Voice comes to ChatGPT

AI-powered chatbots with voice assistant capabilities are transforming the landscape of academic teaching. These tools offer personalized, on-demand support for students while alleviating some of the workload for educators. By providing instant answers, explanations, and guidance, these AI assistants can enhance the learning experience across various disciplines.

Key benefits include:

• 24/7 availability for student queries
• Personalized learning paths
• Instant feedback on assignments
• Reduced workload for educators
• Accessibility for students with diverse needs

Ideas for use in Humanities:

• Language practice and pronunciation
• Historical figure role-play
• Literary analysis assistanc
• Essay structure guidance
• Cultural context explanations

Ideas for use in STEM:

• Step-by-step problem-solving
• Formula and concept explanations
• Data visualization assistance
• Code debugging support
• Scientific method guidance

By integrating these AI tools into academic settings, educators can create more engaging, efficient, and personalized learning environments for their students.

Here's more:

Teaching Tip: Navigating AI in the Classroom

There's no doubt about it, AI is here to stay. Savvy educators are accepting the inevitable and adding AI tools to their toolboxes with great success. Read Inside Higher Ed's Teaching Tip: Navigating AI in the Classroom to learn more.

AI has a place in most classrooms.

Chatting with Claude: Advice from a Chatbot

This response from Claude.AI gives me insight into tap into deeper level knowledge on the first response, without having to do interview-style digging to get to the truth of an issue:

As an AI assistant without perfect knowledge, I tend to initially provide broadly accepted guidance based on mainstream dietary recommendations, even if those are sometimes oversimplifications or don't account for nuances.

To get a more nuanced perspective upfront, here are some suggestions on how you could frame your questions:

1) Ask about specific contexts or qualifiers

"Are gyros with unprocessed, lean meat and fresh vegetables consistent with a healthy Mediterranean diet?"

This prompts me to consider the specific details rather than make broad claims.

2) Request an evidence-based view

"What does the latest scientific evidence say about the health impacts of saturated fat from unprocessed meat sources?"

This pushes me to go beyond generic guidelines and summarize the actual research evidence.

3) Note your existing knowledge

"I understand processed meats may be unhealthy, but what about from organic, unprocessed sources like a traditional gyro?"

Acknowledging your existing understanding upfront guides me toward addressing nuances rather than repeating basics.

4) Ask about criticisms or limitations

"What are the major criticisms or limitations in the research linking saturated fat and heart disease?"

This guides me to qualify claims and discuss areas of uncertainty.

Providing that type of context and specific prompts from the start would steer me away from making oversimplified claims and encourage a more circumspect, contextualized response. I'll try to apply this learning moving forward. Please feel free to push for nuance upfront in our future conversations.

It's easy to see that we're teaching each other as we go.

Back online with an AI mission

The UAH ETLC blog is being rebooted with a focus on AI and its impacts on higher education. Watch this space for announcements and opportunities to learn and network with colleagues using AI and related technologies for teaching and learning.

Today? We bring you the announcement of Gemini 1.0 by Google. Matt Wolfe, YouTube consultant on All Things AI covers the basics of how Google's new Gemini kicks ChatGPT-4's behind (and Claude's, believe it or not, in some instances).

Don't miss out on this major product announcement! And stay tuned.

 

Project STAK

Instructors can help their students develop the academic digital literacy, skills, and competencies they need to succeed with these free resources from the STAK Project in Denmark and OneHE.

From the STAK website:

The STAK Project was a 2-year project involving six higher education research libraries in Denmark and funded by DEFF (Denmark’s Electronic Research Library). The project consortium consisted of:

• The Royal Library, Aarhus University Library;
• The Centre for Educational Development and Digital Media, Aarhus University;  
• The Royal Library, Copenhagen University Library;
• Aalborg University Library;
• Aalborg University Hospital, Medical Library;
• VIA Library, VIA University College;
• KEA Library, Copenhagen School of Design and Technology. ...

The STAK Project was guided by three principles:

• Evidence-based research and expert collaboration 
• Cross-institutional co-development of activities and practices, and   
• Rigorous and consistent developmental methodologies and practices. 

• 

  Free illustration from Storyset.com

  
   

AI's dangers: real and imagined

"Experts who often focus on AI ethics aren't amused by this emerging open-letter trend.

Dr. Sasha Luccioni, a machine-learning research scientist at Hugging Face, likens the new CAIS letter to sleight of hand: 'First of all, mentioning the hypothetical existential risk of AI in the same breath as very tangible risks like pandemics and climate change, which are very fresh and visceral for the public, gives it more credibility,' she says. 'It's also misdirection, attracting public attention to one thing (future risks) so they don't think of another (tangible current risks like bias, legal issues and consent).' ...

'Certain subpopulations are actively being harmed now,' says Margaret Mitchell, chief ethics scientist at Hugging Face: 'From the women in Iran forced to wear clothes they don't consent to based on surveillance, to people unfairly incarcerated based on shoddy face recognition, to the treatment of Uyghurs in China based on surveillance and computer vision techniques.'

So while it's possible that someday an advanced form of artificial intelligence may threaten humanity, these critics say that it's not constructive or helpful to focus on an ill-defined doomsday scenario in 2023. You can't research something that isn't real, they note.

