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The Chronicle of Higher Education Teaching newsletter - March 6, 2025.

Course syllabi are increasingly expected to serve multiple purposes for several different audiences. They walk through course policies and deadlines for students taking the course while also serving as a repository for a host of messages the instructor, department, or college thinks students should be reminded of. And in some states, syllabi must also be posted publicly online, meaning they provide an accountability function, too. How can professors make this document, which contains information written in different voices, intelligible to students?

From our own Associate Director Dr. Christopher Richmann and former ATL Graduate Fellow, now BU Grad, Dr. Ryan T. Ramsey.

The narrative around grade inflation would benefit from some historical perspective.

Marc Watkins at the Chronicle of Higher Education

Learning requires friction. Here’s how to get students to disclose and evaluate their own usage of tools like ChatGPT.

Beth McMurtrie at the Chronicle of Higher Education

“The conversation for us has been less about how do we radically reimagine things” says Myers, “and more about what are the right places in the curriculum to put touch points so that every student is going to get the chance to build these fundamental AI skills?”

Mike Perkins, et al., in the Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice (Vol 21, no 6, 2024).

The AI Assessment Scale (AIAS) empowers educators to select the appropriate level of GenAI usage in assessments based on the learning outcomes they seek to address.

Kat Ringenbach on H-Teach, "H-Net's network for history instruction in the university"

Part one kicking off a nine-part series on practicing cultural agility in the classroom.

Kristi Rudenga at the Chronicle of Higher Education online.

"The first day of class may be the most important hour for determining the success of your semester. In that hour, students form a lasting impression of the course, the subject, the classroom, the teacher, and one another.... Here, I offer a set of six ideas for activities to adapt, mix, and match as you design an inviting first day."

James M. Lang in a Chronicle of Higher Education Advice Guide online.

The first day of the semester sets the tone for everything that follows. Make it count.

"As you devise your plan of attack, these four principles can help you decide which activities and approaches will best draw your students into the course and prepare them to learn."

Beth McMurtrie in the Chronicle of Higher Education Teaching newsletter.

Takeaways from the University of Central Florida's second conference on AI: "Teaching and Learning with AI," July 22-24, 2024.

Episode 123 (July 30, 2024) of The Key podcast from Inside Higher Ed.

Discussions about the impact of generative artificial intelligence in teaching and learning are steadily moving beyond questions about whether and how students will cheat.

Dan Sarofian-Butin in the EduCause Review online.

AI is here to stay. How can we, as educators, accept this change and use it to help our students learn?

Kerry L. O'Grady at The Chronicle of Higher Education online.

Puzzled by your students’ seeming indifference, you may vacillate between blaming them and wondering what you’re doing wrong. But students’ not completing the course reading isn’t necessarily a personal attack on your teaching or your choice of texts. In fact, many of the reasons that students don’t read have to do with environmental and personal factors, not the instructor.

From the MIT SMR Connections, an independent content creation unit within MIT Sloan Management Review (sponsored content). Downloadable "strategy guide."

"This Strategy Guide examines current and future use cases for the responsible use of generative AI in higher education, describing the benefits and best practices as well as potential pitfalls to avoid. It also explains how institutions of higher learning can get started and achieve measurable results now while building strong foundations for future success."

A vintage message from Tomorrow's Professor, a newsletter hosted by Stanford University's Center for Teaching and Learning and produced by Rick Reis from 1988 to 2021. This entry comes from September 2015 and emphasizes helping students develop disciplinary critical thinking.

Beckie Supiano in the Chronicle of Higher Education Teaching newsletter.

Failure is part of life, part of learning, and a routine feature of academic careers. But to students — who’ve been conditioned to focus on their performance — that context can be hard to see. Without it, failure can be isolating and demoralizing.

Megan Sumeracki writing at The Learning Scientists.

A report on research into cold calling as a means to promote overt and covert retrieval, which aids in learning over no in-class retrieval.

"...we showed benefits of asking questions during class and having students covertly retrieve (relative to not asking questions at all). The way we pushed students to retrieve covertly? Cold calling!"

Eve Glasergreen writing in the News & Advice section for HigherEdJobs online.

From student petitions requiring that professors give trigger warnings on course syllabi, to debates about the responsibility of professors in alerting students about upsetting materials, this issue is pressing on educators' minds.

Jeremy T. Murphy at The Chronicle of Higher Education online.

Research shows students in active learning settings learn more even as they tend to believe that they are learning less and express dissatisfaction with active learning. Lecturing endures in college classrooms in part because students prefer that style of teaching. How can we shift that preference?

Beckie Supiano in the Chronicle of Higher Education Teaching newsletter.

Equitable teaching requires instructors to change their assignments and class activities to reckon with structural barriers.