We found 127 results that contain "undergraduate education"

Cook-Sather, A. (2020), Respecting voices: how the co-creation of teaching and learning can support academic staff, underrepresented students, and equitable practices. Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education Research. 79(5):885-901

Abstract: Analyses of how staff and student voices are, or are not, respected in higher education typically unfold in separate conversations. In this discussion, I use narrative analysis of several sources—primary research data, informal participant feedback, and participants’ published essays—to present a case study of how the co-creation of teaching and learning through one pedagogical partnership program brings the voices of staff and students into dialogue. The case study reveals how participating staff and students can develop voices that both speak respectfully and are self-respecting and that can, in turn, contribute to the development of more equitable classroom practices. I provide context for this case study by bringing together key points from literature on staff voice and on student voice, defining co-creation, describing the partnership program, and explaining my research method. The case study itself is constituted by the voices of staff and students who have participated in the partnership program. Drawing on staff words, I show how co-creation supports those staff members in developing voice through dialogue with a diversity of students voices; generating ways of discussing and addressing inequity; and constructing more equitable classroom approaches. Drawing on students’ words, I show how co-creation supports those students in developing voice by positioning them as pedagogical partners to staff and inviting them into dialogue with their staff partners; affirming that they can carry those voices into courses in which they are enrolled; and emboldening them to participate in ongoing conversations about the experiences of underrepresented and underserved students.

Check it out! One of MSUE's own was recognized as a Featured Educator here on the #iteachmsu Commons. Way to go Jackie Martin!

https://iteach.msu.edu/iteachmsu/groups/doing-the-work-featured-educators/stories/763

Good Mid-December Morning! Just came across a couple of interesting pieces about AI and how it will, can, and does already impact (higher) education. (In my best Rod Serling voice) For your hopefully copious downtime during Winter Break, I submit:

https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/why-ai-doesnt-worry-me-classroom-and-why-it-does

And the attached file of a May 2023 report from the U.S. Dept. of Education

Jingle-jingle!

Massive changes have occurred recently with regard to artificial intelligence (AI) and the ability of the public to generate novel text and images using AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT). Many in education are concerned with what this means for assessing student understanding: if a student can generate a novel, accurate essay on almost any topic, how will you assess learning from short-answer and essay assignments?

On 02/01/2023, a campus collaboration of the APUE STEM+ Ed@State, Enhanced Digital Learning Initiative (EDLI), Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation (CTLI), MSU Libraries, and MSU IT EdTech, hosted the "Symposium on AI in Education and Academic Writing". During the symposium, the basics of how AI works were shared and attendees had opportunities to play with some AI tools. The event provided opportunities to hear how faculty are addressing these challenges, discuss concerns and opportunities with colleagues, and reflect on individual teaching philosophies in the time of artificial intelligence (AI).

AI in the World Around Us

Check out this resource from aiEDU (the AI Education Project) a non-profit that creates equitable learning experiences that build foundational AI literacy, outlines the ways AI is "shaping our lives"; including specific examples in the following industries/disciplines: hospitality, legal system, healthcare, knowledge workers, manufacturing & logistics, arts & design, marketing, fashion, video games, content & entertainment, and autonomous vehicles.

You can learn more, and find adaptable tools and activities for educators, parents, and students at https://www.aiedu.org/

This article was shared in an academic group I'm a part of on a social networking site... it's framing is within the Canadian Higher Education setting, but the message about student mental health is relevant for all.

Here are a couple of thoughts from the article worth sharing if you can't take the time to read the entire piece:
"To fully understand the present crisis, one has to appreciate a fundamental and often overlooked fact: higher education is not what it used to be. Not only do we have a more diverse student body with equally diverse psychiatric needs, we also have an academic culture that has changed profoundly in the past six decades, making the university experience more stressful than it once was. The classic liberal conception of postsecondary institutions as places where young people take a kind of sabbatical from life—read the great books, engage in endless debates, and learn to see themselves as citizens—has given way to a new model, more narrowly vocational in focus."

"By prioritizing high achievers, Henderson argues, universities are selecting not only for diligent candidates but also for those who view scholastic success as central to their identities. For such students, a bad grade can be destabilizing. When that grade appears on an exam worth 80 percent of a final course mark, or when it comes from a harried teaching assistant who doesn’t offer in-depth feedback, students can feel like they are losing a game whose rules were never explained. Imagine being told all your life that you are ahead of the pack and that you must stay there, both to secure a stable future and to get a return on the investments that family members or granting agencies have made on your behalf. Then, imagine falling behind, for reasons you don’t understand, at the precise moment when staying on top feels more critical than ever before. Furthermore, imagine that you are contending with profound loneliness, past trauma, and financial insecurity, all while working a part-time job with the usual mix of erratic hours."

"Such stressors can lead to sleep disruption, irregular eating, and substance abuse—all of which correlate with mental illness—or they can trigger preexisting psychiatric conditions. They can deplete reserves of neurochemicals, like dopamine and serotonin, needed to sustain a sense of well-being, or they can flood the brain and body with cortisol, the stress hormone, which, in excess, can push people into near-constant states of anxiety, making it difficult to conceptualize daily challenges in a proportionate or healthy way. They can also lead to identity confusion and an acute sense of shame."

Inside the Mental Health Crisis Facing College and University Students by Simon Lewsen : https://thewalrus.ca/inside-the-mental-health-crisis-facing-college-and-university-students/?fbclid=IwAR12PokSFpCrBo1NmtpNYoGEohKf3csYHQc9X8LwFAdNPTtBF_zIRbEqwhs

AI Commons Bulletin 12/18/2024
Human-curated news about generative AI for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

🍔 Try This: Use AI to generate scenario examples

If you often use examples and scenarios in your lectures, AI can refresh them or generate new ones quickly.