Synthograph generated by T.Olten using Midjourney 5.1

'Existential AI risk is a fantasy that does not exist currently and you can't fix something that does not exist,' tweeted Jeffries in a similar vein. 'It's a total and complete waste of time to try to solve imaginary problems of tomorrow. Solve today's problems and tomorrow's problems will be solved when we get there.'"

Read more:
Open AI Execs warn of "risk of extinction" from artificial intelligence in new open letter
arstechnica.com

ChatGPT (text) + Wolfram (computational) = AI of the future

I'm listening to this one several times. It's dense and technical, but this liberal arts major is excited! You are witnessing history being made! Why not participate in it?

If you'd like to talk about AI or any other topic related to teaching and learning, drop an email to helpdesk@uah.edu and request a consultation with one of our instructional designers or academic technologists. With all of the pedagogical resources and technology tools UAH supports, the world is your oyster!

AI: The Great Frontier

It's easy for anyone wanting to learn more about AI to feel overwhelmed by the tsunami of social media posts, articles, warnings, invitations, reassurances, and offers of services. Here is an aggregated list of over 100 FREE ways to learn more about AI—just pick one and dive in. You can't go wrong!

Watch for upcoming opportunities to join the AI conversation at UAH with opportunities to network with colleagues and crowdsource your challenges in the classroom and beyond.

Synthograph was generated by T. Olten using Midjourney 5

It's not what you think! AI concerns

"Academia really has to look at itself in the mirror and decide what it’s going to be. ...

So how does a writing instructor, or a professor in a writing-intensive course, reduce the likelihood that students will use these AI tools? Faculty members have already come up with several ideas. Flip your teaching so that seminal pieces of work are done in class. Focus more on multimedia assignments or oral presentations. Double down on feedback and revision. Ask students to write about topics of genuine interest to them, in which their voices come through and their opinions are valued."

AI and the Future of Undergraduate Writing

Chronicle of Higher Education

Transform writing assignments in the age of AI: 5 best strategies

While AI will be an inevitability in the classroom in the longterm, faculty need short term solutions for how to assess student's learning in a way that is measurable against their course and module learning objectives.

So what to do in the short term?

Check out "Transform writing assignments in the age of AI: 5 Best Strategies" and start there. There's a great free e-book that provides great in-depth dives into each of the five strategies it promotes.

It wouldn't hurt to reach out to the Instructional Design team at UAH by emailing helpdesk@uah.edu and talking it out through email or setting up a time we can meet with you and discuss in person or on Zoom. 

AI Generated image from Midjourney v5

FREE WEBINAR: AImpactED: The Impact of AI on Higher Education

What is AI? What is it not? How do we approach teaching with AI in mind? How do we prepare our students to live, work, and thrive in a world where AI technologies are proliferating at a rapid pace? Join team members from the Enhanced Teaching & Learning Center to discuss these questions and more in an introductory conversation about AI and its impact on higher education.

Join via Zoom at 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 22nd. Email helpdesk@uah.edu for a recording if you can't make it. 

AImpactED webinar Wednesday 3/22 at 3 p.m.

Spring Break: An Ode by a Bot

ME: Write me a humorous ode to spring break as written by a faculty member

CHATGPT:
Oh Spring Break, the time has come,
When students flee, and I am glum.
No more papers, no more tests,
Just sunny beaches, and endless rests.
While they're away, I'll grade their work,
And ponder why I became a clerk.
But don't you worry, I'll find joy,
In reading essays that I'll employ.
No more students to nag and nag,
No more questions that make me sag.
I'll get some peace, and some quiet too,
And maybe catch up on my to-do.
But let's be real, I'll miss those kids,
The ones who always keep me on my wits.
So here's a shoutout, to all my classes,
Have a great break, and don't forget your sun glasses!
And when you return, we'll get right back,
To learning, growing, and staying on track.
But for now, enjoy your time away,
And come back refreshed for a brand new day!

Celebrate Open Education Week with OpenStax (free download!)

It’s here again!

OpenStax is celebrating annual Open Education Week with a free download of a white paper OpenStax OER Guide.

Per OpenStax, “Open education is a community. This whitepaper begins with the basics surrounding open educational resources and then takes readers through an in-depth look at sourcing quality open resources, customizing content to fit student needs, and building in-house review teams.”

There’s a webinar this Thursday, March 9 at 10:00 a.m. CST. Register here (and from the page linked above). You’re also encouraged to sign up for their mailing list to stay abreast of developments and events!

For help creating OER or incorporating OER into your course content, email helpdesk@uah.edu.

AI in Higher Education (WCET)

WCET has also launched a great portal for issues around AI in higher education! This video is must-see!

AI for the Era Ahead

RESEARCH: Staying Relevant with AI-based assessment strategies

 

"Instead of a prescriptive approach to AI-assisted writing and plagiarism, assignments like this try something more proactive, allowing students to experience and then articulate for themselves the issues at stake. Furthermore, this approach moves students beyond antagonistic discussions of plagiarism to consider the potential uses of AI as a writer’s tool. As Grant Otsuki argues, there’s no putting the AI genie back in the bottle and little sense banning its use outright. Instead of teachers ‘pretending AI doesn't exist’ or treating it merely as an antagonist, Otsuki encourages us to bring it into the classroom: ‘it might be time to train people to write with AI’ (2020). What would that look like? While many writers are familiar with various assistive technologies, there are practically no examples for training writers with text-generating AI and language models like GPT-2. Thus, the research questions from my experiment also explore students’ strategies for AI-assisted composition. How might we write with these tools? What skills might writing with AI newly require? How does this challenge our assumptions about textual communication? And what potential risks and harms must we navigate? ‘Cheating’ offers a starting point, but it opens onto much more complex and consequential topics, from human and nonhuman agency to the threats of disinformation and algorithmic bias. Thus, the assignment moves students from a familiar ethical context (is this plagiarism?) to new ethical questions (whose writing is this? what effects does it have?) and to new forms of writing practice (can I collaborate with AI?). The resulting insights can join a much broader conversation about AI literacy, including whether or how we might ethically and productively work with AI.”

