higher education

The Librarian: Can we prompt ChatGPT to generate reliable references? — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman

Lessons Learned

Always assume that ChatGPT is wrong until you prove otherwise.
Validate everything (and require your students to validate everything too).
Google Scholar is a great tool for validating ChatGPT outputs rapidly.
The prompt works better when you provide a subject area, e.g. visual anthropology, and then a sub-topic, e.g. film making.
Ignore ChatGPT’s links – validate by searching for titles & authors, not URLs.
Use intentional repetition, e.g. of Google Scholar, to focus ChatGPT’s attention.
Be aware: ChatGPT’s outputs end at 2021. You need to fill in the blanks since then.

Love it or hate it, academics can’t ignore the already pervasive technology. [McMurtrie]

On 03/11/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, change, colleges, community colleges, digital learning, disruption, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, student-related, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

ChatGPT is Everywhere — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie
Love it or hate it, academics can’t ignore the already pervasive technology.

Excerpt:

Many academics see these tools as a danger to authentic learning, fearing that students will take shortcuts to avoid the difficulty of coming up with original ideas, organizing their thoughts, or demonstrating their knowledge. Ask ChatGPT to write a few paragraphs, for example, on how Jean Piaget’s theories on childhood development apply to our age of anxiety and it can do that.

Other professors are enthusiastic, or at least intrigued, by the possibility of incorporating generative AI into academic life. Those same tools can help students — and professors — brainstorm, kick-start an essay, explain a confusing idea, and smooth out awkward first drafts. Equally important, these faculty members argue, is their responsibility to prepare students for a world in which these technologies will be incorporated into everyday life, helping to produce everything from a professional email to a legal contract.

“Artificial-intelligence tools present the greatest creative disruption to learning that we’ve seen in my lifetime.”

Sarah Eaton, associate professor of education at the University of Calgary

6 Tenets of Postplagiarism: Writing in the Age of #ArtificialIntelligence – In my 2021 book, #Plagiarism in #HigherEducation, I introduce the idea of life in the post-plagiarism era. Here I expand on those ideas.https://t.co/DGzelD9phc pic.twitter.com/hHej4e55zq

— Dr. Sarah Elaine Eaton?? (@DrSarahEaton) February 25, 2023

Artificial intelligence and academic integrity, post-plagiarism — from universityworldnews.com Sarah Elaine Eaton; with thanks to Robert Gibson out on LinkedIn for the resource

Excerpt:

The use of artificial intelligence tools does not automatically constitute academic dishonesty. It depends how the tools are used. For example, apps such as ChatGPT can be used to help reluctant writers generate a rough draft that they can then revise and update.

Used in this way, the technology can help students learn. The text can also be used to help students learn the skills of fact-checking and critical thinking, since the outputs from ChatGPT often contain factual errors.

When students use tools or other people to complete homework on their behalf, that is considered a form of academic dishonesty because the students are no longer learning the material themselves. The key point is that it is the students, and not the technology, that is to blame when students choose to have someone – or something – do their homework for them.

There is a difference between using technology to help students learn or to help them cheat. The same technology can be used for both purposes.

From DSC:
These couple of sentences…

In the age of post-plagiarism, humans use artificial intelligence apps to enhance and elevate creative outputs as a normal part of everyday life. We will soon be unable to detect where the human written text ends and where the robot writing begins, as the outputs of both become intertwined and indistinguishable.

…reminded me of what’s been happening within the filmmaking world for years (i.e., such as in Star Wars, Jurrasic Park, and many others). It’s often hard to tell what’s real and what’s been generated by a computer.

Where are the quality concerns for face-to-face courses, the (mis)use of adjunct faculty members, + other higher education-related items

On 03/06/2023, in adjunct faculty, career development, colleges, community colleges, face-to-face, faculty/staff, 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.

