Teaching and Learning

Authentic Assessments (Learning Scientists, July 12, 2024): A short annotated bibliography on authentic assessments.

Are Colleges’ Predictive Analytics Biased Against Black and Hispanic Students? (Christa Dutton, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 11, 2024): A new study suggests the student-success models widely used by colleges can wrongly predict that Black and Hispanic students will fail when they actually succeed.

How to Get Your Students to Read (Kerry L. O’Grady, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 10, 2024): Four ways to hit the reset button and inspire students to read course texts.

Giving an F for Recording Classes, Even for Students With Disabilities (Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed, July 10, 2024): A UCLA professor whose classroom hosts contentious debates says she’ll fail any student who records. She says it’s a matter of academic freedom. But does federal law allow it?

A Guide for Creating an Empathetic Learning Environment (Nancy A. Bellucci, Faculty Focus, July 8, 2024): Offers an explanation of the importance associated with creating an inclusive learning environment, describes design thinking, empathetic instructional design practices, the role empathy plays in the course design, and ways to embed inclusivity in the learning. 

All Things AI

What Is AI? (Will Douglas Heaven, MIT Technology Review, July 10, 2024): Everyone thinks they know but no one can agree. And that’s a problem.

Calling B.S. on the AI Education Future (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, July 9, 2024): The “queen of the internet” is full of something…

Animated AI TAs Coming to Morehouse (Lauren Coffey, Inside Higher Ed, July 9, 2024): The AI avatars – which can look like students’ professors – are intended to answer course questions 24-7.

How Will the Rise of AI in the Workplace Impact Liberal Arts (Danielle McLean, Higher Ed Dive, July 8, 2024): Experts predict that skills like critical thinking and creativity will be more coveted as artificial intelligence replaces some technical jobs.

Getting in Sync with Students About AI (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 5, 2024): McMurtrie describes one instructor’s approach to careful AI use in teaching. 

Congress and Higher Ed

House Republicans Vote to Overturn Biden Title IX Rule (Inside Higher Ed, July 12, 2024): The party-line vote followed a heated debate over the regulations, which strengthen protections for transgender students.

House Republicans Advance 2 Contested Antisemitism Bills (Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed, July 10, 2024): While backers say the proposals will help protect students from discrimination, Democrats and higher ed advocates say they’re aimed at punishing elite universities and international students.

The GOP’s Bad Faith Focus on Campus Antisemitism (Jonathan Feingold, Inside Higher Ed, July 9, 2024): The party’s assault on DEI only undermines the ability of colleges to address antisemitism.

Continued Fallout from Spring Protests

Columbia’s President Denounced Her Before Congress. Firing Could Be Next (Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed, July 12, 2024): Law professor Katherine Franke has long been outspoken in her support of Palestinians. Now, after House Republicans and her university president called her out in an antisemitism hearing, she faces potential termination.

Harvard Reduces Suspended Students’ Sanctions (Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed, July 12, 2024): Five student have had their sanctions reduced.

From the ‘60s Till Now, TV News Coverage of Large-Scale University Protests Doesn’t Look So Different (Lisa Fazio, The Conversation, July 10, 2024): The author considers how the recent televised segments of college campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza resembled images from other student movements in the United States – particularly the widespread campus protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Future Imperfect

Project 2024 Would Radically Overhaul Higher Ed. Here’s How (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, July 11, 2024): The sweeping conservative blueprint for a second Trump administration would dismantle the Education Department, privatize student loans and end all ongoing Title IX investigations. Critics say it’s a road map to authoritarianism.

Many Universities Are Abandoning Race-Conscious Scholarships Worth Millions (Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, Washington Post, July 9, 2024): In the year since the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions, colleges have walked away from scholarships with racial criteria.

Extra Credit Reading

GOP Platform: ‘Make Our College Campuses Safe and Patriotic Again’ (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, July 9, 2024): The Trump campaign and Republican Party want to get rid of the Education Department, preferring to “let the states run our educational system as it should be run,” according to the platform.

Is College Worth It? Poll Finds Only 36% of Americans Have Confidence in Higher Education (Jocelyn Gecker, AP, July 8, 2024): In 2015, the confidence level was at 57%.         

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)

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