from How to cheat on your final paper: Assigning AI for student writing

AI is here, and your students are using it

There are so many resources and articles I'd like to post here to begin the conversation about AI in higher education. But let me begin with this tidbit to get things started.

ChatGPT: A Must See Before the Semester Begins is only the beginning. The ETLC at UAH is already on the case and happy to meet with any faculty or staff who would like to learn more or to get help with strategies for developing a relationship with AI and what that might look like.

The time is now.

AI is already here!

27 Interactive Examples to Help Learners Survive a Zombie Apocalypse #393 (Articulate)

 Full scoop here! Contact helpdesk@uah.edu ATTN: Zombie Apocalypse for more information and support providing interactivity to your course content!

Free graphics at Storyset.com

Plucked from Social Media

 Visualizations are brain magic!

Genetics explained with gummy bears

CourseGateway: Curated course content for Your Courses

Many faculty love the idea of Open Educational Resources (OER) but don't have the time nor bandwidth to evaluate all the options out there. Enter CourseGateway, a collaboration of Educause and Gates Foundation. 

Free illustrations from Storyset.com

If you teach at UAH and need assistance with any aspect of your course design or delivery, please email helpdesk@uah.edu to set up a meeting with an instructional designer. 

Digital Learning Offices Help Faculty Thrive in Hybrid Environments

The Enhanced Teaching and Learning Center is a great resource for any faculty who feels overwhelmed by the tools or workload facing them in 2022. Adam Stone discusses the importance of using the resources provided by the institution to make life easier and to enhance learner outcomes.

University departments provide professional development to help faculty teach effectively with modern digital tools. ... Panelists who contributed to EDUCAUSE’s 2022 Horizon Report likewise said that professional development for remote and hybrid teaching could have a major impact on learning outcomes. 

Check out ETLC's latest newsletter.

Sound familiar?

social media moment

 

RESOURCE ALERT • Every Learner, Everywhere

Every Learner, Everywhere is a great community for any educator to join to stay current and get free resources and professional development:

Every Learner Everywhere advocates for equitable outcomes in U.S. higher education through advances in digital learning.

Our mission is to help institutions use new technology to innovate teaching and learning, with the ultimate goal of improving student outcomes for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students, poverty-affected students, and first-generation students.

Every Learner Everywhere is a network of twelve partner organizations with expertise in evaluating, implementing, scaling, and measuring the efficacy of education technologies, curriculum and course design strategies, teaching practices, and support services that personalize instruction for students in blended and online learning environments.

Our collaborative work to advance equity in higher education centers on the transformation of postsecondary teaching and learning. We build capacity in colleges and universities to improve student outcomes with digital learning through direct technical assistance, timely resources and toolkits, and ongoing analysis of institution practices and market trends.

Check out the Caring for Students Playbook which has six specific strategies anyone can apply today. 

Free custom graphics at Storyset.com

 

OER & digital content spike in popularity with faculty during pandemic

Not surprisingly, a huge wave of new fans of digital content (and specifically Open Educational Content or OER) rode across the national and global landscapes as necessitated by the pandemic, which is itself still causing waves of disruption to daily lives even over two years after it began. Learn more at Inside Higher Ed.

Instructors’ awareness and use of open educational resources and their recognition of the efficacy of digital texts rose sharply this year, an annual survey finds.

 

Word of the Day: Intersectionality

Infographic alternative text

In academic contexts, recognizing intersectionality means accepting the multiplicity and nuanced layers of differences between your learners and colleagues even if they're not visible or recognizable. Many of us humans belong to multiple marginalized groups and have extra challenges on a daily basis. Offering unconditional positive regard and the benefit of the doubt goes a long way in achieving best outcomes for all stakeholders. Learn more about intersectional pedagogy.

Intersectional pedagogy asks educators to understand that identities and experiences compound on one another and to take those identities and experiences into consideration when developing curricula and in their teaching practices. (Every Learner, Everwhere)

Photo Credit: http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/10/04/issues-vs-identities-whats-better-for-progressive-social-change/

Free 1-Day Accessibility Summer Camp!

Join over 1,000 of your colleagues this Friday in a FREE one-day Accessibility Summer Camp packed full of ideas, tools, resources, and experts in Universal Design and ADA Accessibility in digital environments (think: Content and Learning Management Systems like Canvas or Joomla), social media, email, newsletters and ANY other way you have of presenting digital content. 

The event is free and celebrating its fifth anniversary! There's still time to register here but then be sure to follow the link provided in your receipt (or onscreen) to register for individual sessions—so many great choices!

Whether online accessibility and Universal Design are new to you, or you are already familiar with the landscape, there are sure to be plenty of takeaways for everyone. Please join us!

