes case studies, news articles and opinion pieces that explore this evolving technology and its power to help educators create the classrooms of the future—ones that could bring higher education closer its ultimate promise of greater access, improved student engagement and deeper understanding. Download the free booklet here. Register for a free webcast on these themes, to take place Wednesday, Sept. 25, at 2 p.m. Eastern, here.
Navigating AI and Assessments: Strategies for the New Academic Year (Heather Brown and Brett Christie, Alchemy, August 14, 2024): Slide deck, assessment examples, video recording.
AAC&U, Elon University Launch AI Guide for Students (Lauren Coffey, Inside Higher Ed, August 19, 2024): The organizations released their AI–U guide today, calling it a “student guide to navigating college in the artificial intelligence era.”
Mental Health Issues
Student Wellness Tip: Add Syllabus Policy on Mental Health Days (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, August 28, 2024): College students want their professors to have formal policies on mental health days. Here are some examples of syllabus language faculty members can use.
Fighting the Mental-Health Crisis Narrative (Alexander C. Kafka, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 23, 2024): Young people misunderstand everyday stress, say experts.
Back to School
How to Teach a Good First Day of Class (James Lang, Chronicle of Higher Education): An Advice Guide.
Making Memories on the First Day of Class (Donald A. Saucier, Noah D. Renken, Colleen E. Fulton, and Ashley Schiffer, Faculty Focus, August 26, 2024): The first day of class is a day on which we can nurture our students’ voices and promote their engagement and intrinsic motivation for learning.
A Faculty Survival Guide for the New Academic Year (Kevin Gannon, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 21, 2024): Four ways to approach what may be yet another “unprecedented” year in higher education.
Speech Issues and the Academy
College Speech Policies Are a Mess – and a Liability (Max M. Schanzenbach and Kimberly A. Yuracko, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 28, 2024): Inconsistent, ideologically doctrinaire guidelines are legally risky.
Academic Associations Face Critique for Political Statements (Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed, August 27, 2024): A new report from AEI adds to a growing wave of conservative criticism suggesting that academe should avoid taking a stance on contentious issues.
More on Academic Boycotts
In Defense of the AAUP’s Statement on Boycotts (John K. Wilson, Inside Higher Ed, August 29, 2024): The author opposes academic boycotts but supports the AAUP’s controversial new statement nevertheless.
Academic Boycotts Hurt Dissidents Most (Michał Bilewicz, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 27, 2024): An Eastern European scholar says the AAUP’s new policy is a mistake.
Affirmative Action
Lawsuit Targets McNair Program’s Race-Based Eligibility Criteria (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, August 30, 3034): The Young America’s Foundation, a national conservative student group, wants all students to be eligible for a 35-year-old federal scholarship program that helps underrepresented students attain doctoral degrees.
Cutting Race-Based Scholarships Blocks Path to College, Students Say (Meredith Kolodner and Joanna Hou, Hechinger Report, August 28, 2024): Many colleges cut scholarships after the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling, putting college access and lower debt burdens at risk for underrepresented students.
Campus Protests and the New School Year
Divest or We Will Defund: Pro-Palestinian Student Government Makes Good on Its Promise (Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 26, 2024): Student protesters are deploying new tactics to press administrators to meet their demands. [See, as well, At Michigan, Activists Take Over and Shut Down Student Government (Halina Bennet New York times, August 27, 2024).]
Extra Credit Reading
Customers in the Classroom (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 27, 2024): Students increasingly treat college as a transaction. Who – or what – is to blame?
Faculty Members Are Burned Out – and Technology Is Partly to Blame (Lauren Coffey, Inside Higher Ed, August 26, 2024): Almost half of faculty members nationally feel burned out because of their work—and a similar number (39 percent) felt emotionally exhausted, according to a report released Thursday by the College Innovation Network.
How America’s Billionaire Alumni Weaponise Elite University Donations (Andrew Jack, Financial Times, August 25, 2024): Clashes over Gaza have turned a spotlight onto governance at institutions such as Harvard and Columbia.
Elite Colleges Are More Diverse Than Ever. They’re Still Unequal (Anthony Abraham Jack, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 23, 2024): Living in the university’s blind spots.
What Young Democrats Have to Say About Higher Education (Joanna Hou, Hechinger Report, August 22, 2024): Top issues for attendees and student protesters at the Democratic National Convention included broadening higher education, protecting campus protest, and ensuring academic freedom.
Are Students College-Ready, or Are Colleges Student-Ready? (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, August 12, 2024): As pandemic-related learning issues become more prominent among incoming students, institutions of higher education can consider how structural barriers impact student success.
Future Imperfect
UNC Charlotte Shutters its Three DEI Offices Amid Demand for ‘Neutrality’ (Ginger Christ, Higher Ed Dive, August 23, 2024): The university said it is complying with a new systemwide policy barring institutions from having offices focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.
University Removes Dedicated Offices for Black Student Union, Safe Zone (Maven Navarro, The Crimson White, August 22, 2024): The Black Student Union at the University of Alabama has been forced to relocate its current office in the Student Center in compliance with Senate Bill 129; the center that provided LGBTQ+ support has been permanently closed.
On the Bookshelf
Dan Levy and Angela Pérez Albertos, Teaching Effectively with ChatGPT: A Practical Guide to Creating Better Learning Experiences for Your Students in Less Time (2024).
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)