Generative AI in the Classroom: A CTL Presentation. The CTL is excited to announce that Jennifer Hayward (Professor of English and Global Media & Digital Studies) and Caitlyn Deeter (Educational Technology Associate) at the College of Wooster will present “ChatGPT and Chill: AI Literacy and Next-Generation Student Empowerment” on Friday, November 10 at Noon (ET). Registration is required and can be found here. A link to the presentation will be emailed to registrants on Thursday, November 9.
CTL Survey: The CTL will be conducting a faculty-wide survey to better understand AI in teaching and learning at GLCA institutions. The survey intends to gain insights regarding GLCA faculty’s perceptions, use of, interest in, and attitudes towards AI. This information can significantly contribute to the CTL’s efforts to develop programming and enhance discourse. We value your input and hope you will participate when you receive the email request from your campus. The survey closes November 10.
Teaching and Learning
Interleaving Improves Learning for All Learners (Cindy Nebel, Learning Scientists, November 2, 2023): Interleaving is the idea that, while learning, we will learn more if we jumble up our review of similar materials, rather than reviewing one concept at a time in a blocked format. It has been shown to be effective in the laboratory and classroom, and for different types of materials.
Why Are We So Squeamish About Teaching “Skills? (Leonard Cassuto, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 1, 2023): Cassuto argues that while graduate school faculty have always preferred to teach content over skills, shifting that focus might just revive graduate programs. (The argument, we might add, would apply equally to undergraduate programs!)
Extra Credit in College Courses: Blessing or Curse? (Dunja Trunk, Faculty Focus, November 1, 2023): Weighing the pros and cons.
Teach Brain Science – With Zombies (Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, October 31, 2023): One professor gave his neuroscience unit the Walking Dead treatment to promote student success. Here’s what happened.
A.I. in the Classroom
Students Outrunning Faculty in AI Use (Lauren Coffey, Inside Higher Ed, October 31, 2023): A new study finds over half of students use generative AI, while more than 75 percent of faculty members do not regularly use the technology. (How about you? See CTL Survey information above.)
Institutional Responses to the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Crafting Institutional Statements Amid Conflict (La’Nita Johnson, Inside Higher Ed, October 31, 2023): Results of an analysis of dozens of university administrators’ statements conducted by the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University.
Israel-Palestine: ACLU Defends Campus Free Speech in Letter to Over 650 Colleges (Lexi McMenamin, Teen Vogue, November 1, 2023): The American Civil Liberties Union is urging university leaders “to reject calls to investigate, disband, or penalize student groups on the basis of their exercise of free speech rights.”
On the Bookshelf
Regan A.R. Gurung and Dwaine Plaza, eds., Higher Education Beyond COVID: New Teaching Paradigms and Promise (Routledge, 2024). The book highlights three themes: the need to explore different modalities of delivery for faculty development and instruction, to enhance the leverage of technology in course design, and to refine faculty development for holistic development. An interview with the authors at What Happens to Teaching After Covid? (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 2, 2023).
Fellowship Opportunities
The Nielsen Center for the Liberal Arts at Eckerd College is offering a workshop fellowship for early career faculty. The three workshop sessions over a yearlong program (fully funded travel, accommodations, and stipends) will explore teaching identity, student learning, and teaching in liberal arts contexts. Further information here.
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)