Free illustrations from Storyset.com

Motivation Pie with only 3 ingredients!

Free illustrations at Storyset.com

Need help designing a course or training that motivates learners to engage for their own benefit? Check out Pink's Three Elements of Intrinsic Motivation. It's a quick read and it hits home with some realities we all eventually need to face as learner-centered pedagogy establishes itself across educational landscapes as broadly recognized best practice.

The beauty of learner-centered teaching is that it can restore the faculty member's own motivation in their profession as they see the success of learners and the improvement of outcomes—and the spontaneous discovery and engagement that inevitably occurs when learner's voices are added to the development, curation, and delivery of learning content. 

Smithsonian Releases 2.8 Million Images Into Public Domain

This massive release of content into the public domain is a couple of years old, so they are probably much further down the timeline of getting all of the content online and available for any use or remix you can imagine!

From the SmithsonianMag.com website: 

And this gargantuan data dump is just the beginning. Throughout the rest of 2020, the Smithsonian will be rolling out another 200,000 or so images, with more to come as the Institution continues to digitize its collection of 155 million items and counting.  

 

 

Andrew DeLeon

Amazing humans show us time and again that we cannot judge a book by its cover, nor a person by their style of dress. This video never ceases to inspire great love and admiration for those who dare to look—and sound—different than the mainstream. 

Language, Power, and Identity [Educause]

This powerful insight into ethnic and racial identity comes with an Inclusive Language Guide that can be used on so many levels by stakeholders from every perspective to learn how to communicate with each other more effectively, more compassionately, and with greater respect for the dignity of all voices.

"What Are You?" Language, Power, and Identity [Educause.edu]

Free graphics available at Storyset.com

Alternate Realities: An Update

 Have you heard yet of XR or Extended Reality?

Extended Reality (XR) is a term that encompasses several technologies but also describes a spectrum of reality-changing methods including Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR). XR brings all of these ideas under a single umbrella.

Learn more at How-To Geek. 

Want to learn about using XR in Research? Check out Educause's XR webinar series ($299 for member institutions, which includes UAH!).

Download free graphics at Storyset.com

Zoom Whiteboard is real and it's spectacular!

Have you heard? Zoom Whiteboard is here and it's available now! 

This tool isn't just for synchronous online collaboration. There are implications for teaching and learning as well as program and personal collaboration across all communication modalities from the classroom to the lecture hall to the board room in a way that blends the 'here and now' with the 'then and later' seamlessly and with tools we already use! Learn more.

Educause 2022 Horizon Report is here! | Teaching and Learning Edition

It's here! And it's pretty frank and to the point. In addition to debriefing us on how we did collectively through the pandemic (and the news is mixed), there are forecasts, key technologies and practices, scenarios, discussion of the implications of what we know (and think we know), and and expert panel from around the globe. Lots to digest! 

The page includes the downloadable report as well as a recorded webinar and other editions of the Horizon Report for those curious about past issues.

Illustration from Storyset.com

UAH is a member institution of Educause and its employees can create a free account using their .edu email addresses for added member benefits.

'Stunning Level of Disconnection' [Educause]

Sound familiar? You're not alone, nor are your learners unique in their fading from the screens and from your academic radar. Educause research shows that's there are tangible albeit immutable causes of these disconnections, and they have nothing to do with motivation, engagement, nor learner/instructor ability. But there are measures we can take to help. Here's the full scoop, with background on the research. 

Open-Source Illustration by Storyset.com

UAH is a member institution of Educause and its employees can create a free account using their .edu email addresses for added member benefits.

Friday Funnies

Link to alt-text

 

Short & Sweet: The Educational Benefits of Microlectures & Active Learning

Short & Sweet: The Educational Benefits of Microlectures & Active Learning is a concise, detailed list of key points for consideration when designing a learning experience. Remember the Golden Rule? It applies in teaching and learning too! 

Free graphic from Storyset.com

Short on time? Here's the conclusion:

The goal of interspersing a microlecture with active learning approaches is to improve student engagement and learning performance when participating in online, hybrid, or face-to-face instruction. Empirical studies have shown that active learning approaches, such as combining pause points with interactive quizzes, tasks requiring written responses, or note taking, can improve student performance. Moreover, current education technologies support the creation of microlectures that incorporate evidence-based active learning approaches.

UAH is a member institution of Educause and its employees can create a free account using their .edu email addresses for added member benefits. 

What is your TPI? (Find out free!)

From the Teaching Perspectives website:

Why should I take the TPI?
The Teaching Perspectives Inventory can be useful and informative if you are:

• Preparing for a teaching evaluation
• Creating your teaching portfolio
• Reflecting on your teaching
• Researching teaching perspectives
• Curious about different approaches to teaching

Free graphic from Storyset.com

What have you got to lose? You can save your results, and there is a video and reference material to help you interpret, analyze, strategize, and realize your personal teaching perspective.

Would you like to discuss strategies based on your TPI with an instructional designer? Email helpdesk@uah.edu to request a Zoom consultation!

What Baby George Taught Me About Learning | Dr. Michael Wesch | TEDxMHK

Designing the New Normal: 4 E's with Ease!

“The pandemic has provided educators with unprecedented opportunities to explore blended learning and identify the practices and approaches that provide real and lasting value for students.” (Educause) 

Educause's Designing the New Normal addresses the emergent needs of learners as we cope with both trying to return to normal and realizing that it will never be the normal we remember from pre-pandemic years. It's a bit of a deep dive, but an easily digested quick read packed with tips and useful resources. 

