Generative AI: Resources from the GLCA/GLAA CTL session of August 24: Here is the link to the resource folder, which includes:
- Slides from the session
- Video recording of the session
- Links (among others) to:
- Ryan Watkins, “Prepare Your Students for Using ChatGPT and Other AI”
- Links to the New York Times newsletter on AI
- the Google Crowdsource document on syllabus statements.
- NEW: Link to Cut and Paste AI prompts for instructors from Cynthia Alby at Georgia College
We are genuinely excited about this learning journey for the semester ahead. Stay tuned for an upcoming GLCA/GLAA event in late October. This event will spotlight instructors discussing the breakthroughs and challenges they’ve faced when integrating generative AI into their curricula.
Start of Semester Planning
What a Cool Syllabus…But Is It Accessible? (Teresa Thompson, Faculty Focus, September 1, 2023): Thinking about accessibility in terms of access (i.e., for visually impaired), as well as relatable (i.e., easy to approach or understand).
Could Reflection Be a Key to Better Teaching? (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 31, 2023): Rather than using standard student evaluations of teaching, could encouraging faculty to reflect on teaching improve outcomes? McMurtrie discusses a project at Michigan State University.
5 Steps to Integrate Climate Action Into Your Courses This Fall (Karen Costa, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 30, 2023): The wildfires, heat waves, and floods that increasingly appear on our news needs are real. Small actions can be an antidote to despair.
Academic Success Tip: Add Syllabus Reading Assignments (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, August 14, 2023): Teaching students to read, reference and remember a course syllabus can be a challenge for many professors. Here are three strategies to encourage students to engage with their syllabus.
Teaching and Learning
Why the Emotional Aspects of Learning Matter (Angela Bauer, Inside Higher Ed, August 30, 2023): Confronting our discomfort with learning’s affective domain will help us deal with the widespread hangover of the pandemic that remains a barrier to students’ classroom engagement.
Using Mind Maps to Improve Assessment and Group Work (David N.C. Hull, Nicole Grewling, Katherine S. Maynard, and Martín Ponti, “Using Mind Maps to Improve Assessment and Group Work,” Faculty Focus, August 28, 2023): Mind maps were originally designed to improve creativity, organization, and critical thinking, allowing free association and loose connections. Our group hoped that the mind map’s focus on associations and connections would offer opportunities for learning that were particularly relevant to teaching cultural connections.
Now on the Orientation Schedule: Free Speech and ChatGPT (Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed, August 25, 2023): Once designed simply to familiarize students with campus and each other, orientation has become a forum for imparting information about some of the most pressing issues in higher ed. Article features ChatGPT session at Denison.
A.I. and Higher Ed
An Introduction to Teaching with Text Generation Technologies (Tim Laquintano, Carly Schnitzler, and Annette Vee, WAC Clearinghouse). An open-access publishing collaborative – WAC stands for “Writing Across the Curriculum” – released this collection designed to support writing instructors and other faculty who teach writing-intensive courses as they navigate the new landscape of generative-text technologies.
Supporting the Faculty Member Fearing Generative AI (Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed, August 30, 2023): The advent of generative AI has hit higher education with the force of an earthquake, deeply shaking many faculty members who have serious concerns for their careers.
I Secretly Let ChatGPT Take My Final Exam (Dan Arena, Slate, August 30, 2023): Spoiler alert: his students all did better than “Glenn,” the AI “student.”
ChatGPT Calls for Scholarship, Not Panic (Andrew C. Higgins, Inside Higher Ed, August 25, 2023): The truth is that we don’t really know (yet) how students are engaging with ChatGPT.
The End of the Take-Home Essay (Corey Robin, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 24, 2023): How ChatGPT changed my plans for the fall. NOTE: See John Warner’s response, We Must Still Make Students Write (Inside Higher Ed, August 23, 2023), as well.
No, ChatGPT Can’t Be Your New Research Assistant (Maggie Hicks, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 23, 2023): Just looks at what happens when you use it to find sources.
Webinars
The AI Revolution: Transforming Higher Education for the Workforce of Tomorrow (AAC&U, September 13, 2023, 2:00-3:00 ET): How can institutions of higher education adapt to meet the emerging needs of the workplace as AI becomes more commonly used? During this webinar, a panel of experts will examine the near-term effects of this rapidly developing technology on both the workforce and higher education. Free webinar; register here.
Politics in the Classroom: Who Decides? (Chronicle of Higher Education, September 14, 2023, 12 Noon ET). With senior reporter Emma Pettit and a panel of experts to discuss how this debate is affecting teaching, academic governance, and campus climates now, and what’s likely to happen next. Register here.
Extra Credit Reading
Measuring Higher Ed’s Benefits Beyond Earnings (Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed, August 30, 2023): A new report from Lumina Foundation and Gallup reveals a host of positive outcomes associated with going to college. Educational attainment is correlated with 50 out of 52 positive outcomes, including higher income, better health, better well-being, etc.
The Political Machine Behind the War on Academic Freedom (Steven Brint, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 28, 2023): How conservative activists use state legislatures to control what colleges can teach.
It’s Over: Higher Ed in the Rearview Mirror (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, August 24, 2023): What do we truly believe about higher education? (See, in conjunction: Sasse’s Preliminary Strategic Plan Includes Tuition Changes, Department Reductions, Garrett Shanley, The Independent Florida Alligator, August 23, 2023, and My University Might Cut Humanities. I’m Frustrated, Angry – and Afraid, Brian Broome, Washington Post, August 23, 2023).
Academia: Brain Surgery Versus the Filter (Timothy Burke, Eight by Seven Substack, August 24, 2023): If accelerating inequality is a problem, as the author argues, then higher Education needs to change the way that social capital operates inside its institutions and assumptions.
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)