You are not a parrot — from nymag.com by Elizabeth Weil and Emily M. Bender

Excerpts:

A handful of companies control what PricewaterhouseCoopers called a “$15.7 trillion game changer of an industry.” Those companies employ or finance the work of a huge chunk of the academics who understand how to make LLMs. This leaves few people with the expertise and authority to say, “Wait, why are these companies blurring the distinction between what is human and what’s a language model? Is this what we want?”
…
Bender knows she’s no match for a trillion-dollar game changer slouching to life. But she’s out there trying. Others are trying too. LLMs are tools made by specific people — people who stand to accumulate huge amounts of money and power, people enamored with the idea of the singularity. The project threatens to blow up what is human in a species sense. But it’s not about humility. It’s not about all of us. It’s not about becoming a humble creation among the world’s others. It’s about some of us — let’s be honest — becoming a superspecies. This is the darkness that awaits when we lose a firm boundary around the idea that humans, all of us, are equally worthy as is.

Mixed media online project serves as inspiration for student journalists [Balmeo]

On 03/02/2023, in colleges, communications, community colleges, digital storytelling, higher education, journalism, media/film, multimedia, society, sociology, story, storytelling, surviving, United States, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web design and production, by Daniel Christian

Mixed media online project serves as inspiration for student journalists — from jeadigitalmedia.org by Michelle Balmeo

Excerpt:

If you’re on the hunt for inspiration, go check out Facing Life: Eight stories of life after life in California’s prisons.

This project, created by Pendarvis Harshaw and Brandon Tauszik, has so many wonderful and original storytelling components, it’s the perfect model for student journalists looking for ways to tell important stories online.

OPINION: Let’s pay more attention to colleges that educate the vast majority of Americans [Wollman & Wallis]

On 03/02/2023, in colleges, community colleges, higher education, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

OPINION: Let’s pay more attention to colleges that educate the vast majority of Americans — from hechingerreport.org by Julie E. Wollman and Jaquiline M. Wallis
It’s time to worry less about the elites and more about schools that are helping all kinds of students

Excerpt:

Certain evidence does indeed suggest that an elite institution can transform the lives of such students, although other studies demonstrate that elite spaces exacerbate marginalization. Notably, expanding the size of the entering classes at elite institutions would impact only a small number of students.

We can do much better than that. We should, instead, focus on addressing the needs of the other 95 percent of institutions that are actually educating the vast majority of college students.

The other 95 percent serve a diverse group, including older students, veterans and parents and caregivers. Students at the 95 percent are typically seeking an affordable education and are reluctant to take on debt for higher education.

They are also seeking convenience: a safe, economical way to get to campus or study online or in a hybrid format and a schedule that allows them to continue to work full or part time.

Teaching in an Age of ‘Militant Apathy’ — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie
Immersive education offers a way to reach students. But can it ever become the norm?

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

But as many students continue to exhibit debilitating levels of anxiety, hopelessness, and disconnection — what one professor termed “militant apathy” — colleges are struggling to come up with a response beyond short-term solutions. The standard curricula in higher ed — and the way it’s discussed as primarily a path to economic success — can exacerbate those feelings. Students are told the main point of college is to move up the economic ladder, so no wonder it feels transactional. And the threat of failure must seem paralyzing given the high cost of a degree.
…
Colleges try to counter that by telling students that critical-thinking and communication skills are important as well. “But that’s a pretty vague argument that isn’t obvious for students to internalize and motivate their behavior. So what you see then is widespread disengagement from the curriculum,” says Arum. “For educators like me, what’s missing is what education is about. It’s about psychological well-being and flourishing and growth and human development and encouraging a set of dispositions, attitudes and behaviors that lead to fulfilling lives.”

“In every context, the student needs to feel like they are driving, they are the ones managing their own learning,” says Immordino-Yang. Instead, students have come to expect “‘you tell me what to do and I’ll do it,’” she says. “We need to take that away. That is a crutch. That is not real learning. That is compliance.”