Join ETLC staff weekly for open office hours with Instructional Designers and Academic Technology staff to discuss the new normal and what it means for you and your learners. Email helpdesk@uah.edu (SUBJECT: ID Team /need link) to request the Zoom link for the sessions.

NOTE: UAH is an Educause member institution so you can create an account at Educause for free using your UAH email address. Let us know if you have any trouble accessing the special members-only content by emailing the ID Team at helpdesk@uah.edu.

Brené Brown: Daring Classrooms

“When the ability to really be who we are becomes a realm of only the privileged, we have lost our capacity to create a school, a home, a country that we love. Period. …

You can create a culture of courage within a classroom that can be the only place a (learner) has to take the armor off his or her heart. The one thing that will kill it faster than anything else… is shame. …

Eight five percent of the men and women I have interviewed over the past fifteen years can remember a shaming incident at school that was so devastating that it forever changed the way they thought of themselves as learners. … Over 90% … can remember (an educator) who made them believe in their self worth when no one else did. … What does that mean?”

6 Ways to Help Students Get Started This Semester

This super groovy infographic hits the highlights, but if you've got a quick three minutes for explanations and ideas, check out the real article. 

Infographic compliments of OLTFaculty.com

Equitizing your Syllabus: 6 Tips from Faculty

 The new Every Learner Everywhere platform for professional educators is coming through in a big way with content and strategies targeted at improving our accessibility to minorities and persons with disabilities. Equitizing Your Syllabus: 6 Tips from Faculty is just the dip in the water your toe can take today in preparation for your next semester. Already there with all six tips? There's a resource linked to take it to the next level as well.

If you need help "equitizing" your syllabus or course or training, email helpdesk@uah.edu. Both faculty and staff are invited to contact instructional designers for assistance with any aspect of teaching and learning. 

Regular and Substantive Interaction Refresh

Just this past summer, the criteria for “regular and substantive interaction” required by accreditors has been updated on the federal level. Check out the details here. The TL;DR* version is this: there needs to be at least two interactions per week with classes in solely online environments in order to meet course certification and program accreditation standards. If you’re not sure what qualifies or need to tweak your course to meet these new standard definitions, reach out to an instructional designer by emailing helpdesk@uah.edu for a consultation.

*TL;DR is social media-speak for Too Long; Didn’t Read posts and usually are followed by a succinct synopsis. If not, it’s probably your post that was too long and it’s considered a diss.

‘Ask Me:’ What LGBTQ Students Want Their Professors to Know

This video answers a lot of questions, even some you didn’t know you had yet. 

 

Tips for collaborating with scientists, from a philosopher

 From the venerable Stephen Downes:

This is good advice for people crossing disciplinary boundaries generally, and not just between philosophy and science. Being inclusive, for example: “‘Enquiry’ and ‘research’ are inclusive terms because they apply to the arts and humanities as well as to science, and they acknowledge that there are other ways to know and experience the forest." Also, recognizing difference in outputs: “Artists and humanities scholars have different ‘units of work’ on which they are judged. Artists aim to put on shows and performances; philosophers and historians tend to think in units of books, in addition to research articles and chapters.”

"Reactable at Creators Series" by Alex Barth is licensed under CC BY 2.0

 

DILEMMA: Course Video Release: All at once, or one at the time?

Well, what do you think? Based on the experiences of one Jim Davies, the TL;DR* answer to this question is that it doesn't make much difference in outcomes, and that posting your videos all at once is more convenient for YOU. 

Want the details on how he arrived at this conclusion? Check out his post on University Affairs with the research he conducted prior to publishing his own perspective. From my perspective as both a learner AND an instructor, I can vouch that early and ongoing access improves outcomes. Nontraditional learners are especially vulnerable to schedule conflicts and benefit from open access to any learning materials as early and often as possible.

*TL:DR is cyberspeak for "too long, didn't read" and is usually followed by a one or two line synopsis for other readers. 

Why wait if learners benefit from early access?

 

TEDx London: You are Contagious! • Vanessa Van Edwards

This is the best practical advice and most profound insight that I have seen in a long time. Want to get the attention of your learners? Here's how!

Free Animation Support: TED-Ed

Have you ever watched the uber-cool educational videos at TED-Ed? 

They are mesmerizing, and cover a wide array of topics and fields of study. What you might not realize is that the TED-Ed folks are happy to assign YOU your very own extremely talented animator and then the two of you create a video to rival all the others on the platform in terms of professional quality video production and animation skills. Check it out. Wouldn't that be a great way to go viral? 

In the meantime, ANYONE is free to create “lessons”—a way of instructor-annotating, narrating, and visually framing the exceptionally high quality educational videos already in the TED-Ed library free for your use. Your lessons can be linked into your own courses either as core or supplemental content in support of your learning objectives.

For more ideas on how to use the content and services offered at TED-Ed, email helpdesk@uah.edu to request a consultation with an instructional designer. 

Six (easy) alternatives to bullet lists

The only thing worse than presentation slides with a full paragraph (or two!) of text on them is a slide deck full of bulleted lists! But how do we take our visual design of academic content a step further so that it meets the learner halfway? Connie Malamed has six tips for just this purpose!

