Teaching and Learning
Weighing in on the Syllabus (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 11, 2023): At the end of the semester, Sarah Woulfin at the University of Texas, Austin, shared with her students a Google doc with a list of the weekly readings. Then she asked them to mark it up with comments, wanting to know what resonated or proved particularly relevant to them.
Being Authentically Approachable (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, May 11, 2023): Being human is being approachable.
Readers Respond on D Grades and Honors Programs (Matt Reed, Inside Higher Ed, May 11, 2023): What Reed’s readers had to say about two of his latest postings.
The Day No Students Came to Class…or Did They? (Sarah E. DeCapua, Inside Higher Ed, May 10, 2023): What began as a mystery to DeCaputa ended up with some classroom lessons learned, primarily for herself as an instructor.
Seize the Moment with ‘Call & Response’ Podcast Learning Practices (Brian K. Blackburn and Lukas E. Coppen, Faculty Focus, May 8, 2023): The authors offer six stages to the preparation of an educational podcast.
The Labor of Teaching and Administrative Hysteria (Elise Archias and Blake Stimson, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 5, 2023): When leaders usurp faculty expertise with kitsch social justice, students suffer.
AI, Tech, and Higher Ed
Why I’m Excited About ChatGPT (Jennie Young, Inside Higher Ed, May 11, 2023): 10 ways ChatGPT will be a boon to first-year writing instruction.
Higher Ed
Creating Higher Ed Experiences That Transform Lives (Key Podcast, Inside Higher Ed, May 10, 2023): The 33-minute podcast explores how to ensure that all learners have experiences in college that help them develop identity, agency, and purpose with the goal of improving their well-being 30 years down the road.
Five Things You Should Know About Connecting Democracy and the Curriculum (Crystal Harris, Connie Jorgensen, Laura Lovett, Soji Oakomolafe, Nancy Thomas, and Bridget Trogden, Inside Higher Ed, May 10, 2023): Multidisciplinary curricular connections to voting are often an under-utilized and under-funded component of the student involvement landscape. The authors offer five points to consider.
Why Republicans Are Targeting Professors’ Job Security (Monica Potts, FiveThirtyEight, May 11, 2023): State-level Republicans are doubling down on appealing to their base. The partisan divide between those who go to college and those who do not is one of the firmest divides in American politics today, and it has reinforced diverging attitudes about the value of higher education itself and the role it plays in American life.
Webinars
Academic Integrity and AI (Chronicle of Higher Education, May 16 at 2:00 PM Eastern): AI tools like ChatGPT allow students to pass off seemingly original work as their own. What do instructors and administrators need to know to thwart such cheating? Register here.
On the Bookshelf
Gayle Greene, Immeasurable Outcomes: Teaching Shakespeare in the Age of the Algorithm (Johns Hopkins University Press). One of the most resonant, heart-felt arguments for what teachers do and the meaning of the humanities that I have read in a long time. Come for the insights about teaching and stay for the Shakespeare. Or come for the Shakespeare and stay for the teaching. Either way, it’s an important read for a dark moment in higher ed. [If you want to see what Greene is challenging, you can do no better than College Going Is Changing; We Need Better Data (Joe May and Mark Schneider, Inside Higher Ed, May 12, 2023): The authors argue that we really need are better, more systematic data on the return on investment.]
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.
GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning
Co-Directors:
Steven Volk (steven.Volk@oberlin.edu)
Colleen Monahan Smith (smith@glca.org)
Charla White (white@glca.org)