From DSC:
The liberal arts are so important. But at what cost? What are people willing to pay for a more rounded education? The market is speaking — and the liberal arts are dying. I think that less expensive forms of online-based learning may turn out to be the best chance of the liberal arts surviving in the 21st century. The price must come waaaay down.

And speaking of the cost of getting a degree, this item is relevant as well:

Colleges Fear Cost of Doing Business Will Become Much Costlier — from chronicle.com by Lee Gardner
Inflation, enrollment woes, and increasing intolerance of tuition increases have made this budget season especially difficult.

Excerpts:

In decades past, colleges might have mitigated precarious budgets by raising tuition, but that’s a hard row to hoe in 2023.
…
The public colleges most feeling the financial squeeze from lowered enrollments are regional universities and community colleges, which typically receive less state support per student than public flagship universities.
…
Inflation remains high, at around 6 percent, and the biggest worry that it presents for college leaders comes from upward pressure on wages, says Staisloff.

While the sky may not be falling for higher education, Staisloff says “the cloud ceiling keeps dropping and dropping and dropping and dropping, and that’s getting harder to ignore.”

Speaking of the cost of getting a degree as well as higher education’s need to reinvent itself, also see:

College Doesn’t Need to Take Four Years — an opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal by Scott L. Wyatt and Allen C. Guelzo
For many students, the standard bachelor’s degree program has become a costly straitjacket.

Employers value microcredentials but don’t know how to assess their quality [Natalie Schwartz]

On 03/01/2023, in colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, credentialing, higher education, real-world assignments, skills, training / L&D, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Employers value microcredentials but don’t know how to assess their quality — from highereddive.com by Natalie Schwartz

Dive Brief:

Although a majority of surveyed employers say they value alternative credentials, many also harbor concerns over assessing the quality of education and understanding the skills and competencies they represent.
That’s according to a recent survey of 510 employers from the University Professional and Continuing Education Association, also known as UPCEA, and Collegis Education, a technology services provider for colleges.
Despite their concerns, 23% of respondents said the greatest benefit alternative credentials provide are giving workers real-world experience. Also, 16% of respondents said alternative credentials help employees develop specialized skills and 13% said they improve performance.

It’s Not Just Our Students — ChatGPT Is Coming for Faculty Writing [Chrisinger]

On 02/27/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, colleges, community colleges, education technology, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, research, tools, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

It’s Not Just Our Students — ChatGPT Is Coming for Faculty Writing — from chronicle.com by Ben Chrisinger (behind a paywall)
And there’s little agreement on the rules that should govern it.

Excerpt:

While we’ve been busy worrying about what ChatGPT could mean for students, we haven’t devoted nearly as much attention to what it could mean for academics themselves. And it could mean a lot. Critically, academics disagree on exactly how AI can and should be used. And with the rapidly improving technology at our doorstep, we have little time to deliberate.

Already some researchers are using the technology. Among only the small sample of my work colleagues, I’ve learned that it is being used for such daily tasks as: translating code from one programming language to another, potentially saving hours spent searching web forums for a solution; generating plain-language summaries of published research, or identifying key arguments on a particular topic; and creating bullet points to pull into a presentation or lecture.

AI starter tools for video content creation — from techthatmatters.beehiiv.com by Harsh Makadia

Excerpt:

One of the most exciting applications of AI is in the realm of content creation. What if I told you there are tools to generate videos in mins?

Try these tools today:

Supercreator AI: Create short form videos 10x faster
Lumen5: Automatically turn blog posts into videos
InVideo: Idea to YouTube video
Synthesia: Create videos from plain text in minutes
Narakeet: Get a professionally sounding audio or video in minutes
Movio: Create engaging video content

From DSC:
It seems to me that the idea of a Trim Tab Group goes waaaaay back. And from an excellent teacher — the LORD.

Mark 2:21 — from bible.com

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse.”