UDL/ADA TIP: Remember that info-intense graphics like these are not easy to alt-text for learners with low vision who use screenreaders. Be sure to create a text alternative to the graphic and link it nearby, with reference to that link in the alt-text fields of the graphics you embed in lieu of bullet lists. 

If you need help creating interesting graphics for your course or training,  you can create a free Canva education account using your .edu email address to really spice things up! The free education accounts include all premium services and products. 

If you need more in-depth advice or strategies, email the Instructional Design Team (IDT) at helpdesk@uah.edu and we'll set up a time to talk about how we can help!

Random example of information expressed graphically rather than as a bulleted list

“My Mind Began to Wake Up”

“If someone seems like they can't or don't want to learn, look for the physical obstacle and remove it.”

Create an Environment for Listening

This tiny 3-minute read of a post packs NINE practical tips into a few paragraphs... and they're tried and true, guaranteed to bring at least one new voice to the table in your discussions.

For help with engaging your learners, email helpdesk@uah.edu ATTN: Instructional Design Meeting Request and we'll be happy to schedule a consultation with you!

"I'm listening" by Melvin Gaal (Mindsharing.eu) is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Radical Eyes for Equity: Moving from “All Students Must” to “Each Student Deserves”

If we think carefully about decoding and direct instruction in phonics and phonemic awareness, teachers will face a wide diversity of students in any class in terms of where they are in their reading development; in short, there simply is no situation where “all students must” serves students well.

Literacy is not simple, and literacy development is not linear, sequential, or systematic.

For example, most people do not accumulate vocabulary in order to be able to read, but develop their vocabulary by reading.

Read more from Radical Eyes for Equity: Moving from “All Students Must” to “Each Student Deserves.”

(Thanks to Stephen Downes for the heads up!)

Hearing our Learners

This video, ‘Ask Me:’ What LGBTQ Students Want Their Professors to Know, from a completely different source nonetheless pairs well with light read How to Become an Empathetic Listener, both great insights into the hearts and minds of our learners.   

Humanizing Your Course

“Humanizing Your Course” has taken learner-centered teaching strategies to a new level. You can read the background and context here, as well as create your own bookmark to the infographic below.

TRUST

• Asai, J. A. (2020). Race matters. Cell (181), 754-757.

• Cohen, G. L., & Steele, C. M. (2002). A barrier of mistrust: How stereotypes affect cross-race mentoring. In J. Aronson (Ed.), Improving academic achievement: Impact of psychological factors on education (pp. 205-331). Academic Press.

• Costa, K. (2020). 99 tips for creating simple and sustainable educational videos: A guide for online teachers and flipped classes. Stylus.

• Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.

• Estrada, M., Eroy-Reveles, A., & Matsui, J. (2018). The influence of affirming kindness and community on broadening participation in STEM career pathways. Social issues and policy review, 12(1), 258–297.

• Eyler, J. (2018.) How humans learn. West Virginia Press.

• Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. Teachers College Press.

• Glazier, R. A. (2021). Connecting in the online classroom: Teachers, students, and building rapport in online learning. Johns Hopkins University Press.

  
  

• Hammond, Z. L. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Corwin Publishers.

  
  

• Immordino-Yang, M. H. (2016). Emotions, learning, and the brain: Exploring the educational implications of affective neuroscience. W.W. Norton & Company.

• Jaggars, S. S. & Xu, D. (2016). How do online course design features influence student performance? Computers & Education, (95), 270-284.

• Kleinfeld, J. (1975). Effective teachers of Eskimo and Indian students. School Review, 83, 301–344.

• Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African-American children. Jossey Bass.

• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). How people learn II: Learners, contexts, and cultures. The National Academies Press. 

• Noddings, N. (2013). Caring: A Relational Approach to Ethics and Moral Education, 2nd ed. University of California Press.

• Pacansky-Brock, M., Smedshammer, M., & Vincent-Layton, K. (2020). Humanizing Online Teaching to Equitize Higher Education. Current Issues in Education, 21(2 ), 1-21.

• Pacansky-Brock, M. (2017). Best practices for teaching with emerging technologies (2nd ed.). Routledge.

• Pacansky-Brock, M. (2014, August 13). The liquid syllabus: Are you ready? [blog post]. https://brocansky.com/2014/08/the-liquid-syllabus-are-you-ready.html

• Palacios, A. & Wood, J. L.  (2015). Is online learning the silver bullet for men of color? An institutional-level analysis of the California Community College system. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 40(8), 1-13.

• Rendón, L. (1994). Validating culturally diverse students: Toward a new model of learning and student development. Innovative Higher Education, 19, 33-51.

• Riegle-Crumb, C., King, B., and Irizarry, Y. (2019). Does STEM stand out? Examining racial/ethnic gaps in persistence across postsecondary fields. Educ. Res. (48), 133-144.

  
  

• Shapiro, J., Aronson, J., & McGlone, M. S. (2016). Stereotype threat. In T. D. Nelson (Ed.), Handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination (p. 87–105). Psychology Press.

  
  

• Spitzer, B. and Aronson, J. (2015). Minding and mending the gap: Social psychological interventions to reduce educational disparities. The British Psychological Society, 85, 1-18.

• Seymour, E. and Hunter, A.-B., Editors. (2019) .Talking about leaving revisited: Persistence, relocation, and loss in undergraduate STEM education. Springer Nature.

• Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 797-811.