BUT: Characters in gen AI scenarios can display a bias toward western culture. To mitigate, add this to your prompt “Ensure that the name used is gender inclusive and representative of a diverse cultural/ethnic background” (Mirowsky, 2024)

Learn More: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00844/suppl_file/ed4c00844_si_001.pdf

🧲 Google Releases New “Learn About” AI Tool

The tool “helps you explore academic topics & concepts.” The layout resembles a textbook, includes additional audio and video sources, and further topics are even organized by terms that Bloom’s uses under comprehension: Understand, Explain, Describe.

BUT: Learning is not saved. Once you close the page, the session is gone.

Learn More: https://learning.google.com/experiments/learn-about

📗 Syllabus Statements

Students want to know what is or is not allowed in using AI for a course:
1. No AI
2. AI Planning
3. AI Collaboration
4. Full AI
5. AI Exploration

Learn More: Perkins, M., Roe, J., & Furze, L. (2024). The AI Assessment Scale Revisited: A Framework for Educational Assessment (No. arXiv:2412.09029). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2412.09029

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My background in Scandinavian languages and literature keeps rearing its head in various ways after many years. Specifically,when it comes to folklore, magical tales, and perilous journeys toward maturation. In a way, I have become a pedagogical Ashland, of sorts, since coming to MSU in 2015. My journey, an ongoing quest if you will, has been in trying to find that one magical key, which will unlock the enchanted door to greater student interest and involvement in their general education course requirements.

Those of us who teach these courses know that, too often, many students view gen. ed. requirements as hoops to jump through. Something they must satisfy to graduate. Subjects that, they feel, have little to do with the real world, their intended majors, or envisioned careers. Scheduling and convenience more than genuine interest seem to be the determining factor for many students when they choose to enroll in such courses. Put the head down, muddle through, and get it done with as little effort as possible.

But there might be another way.

In my own ongoing quest to motivate and engage the students in my various IAH courses more effectively, I have come back to Bloom's Taxonomy again and again since first learning about it in the 2016-2017 Walter and Pauline Adams Academy cohort. More specifically, it is Bloom's Digital Taxonomy, revised by various scholars for use with 21st century students who exist in an increasingly digital world, that has been especially useful when it comes to designing assessments for my students.

For those who are interested, there are all kinds of sources online -- journal article pdfs, infographics, Youtube explainer videos, etc. -- that will be informative and helpful for anyone who might be interested in learning more. Just search for 'Bloom's Digital Taxonomy' on Google. It's that easy.

For my specific IAH courses, I organize my students into permanent student learning teams early each semester and ask them to create three collaborative projects (including a team reflection). These are due at the end of Week Five, Week 10, and Week 14. Right now, the projects include:

1) A TV Newscast/Talkshow Article Review Video in which teams are ask to locate, report on, review, and evaluate two recent journal articles pertinent to material read or viewed during the first few weeks of the course.

2) A Readers' Guide Digital Flipbook (using Flipsnack) that reviews and evaluates the usefulness of two books, two more recent journal articles, and two blogs or websites on gender and sexuality OR race and ethnicity within the context of specific course materials read or viewed during roughly the middle third of the course.

3) An Academic Poster (due at the end of Week 14) in which student teams revisit course materials and themes related to gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, and identity. In addition, students are asked to examine issues of power, marginalization, disparity, equity, etc. in those same sources and look at how these same issues affect our own societies/cultures of origin in the real world. Finally, student teams (in course as diverse as Film Noir of the 1940s and 50s, Horror Cinema, and the upcoming Contemporary Scandinavian and Nordic Authors) are asked to propose realistic, concrete solutions to the social problems facing us.


Anecdotally, student feedback has been largely very favorable so far. Based on remarks in their team reflections this semester (Fall 2021), students report that they enjoy these collaborative, creative projects and feel like they have considerable leeway to shape what their teams develop. Moreover, they also feel that they are learning quite a bit about the material presented as well as valuable 21st century employability skills in the process. Where their all important assignment grades are concerned, student learning teams in my courses are meeting or exceeding expectations with the work they have produced for the first two of three team projects this semester according to the grading rubrics currently in use.

Beginning in Spring 2022, I plan to give my student teams even more agency in choosing how they are assessed and will provide two possible options for each of the three collaborative projects. Right not, these will probably include:

Project #1 (Recent Journal Article Review and Evaluation)-- Powtoon Animated TV Newscast OR Infographic

Project #2 -- (Review and Evaluation of Digital Sources on Gender and Sexuality OR Race and Ethnicty in our specific course materials) Flipbook OR Podcast

Project #3 -- (Power, Marginality, Disparity, Equity in Course Materials and Real World of 21st Century Problem-Solving) Electronic Poster OR Digital Scrapbook.

Through collaborative projects like these, I am attempting to motivate and engage the students in my IAH courses more effectively, help them to think more actively and critically about the material presented as well as the various social issues that continue to plague our world, and provide them with ample opportunity to cultivate essential skills that will enable their full participation in the globalized world and economy of the 21st century. Bloom's (Revised) Digital Taxonomy, among other resources, continues to facilitate my evolving thought about how best to reach late Gen Y and Gen Z students within a general education context.

If anyone would like to talk more about all of this, offer constructive feedback, or anything else, just drop me a line. I am always looking for those magic beans that will increase student motivation and engagement, and eager to learn more along the way. Bloom's Digital Taxonomy has certainly been one of my three magical helpers in the quest to to do that.