So the idea of starting a small, different group that will grow into an amazingly large group of people may turn out to be the route that the invention of a new lifelong learning ecosystem will need to go through.

Why Faculty Must Learn to Swim in Other Waters — from insidehighered.com by Rachel Toor, professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University in Spokane.

Excerpts:

Academics, even with the best intentions, and especially if we’ve never left school, don’t realize that we’re all swimming in our own little pond.

Most faculty members continue to teach how they were taught. We focus on our disciplines. We indoctrinate students into academic conventions and genres. We sling jargon like short-order cooks. We ask students to write 20-page research papers—the likes of which few professions would ever require.

But how often do faculty members require students to create final projects that will help them get a job?

How many professors are adept at writing a one-page job cover letter? Or a one-page résumé?

From DSC:
I appreciate these great thoughts here from Rachel Toor. Besides helping students learn about networking (and actually putting those skills into practice), applying their research skills to finding good job/organization fits, write effective cover letters, etc., I think such real-world skill development needs to be integrated into the very core of what they are teaching. It needs to be integrated into the curriculum.

Reflections on “Why The Education Economy Is The Next Big Thing For The American Workforce” [Busteed]

On 02/22/2023, in business, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, Design Thinking, education, education reform, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, motivation, participation, passions, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Why The Education Economy Is The Next Big Thing For The American Workforce — from fastcompany.com by Brandon Busteed
How can integrating our educational system, our employers, and our job creators affect our modern economy?

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Though the economy and education have long been topics of top concern to Americans, we haven’t created strong linkages between the two.

The topics are more like two castles with a large moat between them. Yet there is nothing more important we can do as a country than to build the world’s most effective “educonomy,” which would seamlessly integrate our educational system, our employers, and our job creators.
…
All told, we collected the voices of close to 1 million Americans on this subject in the past year alone. And what we’ve learned is alarming:

Student engagement in school drops precipitously from 5th grade through 12th grade. About three quarters of elementary school kids (76%) are engaged in school, while only 44% of high school kids are engaged. The longer students stay in school, the less engaged they become. If we were doing this right, the trend would be going in the exact opposite direction.

From DSC:
I appreciated the imagery of the economy and education being like two castles with a large moat between them. I, like many others, also use the term siloed to describe our various learning ecosystems — PreK-12, higher education and vocational programming, and the corporate/business world (I realize I could also include those who work in other areas such as the government, but hopefully folks get the gist of what I’m trying to say).

But here’s the most disturbing part (albeit likely not a surprise to those working within K-12 environments):

About seven in 10 K-12 teachers are not engaged in their work (69%), and as a profession, teachers are dead last among all professions Gallup studied in saying their “opinions count” at work and their “supervisors create an open and trusting environment.” We also found that teacher engagement is the most important driver of student engagement. We’ll never improve student engagement until we boost teachers’ own workplace engagement first.

Our older daughter works in an elementary school where several of the teachers left prior to Christmas and more have announced that they are leaving after this academic year. For teachers to leave halfway through the year, you know something is majorly wrong!

I think that legislators are part of the problem, as they straight-jacket teachers, principals, and administrators with all kinds of standardized testing.

Standardized testing is like a wrecking ball on our educational systems -- impacting things like our students' and teachers' sense of joy, play, wonder, and motivation

I would think that such testing dictates the pace and the content and the overall agendas out there. I don’t recall taking nearly as many standardized tests as our youth do today. Looking back, each of my teachers was engaged and seemed to be happy and enthusiastic. I don’t think that’s the case any longer. Let’s ask the teachers — not the legislators — why that is the case and what they would recommend to change things (before it’s too late).