• Verschelden, C. (2017). Bandwidth recovery: Helping students reclaim cognitive resources lost to poverty, racism, and social marginalization. Stylus & AACU.

• Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

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• Wood, J. L., Harris, F. III, & White, K. (2015). Teaching men of color in the community college: A guidebook. Lawndale Hill. 

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References

How & Why to

HUMANIZE

YOUR ONLINE CLASS

version 2.0

Humanizing leverages learning science and culturally responsive teaching to create an inclusive, equitable online class climate for today's diverse students. When you teach online, it is easy to relate to your students simply as names on a screen. But your students are much more than that. They are capable, resilient humans who bring an array of perspectives and knowledge to your class. They also bring life experiences shaped by racism, poverty, and social marginalization. In humanized online courses, positive instructor-student relationships are prioritized and serve "as the connective tissue between students, engagement, and rigor" (Pacansky-Brock et al., 2020, p. 2). In any learning modality, human connection is the antidote for the emotional disruption that prevents many students from performing to their full potential and in online courses, creating that connection is even more important (Jaggars & Xu, 2016).

What is humanizing?

(Wood & Harris III, 2017, p. 41)

Humanized online teaching is supported by four interwoven principles:

• Trust: As an instructor, it is your responsibility to intentionally cultivate student trust, and one way to do it is by practicing “selective vulnerability” (Hammond, 2014) in the online community you build with your learners. Choose to share aspects of your life that portray you as a real person – tell a story about a personal struggle you worked through or record a video while cooking dinner or walking your dog.
  
  

• Presence involves intentional efforts to construct your authentic self through brief, imperfect videos to ensure your students know you are in this journey with them (Costa, 2020). Verbal and nonverbal cues add context to your communications, which is  important to support culturally diverse students.
  
  

• Awareness is achieved by learning about who your students are and how you can support them.
  
  

• Empathy requires you to slow down, see things through your students' eyes without judgment, be flexible, and support them towards their goals.

Research on men of color and first-generation students in community colleges has emphasized that "relationships before pedagogy" is a tenet of effective teaching (Palacios & Wood, 2015; Rendón, 1994; Wood & Harris III, 2015). Yet, when community college students learn online, they are less likely to experience rapport with their instructor and more likely to report needing to teach themselves (Jaggars & Xu, 2016). The lack of instructor-student relationships in many online courses exacerbates equity gaps. Humanizing intentionally cultivates a "welcomeness to engage" through trust, mutual respect, and authentic care (Wood & Harris III, 2015) before moving on to course content. Positive instructor-student relationships are leveraged to hold students to high standards, validate their effort and ability, and support them with achieving their goals. Students are more likely to lean in and apply themselves at a higher level when they know their instructor believes in them (Gay, 2000; Hammond, 2015; Ladson-Billings, 1994) and the same principles hold true in online courses (Glazier, 2016). 

"Students who often feel invisible and unimportant" – 

they need to be 'seen' and valued by educators.

The Principles

The Pedagogy

Humanizing intentionally creates a learning environment in which everyone is welcomed, supported, and recognized as capable of achieving their full  potential. This requires a commitment to becoming continuously aware of your unconscious bias and flattening the hierarchical structure of power embedded in White dominant culture. Instructors of humanized online courses recognize that students from non-majority groups are more likely to experience belongingness uncertainty (Walton & Cohen, 2007) and stereotype threat (Shapiro et al., 2016; Steele & Aronson, 1995). These phenomena disrupt the emotional conduits that steer cognition and, in turn, prevent students from performing at their best. Human connection allows students to feel safe by mitigating the psychological impact of stereotypes. With freed up cognitive resources (Verschelden, 2017), more students enter the Zone of Proximal Development where learning takes place (Vygotsky, 1978).

Mitigating the Impact of Stereotypes on Learning

Feelings of social isolation can worsen when students learn at a distance from their peers and instructor. To lower this barrier, humanized online courses incorporate kindness cues of social inclusion (Estrada et al, 2018.) into the “high opportunity zone” of an online course – the week prior to the start of instruction and the first week of a class.

The culture of STEM education offers a microcosm of inequity. Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students leave STEM fields at greater rates than their White peers, and this problem is worse in STEM than other discipline clusters (Riegle-Crumb et al., 2019). Traditional, deficit-based instructional paradigms have created a "weed out" culture in undergraduate STEM courses. An overwhelming majority of students who switch out of STEM majors cite poor teaching (96%) and competitive course climate (81%) as problems that contributed to their decision (Seymour & Hunter, 2019). Humanizing online STEM courses is not a fix for every problem in STEM, but it is a start to creating more inclusive learning environments that will also expand opportunities for students who do not have the privilege to be on campus.

High Opportunity Zones

Weeks 0-1

STEM

Teaching is a practice of continuous improvement. When we teach online, we may have a clear sense of the type of experience we want to cultivate for our students, but we may lack clear, practical steps to get there. The eight humanizing elements suggested below are offered as starting points for you. Try them. Adapt them. Make them your own and observe the results in your students' engagement and performance.

The 8 Elements

A Liquid Syllabus (Pacansky-Brock, 2014, 2017; Pacansky-Brock et al., 2020) eases pre-course anxieties with warm, nonverbal cues and hopeful language that demystifies what students need to know about your course to be successful in week one. It is a public, mobile-friendly website topped with your brief, imperfect welcome video.

