Chat GPT on Campus One Year Out: A View from GLCA Faculty
We’ve just had a year with ChatGPT in our lives, a year that has produced confusion, chaos, and conversations in much of higher education. Instead of examining the squeaky wheels in this debate, we sought to capture what faculty are doing and thinking about AI through a survey of over 500 Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) faculty from 11 institutions. The survey asked whether and how they used AI and on what platforms. You can access the survey in its entirety here: Chat GPT One Year Out.
But Wait! Here’s More on AI
The CTL’s Lew Ludwig (Denison) gave a TEDx talk on “AI: Today’s Dumbest Genius” which has just posted to YouTube. In his provocative exploration, Lew takes us on a journey from the basics of generative AI to its broader implications in education and society (Lew Ludwig, TEDx Denison U, February 3, 2024; 9 minutes).
The Benefits and Risks of ChatGPT for Education (Maria Radeva, The Learning Scientists, February 15, 2024): ChatGPT’s reported advantages and increasing influence on everyday life suggest that prohibiting its use might not be a practical approach. Instead, educators can benefit from examining ChatGPT’s impact on learning and teaching and providing regulations for its use.
You might want to check out the 2024 Educause AI landscape study, as well as Prompting Progress: Advancing Your AI Skills (Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed, February 14, 2024). Just in time, as OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) is getting a better memory. (Sigh; can I apply for a better memory???)
In a guest essay, the authors argue that as artificial intelligence takes over technical tasks, the human side of work — collaboration, empathy, communication — will become more valuable. Good lessons for what needs to be taught in higher ed. (The A.I. Economy Makes Our Humanity More Important Than Ever (Aneesh Raman and Maria Flynn, New York Times, February 14, 2024).
Teaching and Learning
Finding a New Angle: Testimonies Combat Toxic Perfectionism (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, February 13, 2024): Emory University leaders created an awareness campaign, pulling stories from administrators who have overcome obstacles to find hope, to teach students the value of resilience and reframing.
The Lasso Way to Formative Assessment (Chris Hakala and JT Torres, Faculty Focus, February 12, 2024): Throughout the Ted Lasso series, the amiable coach guides his players into various experiences requiring personal and collective reflection about their life goals. Not only does the formula make for some emotional character arcs, but it also serves as an important reminder for all educators, namely, that assessment can be transformational.
We Still Think Online Teaching Isn’t Real Teaching (Flower Darby, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 9, 2024): How to find meaning, purpose, and even a little joy in your asynchronous courses.
Engaging Students in Readings and Microlectures (Association of College and University Educators, April 21, 2020): An hour-long webinar discussing the variety of ways to keep students engaged in the content and help them focus their attention on what is most important: using guiding questions, preparing online discussion forums, developing skeletal outlines etc. Moderated by Kevin Kelly, academic director at ACUE, with experts Flower Darby (Northern Arizona University), Catherine Haras (Cal State LA), and Ludwika Goodson (author). (A tip of the hat to Scott Melzer, Albion’s Director of the Newell Center for Teaching and Learning, for bringing us this, and other ACUE resources, to our attention.)
Evaluating Teaching
Beth McMurtrie followed up her article on how teaching is evaluated — Teaching Evaluations Are Broken. Can They Be Fixed? (Chronicle of Higher Education, February 6, 2024) – with some comments from Lauren Barbeau and Claudia Cornejo Happel, co-authors of Critical Teaching Behaviors: Defining, Documenting, and Discussing Good Teaching (Routledge 2023) with some examples of how different institutions have rethought measurements of teaching quality, including:
*Appalachian State University: Teaching Quality Framework.
*Boise State University: Framework for Assessing Teaching Effectiveness.
*Indiana University: Identifying Pathways for Excellence in Teaching.
*The University of Kansas: Benchmarks for Teaching Effectiveness.
*The University of Oregon: Revising Teaching Evaluations
She also provided a link to the Bay View Alliance, a coalition of 25 U.S. and Canadian institutions have agreed to combine their efforts to transform the way teaching is evaluated at colleges and universities.
Curricular Battles
Where Will the Right-Wing War on Curricula Go Next? (Timothy Messer-Kruse, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 13, 2024): Civics education could be the next battleground for control of the classroom.
Webinars
“Keeping Low-Income Learners on Track” (February 29, 2:00 PM ET). A Chronicle of Higher Education virtual forum on learning strategies for supporting low-income students and improving retention rates on campus. Register here.
“Building Civil Campus Conversations” (March 5, 2:00 PM ET). Controversial speakers or protest can lead to conflict on campus. A Chronicle of Higher Education webinar discussing ways to de-escalate controversy and promote inclusivity. Register here.
“The New Landscape in Higher Education”: A Conversation with Dr. Mary Wright and Other Higher Ed Leaders on the Future of Educational Development (March 13, 3:00-4:30 ET). A panel will discuss Wright’s book, Centers for Teaching and Learning: The New Landscape in Higher Education. Register here.
Extra Credit Reading
Scholarly Groups Choose Between Speech and Silence on War (Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed, February 16, 2024): In the continuing debate over when, and how, higher education entities should comment on political issues like the Israel-Hamas war, disciplinary associations have received less attention.
Elite Universities Have Not Sacrificed Excellence for Diversity (Christopher L. Eisgruber, The Atlantic, February 13, 2024): Like most reactionary myths, handwringing about modern universities trades upon nostalgia from smart people who ought to know better.
The Loss of Things I Took for Granted (Adam Kotsko, Slate, February 11, 2024): Ten years into the author’s college teaching career, he found that his students stopped being able to read effectively. [Note: the author’s critique of what he calls “vibes-based literacy” (correctly called a “whole language” approach) rather than phonics as a cause of the decline in reading is, to be fair, a matter of intense debate. And, for a critique of Kotsko’s premise, see “Kids Today,” And Other Nonsense About Reading and Writing [p.i. (paul) Thomas, Radicalscholarship.com, February 13, 2024).]
Two articles on the “presidential voice,” when and how/if to use it in Inside Higher Ed on February 13, 2024: The Presidential Voice (Suzanne M. Rivera) and Constrained by the Presidency (Josh Moody).
Navigating Learning Loss and Changing Demographics in Education (WICHE Insights, February 2024): Students have been less likely to perform at grade level since 2019-20, the school year disrupted by the onset of Covid. About 44 percent of public-school students were behind grade level in at least one subject at the beginning of the 2023-24 year, according to a U.S. Department of Education survey.
Raging Bill (Reeves Wiedman, New York Magazine, February 12, 2024): Ackman’s fight against Harvard has made him the public face of a billionaire class anxious it no longer rules the world. (You might want to read, in conjunction, with Derek Bok’s book, noted below.)
On the Bookshelf
Derek Bok, Attacking the Elites: What Critics Get Wrong – and Right – About America’s Leading Universities (Yale). Bok, a former Harvard president, examines the current disputes involving admissions, diversity, academic freedom and political correctness, curriculum and teaching, and even athletics in order to determine which complaints are unsubstantiated, which are valid, and how elite universities can best respond to their critics. Reviewed in Inside Higher Ed by David Wippman and Glenn Altschuler (Can Higher Ed Avoid a Dire Future? February 16, 2024).
Dave Cormier, Learning in a Time of Abundance: The Community is the Curriculum (Johns Hopkins). Cormier, a pioneering figure in digital education, addresses the pressing question of how we must transform our learning approaches to thrive in an era of endless information and complex decision making. John Warner engages the author in a Q&A in Inside Higher Ed (Learning in a Time of Abundance, February 16, 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)