Brief reflections on “Does ‘Flipped Learning’ Work? A New Analysis Dives Into the Research” [Young]

On 02/22/2023, in adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, faculty/staff, higher education, instructional design, law schools, learning, Learning Experience Design, learning preferences, pedagogy, research, student-related, teaching & learning, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Does ‘Flipped Learning’ Work? A New Analysis Dives Into the Research — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young

Excerpt:

The researchers do think that flipped learning has merit — if it is done carefully. They end their paper by presenting a model of flipped learning they refer to as “fail, flip, fix and feed,” which they say applies the most effective aspects they learned from their analysis. Basically they argue that students should be challenged with a problem even if they can’t properly solve it because they haven’t learned the material yet, and then the failure to solve it will motivate them to watch the lecture looking for the necessary information. Then classroom time can be used to fix student misconceptions, with a mix of a short lecture and student activities. Finally, instructors assess the student work and give feedback.

From DSC:
Interesting. I think their “fail, flip, fix and feed” method makes sense.

Also, I do think there’s merit in presenting information ahead of time so that students can *control the pace* of listening/processing/absorbing what’s being relayed. (This is especially helpful for native language differences.) If flipped learning would have been a part of my college experience, it would have freed me from just being a scribe. I could have tried to actually process the information while in class.

Podcast Special: Using Generative AI in Education — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
An exploration of the risks and benefits of Generative AI in education, in conversation with Mike Palmer

Excerpt:

Among other things, we discussed:

The immediate challenges that Generative AI presents for learning designers, educators and students.
The benefits & opportunities that Generative AI might offer the world of education, both in terms of productivity and pedagogy.
How bringing together the world of AI and the world of learning science, we might revolutionise the way we design and deliver learning experiences.

Speaking of podcasts, this article lists some podcasts to check out for those working in — or interested in — higher education.

Also relevant/see:

Teachers: Treat ChatGPT as Your Assistant, Not Your Enemy — from by Maria Andersen

Also relevant/see:

Are librarians the next prompt engineers? — from linkedin.com by Laura Solomon

Excerpt:

Without the right prompt, AI fails to provide what someone might be looking for. This probably is a surprise to no one, especially librarians. If you remember the days before Google, you know exactly how this tended to play out. Google became dominant in large part to its inherent ability to accept natural language queries.
A small industry is now popping up to provide people with the correct, detailed prompts to get what they want when interacting with AI. The people doing this work are referred to as “prompt engineers.”
Prompt engineers aren’t just people who write queries to be directed to an AI. They also have tend to have a great deal of technical expertise and a deep understanding of how artificial intelligences and natural language can intersect.
Prompt engineers don’t work for free.

The above item links to The Most Important Job Skill of This Century — from theatlantic.com by Charlie Warzel
Your work future could depend on how well you can talk to AI.

Also relevant/see:

My class required AI. Here’s what I’ve learned so far. — from oneusefulthing.substack.com by Ethan Mollick
(Spoiler alert: it has been very successful, but there are some lessons to be learned)

Excerpt:

I fully embraced AI for my classes this semester, requiring students to use AI tools in a number of ways. This policy attracted a lot of interest, and I thought it worthwhile to reflect on how it is going so far. The short answer is: great! But I have learned some early lessons that I think are worth passing on.

AI is everywhere already
Even if I didn’t embrace AI, it is also clear that AI is now everywhere in classes. For example, students used it to help them come up with ideas for class projects, even before I even taught them how to do that. As a result, the projects this semester are much better than previous pre-AI classes. This has led to greater project success rates and more engaged teams. On the downside, I find students also raise their hands to ask questions less. I suspect this might be because, as one of them told me, they can later ask ChatGPT to explain things they didn’t get without needing to speak in front of the class. The world of teaching is now more complicated in ways that are exciting, as well as a bit unnerving.

Learning Ecosystems

Where are the quality concerns for face-to-face courses, the (mis)use of adjunct faculty members, + other higher education-related items

Mixed media online project serves as inspiration for student journalists [Balmeo]

OPINION: Let’s pay more attention to colleges that educate the vast majority of Americans [Wollman & Wallis]

Employers value microcredentials but don’t know how to assess their quality [Natalie Schwartz]

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