Liquid Syllabus

by Sarah Williams, Foothill College

Learn more about a Liquid Syllabus

"I will be a partner in your learning."

In week one, have your students complete a confidential survey that provides you with microdata about their individualized needs. Be sure students understand it is for your eyes only and that you will support them throughout the course with what they choose to share.

In one word, how are you feeling about this class?

What is one thing that might interfere with your success in this class?

See a sample of a Getting to Know You Survey.

"I want to know how to support you."

Getting to Know You Survey

Learn more about Warm, Wise Feedback

Your feedback is critical to your students' continuous growth. But how you deliver your feedback really makes a difference, especially in an online course. To support your students' continued development and mitigate the effects of social and psychological threats, follow the Wise feedback model (Cohen & Steele, 2002) that also supports growth mindset (Dweck, 2007). Support effort + ability  + action. And deliver your message in voice or video to include verbal or nonverbal cues and minimize misinterpretation. 

Warm, Wise Feedback

"I believe you can do this and I'm here to help."

TRUST

STRESS

Anxieties are highest in week one and can undermine a student's ability to start a course successfully. To remedy this, invite students to participate in a low-stakes ice breaker that encourages reflection and sharing about their values (Walton, 2014). This real-world connection sends cues of identity safety, prepares students to engage in course content, and enables them to discover shared interests with their peers. Example prompt: Reflect on a value that is important to you, choose and object from your life that represents that value and share it with us. Use an asynchronous voice or video tool for an added humanizing kick!

Self-affirming Ice Breaker

"Your values and experiences matter here."

Exposing students to role models with like identities increases self-confidence and minimizes stereotype threat (Steele & Aronson, 1995) by changing the narratives students lean on to anticipate their challenges (Spitzer & Aronson, 2017). And engaging students in metacognition helps them to recognize their learning progress, increasing self-efficacy. Create a Wisdom Wall (Pacansky-Brock, 2017) at the end of a course by asking students to reflect back to the start of the course and identify something they know now that they wish they had known then. Then ask them to share that idea in the form of advice for your next group of incoming students. When your next course begins, share the Wisdom Wall with them in week one.

by Michelle Pacansky-Brock, Mt. San Jacinto College

Wisdom Wall

View an example of a Wisdom Wall

"Learning is a process of growth."

A bumper video is a 2-3 minute, visually-oriented clip that includes background theme music and is designed to introduce a new module or clarify a sticky concept. Sprinkle bumper videos throughout your online course to differentiate your students' learning and empower them to quickly and independently revisit key concepts and ideas.

by Brent Wedge, Modesto Junior College

Watch a bumper video.

Bumper Video

"I am here to help you learn."

Ensure your students are greeted with a clear, friendly homepage when they arrive in your course. Include a visual banner; a brief video that welcomes and tells them how to proceed; and a clear "start here" button that links to the first module.

by Sarah Williams, Foothill College

Humanized Homepage

"You are welcome here."

View an example of a humanized homepage.

Create a series of short (5-10 minute), laser-focused videos to guide your students through the comprehension of complex concepts. Before you record, identify one or two things you want your students to take away from the video. At the start of the video, tell your students what they will learn.

by Jeffrey White, Humboldt State University

Microlectures

"I am here to help you learn."

View a microlecture.

#HumanizeOL

This resource was created with funds from the California Education Learning Lab and is shared with a CC-BY-NC license.

Recommended citation: Pacansky-Brock, M. (2020). How to humanize your online class, version 2.0 [Infographic]. https://brocansky.com/humanizing/infographic2

The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning

I am going to cut straight to the chase, leave this here for your enjoyment, and encourage you to utilize your UAH Educause membership and get on those email discussion groups! 

Educause's The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning is absolutely required reading for anyone who is delivering courses or training online beyond the pandemic emergency measures we've experienced or may still yet as the pandemic drags on. Those faculty who complete the required QEPO (Quality Education Practices Online) program for course design and development often remark how relevant the elements of learning objectives, course alignment, formative assessment, and other aspects of their course development apply equally well and are just as successful if applied to on-ground or in hybrid models. 

If you'd like to discuss the design of your course regardless of its delivery modality, contact the Instructional Design team by emailing helpdesk@uah.edu SUBJECT: IDTeam with your inquiry. We'd be happy to meet with you one-on-one or design team workshops depending on your needs. 

[Welcome back, fellow Chargers! Have a great academic year!]

 

WEBINAR: Digital learning as a tool for social justice

Educause’s upcoming webinar “Digital Learning as a Tool for Social Justice” promises deeper insights into the complex ways that digital tools empower and engage learners. 

Research shows that student performance in gateway courses is a direct predictor of retention and student success. However, Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other minoritized student groups have historically been underserved in these courses, resulting in higher (drop/fail/withdraw) rates and lower retention rates for these students. Digital learning can be a catalyst for improving course outcomes for historically minoritized students, but instructors also need awareness and tools to address the affective, interpersonal, and situational challenges that Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other minoritized student groups experience. In this session, (the presenter) will share strategies for faculty and institutional leaders for digital learning transformation at scale that centers on equity and racial justice. (Educause)

The webinar is free for UAH employees and those of other Educause member institutions, and an affordable $79 for freelancers. Educause webinars are among the best in the field for adding unique perspectives and insights to issues we grapple with on an ongoing basis. See you there!