UNESCO’s Quick Start Guide to ChatGPT and AI in Higher Education; with thanks to Melanie Booth for this resource
On 03/28/2023,
in accreditation, adjunct faculty, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), business, business side of he, career development, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, faculty, higher education, innovation, leadership, learning ecosystem, liberal arts, online learning, skills, strategy, teaching & learning, trends, United States, universities, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Which trends are on your radar? Fantastic resource for #HigherEducation about the changing ecology: Higher Learning Commission’s Annual Trends Report. https://t.co/Lzgph6u3lP
— Melanie Booth, Ed.D. (@boothmelanie) March 25, 2023
On 03/27/2023,
in 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, active learning, adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, education technology, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning theories, pedagogy, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, teaching & learning, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
On 03/18/2023,
in adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, colleges, community colleges, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty, future, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, pedagogy, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, science, skills, teachers, teaching & learning, universities, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
On the K-12 side of things:
6 Ways to Use ChatGPT to Save Time — from edutopia.org by Todd Finley
Teachers can use the artificial intelligence tool to effectively automate some routine tasks.
Excerpt:
In the paragraphs that follow, I’ve divided these tasks into the following categories: planning instruction, handouts and materials, differentiation, correspondence, assessment, and writing instruction and feedback. Welcome to the revolution.
Lesson plans: Ask ChatGPT to write a lesson plan on, say, Westward Expansion. The tool composes assessments, activities, scaffolding, and objectives. Want that in the form of problem-based learning or revised for a flipped classroom? ChatGPT can adjust the lesson plan according to your instructions.
I’m a high school math and science teacher who uses ChatGPT, and it’s made my job much easier — from businessinsider-com.cdn.ampproject.org by Aaron Mok; with thanks to Robert Gibson on LinkedIn for this resource
Excerpt:
- Shannon Ahern, a high school math and science teacher, was afraid that ChatGPT would take her job.
- But her mind changed after she started using the AI for class prep, which saved her hours of time.
- Here’s how Ahern is using ChatGPT to make her job easier, as told to Insider’s Aaron Mok.
On the higher education side of things:
Using AI to make teaching easier & more impactful — from oneusefulthing.substack.com by Ethan Mollick
Here are five strategies and prompts that work for GPT-3.5 & GPT-4
Excerpt:
But one thing that is not changing is the best way for people to learn. We have made large advances in recent years in understanding pedagogy – the science of learning. We know some of the most effective techniques for making sure material sticks and that it can be retrieved and used when needed most.
Unfortunately, many of these advanced pedagogical techniques are time-consuming to prepare, and many instructors are often overworked and do not have the resources and time to add them to their teaching repertoire. But AI can help. In the rush to deliver AI benefits directly to students, the role of teachers is often overlooked.
Teaching: What You Need to Know About ChatGPT — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie
Excerpt:
Digital literacy is more important than ever. Artificial-intelligence tools, and generative AI in particular, raise a host of ethical, political, economic, and social questions. Plus, this tech is soon going to be everywhere, including students’ future professions. (The technology behind ChatGPT, in fact, just got an upgrade this week.) Colleges need to figure out how to graduate digitally savvy students in all disciplines.
“The integration of technology into our lives is so pervasive that the restriction of education about AI to the computer scientists and the computer engineers makes no more sense than the restriction of taking English classes by English majors,” said Weber.
On 03/18/2023,
in active learning, adjunct faculty, adult learning, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, faculty, higher education, ideas, instructional design, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, pedagogy, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, skills, teaching & learning, universities, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
Designing Virtual Edtech Faculty Development Workshops That Stick: 10 Guiding Principles — from er.educause.edu by Tolulope (Tolu) Noah
These ten principles offer guidance on ways to design and facilitate effective and engaging virtual workshops that leave faculty feeling better equipped to implement new edtech tools.
Excerpt:
I share here ten guiding principles that have shaped my design and facilitation of virtual synchronous edtech workshops. These guiding principles are based on lessons learned in both my previous role as a professional learning specialist at a major technology company and my current role as a faculty developer at a university. In the spirit of James M. Lang’s book Small Teaching, my hope is that the principles shared here may prompt reflection on the small yet impactful moves academic technology specialists, instructional designers, and educational developers can make to create virtual learning experiences whereby faculty leave feeling better equipped to implement the edtech tools they have learned.
Somewhat relevant/see:
Evidence-Based Learning Design 101 — by Dr. Philippa Hardman
A practical guide on how to bake the science of learning into the art of course design
Excerpt:
As I reflect on the experience and what I’ve learned so far, I thought I’d share a response to the question I probably get asked most: what process do you use to go from an idea to a designed learning experience?
So, let’s do a rapid review of the four step process I and my bootcamp alumni use – aka the DOMS™? process – to go from zero to a designed learning experience.
On 03/13/2023,
in adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, culture, Daniel S. Christian, faculty, higher education, ideas, instructional design, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning theories, memory, metacognition / metacognitive skills, professional development, research, skills, teaching & learning, United States, universities, using teams, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
Teaching: A University-Wide Language for Learning — from chronicle.com by Beckie Supiano
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Last week, as I was interviewing Shaun Vecera about a new initiative he directs at the University of Iowa, he made a comment that stopped me in my tracks. The initiative, Learning at Iowa, is meant to create a common vocabulary, based on cognitive science, to support learning across the university. It focuses on “the three M’s for effective learning”: mind-set, metacognition, and memory.
“Not because those are the wrong ways of talking about that. But when you talk about learning, I think you can easily see how these skills transfer across not just courses, but also transfer from the university into a career.”
From DSC:
This reminds me of what I was trying to get at here — i.e., let’s provide folks with more information on learning how to learn.
Also relevant/see:
Changing your teaching takes more than a recipe — — from chronicle.com by Beckie Supiano
Professors have been urged to adopt more effective practices. Why are their results so mixed?
Excerpts:
When the researchers asked their interview subjects how they first learned about peer instruction, many more cited informal discussions with colleagues than cited more formal channels like workshops. Even fewer pointed to a book or an article.
So even when there’s a really well-developed recipe, professors aren’t necessarily reading it.
…
In higher ed, teaching is often seen as something anyone who knows the content can automatically do. But the evidence suggests instead that teaching is an intellectual exercise that adds to subject-matter expertise.
This teaching-specific math knowledge, the researchers note, could be acquired in teacher preparation or professional development, however, it’s usually created on the job.
“Now, I’m much more apt to help them develop a deeper understanding of how people learn from a neuroscientific and cognitive-psychology perspective, and have them develop a model for how students learn.”
Erika Offerdahl, associate vp and director of the Transformational Change Initiative at WSU
From DSC:
I love this part too:
There’s a role here, too, for education researchers. Not every evidence-based teaching practice has been broken into its critical components in the literature,
On 03/13/2023,
in adjunct faculty, business side of he, career development, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, faculty, funding / grants, higher education, IBM, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, online learning, policy, society, sociology, training / L&D, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
Challenging ‘Bad’ Online Policies and Attitudes — from insidehighered.com by Susan D’Agostino
Academic and industry leaders spoke with conviction at the SXSW EDU conference this week about approaches that impede educational access to motivated, capable learners.
Excerpts:
“It’s driven by artificial intelligence,” Barnes said of IBM’s training and reskilling effort. “It’s a Netflix-like interface that pushes content. Or an employee can select content…
…
The leaders discussed the ways in which colleges, policymakers, and employers might work together to help more Americans find or advance in viable employment, while also addressing the workforce skills gap. But some “bad” policies and attitudes about online learning undermine their efforts to work together, expand access and deliver outcomes to motivated, capable learners.
“Employers were saying, ‘We have job openings we can’t fill, and we want to work with the education system, but it is so unbelievably frustrating because they’re very rigid, and they don’t want to customize to our needs,’” Hansen said. These employers sought workforce training that could produce a pipeline of learners-turned-employees, and Hansen said they told him, “If you can do that, I’ll pay you.”
On 03/06/2023,
in adjunct faculty, career development, colleges, community colleges, face-to-face, faculty, higher education, online learning, pathways, United States, universities, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
As Colleges Focus on Quality in Online Learning, Advocates Ask: What About In-Person Courses? — from chronicle.com by Taylor Swaak
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
As colleges’ online catalogs grow, so too has the push to develop standards of quality for those courses. But are in-person classes getting the same attention?
If you ask many online-education advocates, the answer is “no.” And the solution, many say, is for colleges to adopt standards and policies that set consistent expectations for quality across all courses, whether they’re remote or in a classroom.
While decades of research and the pandemic-spurred expansion of online learning have helped demystify it, and build confidence in its efficacy, these advocates say the misconception lingers that remote education is inherently lower in quality than instruction in the classroom. And that stigma, they say, puts a magnifying glass to online ed, while largely leaving in-person classes to business as usual.
The focus instead, Simunich said, should be on a big-picture question: Is this a high-quality learning experience for students?
From DSC:
These are great points. I find them to have been very true.
Reflections of a College Adjunct After 31 Years — from insidehighered.com by Stephen Werner
We’ve proven over and over that there’s enough work to give many of us full-time positions, writes Stephen Werner, but things are moving in the opposite direction.
Four Pieces of Advice (emphasis DSC)
In closing, I offer the following recommendations:
- See the big picture. We adjuncts are workers in the gig economy. We are part of the new normal where so many jobs are on-demand, temporary work, with few or no benefits and no long-term security. Even with our M.A.s and Ph.D.s, we have much in common with workers at all levels, including the lowest-skilled workers.
- Make a serious effort to meet and talk to other adjuncts. …
- Unionize! Organize with your fellow adjuncts! …
- Start saving for retirement. …
The fact is that college and universities are totally dependent on us. They know it. We adjuncts need to act like we know it, too. We need to overcome our isolation and work together to have a voice.
How Mega-Universities Manage to Teach Hundreds of Thousands of Students — from edsurge.com by Robert Ubell (Columnist)
Excerpt:
One key difference at SNHU is how it hires faculty, relying on an academic army of about 8,000 adjuncts who earn $2,000 per semester for teaching an undergrad course and $2,500 for a grad course. Reliance on adjuncts, especially in online instruction, is a national trend. Today, gig faculty occupy about three-quarters of all U.S. college instructors. But Southern New Hampshire and other online operations depend even more on contingent labor than most of their traditional peers.
For colleges to depend entirely on an Uber-style instructional workforce may be financially prudent, but I argue it’s academically risky, with little continuity and no permanent faculty. It’s also exploitative, with instructors ending up in precarious work arrangements without living wages and benefits.
First Person: Why college matters for people serving extreme sentences — from opencampusmedia.org by Rahsaan “New York” Thomas
Excerpt:
For incarcerated people, the quality or success of a college program is often measured by recidivism rates. By that standard, Mount Tamalpais, formerly the Prison University Project, is a success. Its students had a recidivism rate of 17 percent compared to the 65 percent recidivism rate for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as a whole, according to a 2011 program evaluation.
Personally, I see education as the key to my success from behind bars. After getting sentenced to a term beyond my life expectancy I needed a path to redemption in the eyes of my mother, my sons, and society that didn’t involve going home. I came up with becoming a writer because my voice was the one part of me that was still free.