Takeaways from CETLI Faculty Discussions of Teaching

Faculty discussed assignments, strategies, and common approaches to AI use, as well as their concerns moving forward, and the value of having students write to deepen their thinking. 

• Communicating with students is important. Students will be relieved if you have an AI Policy. Without a policy, students get anxious about whether or not other students are using AI.  
• Common teaching solutions:
  • Focus on the process of writing essays.
  • Require students meet with the professor to discuss ideas before writing.
  • Have students write short reflections in blue books in each class so they practice writing.
  • As a class, write an AI use policy as students seem more likely to follow their own rules.
• As you consider your assignments and your AI policy, ask yourself:
  • Is AI a tool or a shortcut?
  • How do we help students frame the value of AI in their learning?
  • How do we get students to value the thinking over the grade?
  • Time management – how can we do the work we need to do? 
  • How do we motivate and frame the work we give to students to move beyond the transactional model for course work?  

Research shows us that when students feel like they are in a room with people who care about them, they learn more.  Participants discussed practices and values for community building:  

• Purpose and context matter – think purposefully about how to create community and why you create community in a specific learning context. It is not enough to do a community building event on the first day; make community building a regular part of class. Consider: 
  • Having students talk in pairs before they answer difficult questions.
  • Getting students to work in small groups to solve problems.
  • Letting students be part of setting class policy.
• Every semester is different. This is going to be a semester where students have a lot of different ideas, and we need to learn how to work across differences. Be ready for some things to work and some not to.
• CETLI offers support for evaluations, which can help measure and change community building activities.

Faculty discussed how to identify promising students for research partnerships, setting norms and expectations, assigning manageable tasks, and structuring the experience to be mutually beneficial for faculty and graduate mentors as well.

• Partnering with undergraduates in research can be a win/win for scholarly productivity if the project is carefully planned and integrated into existing work.
• GPA/grades are not a reliable indicator of a student’s research potential. Be open-minded in seeking and inviting students from all backgrounds.
• Failure and frustration are a fundamental part of the research process, and teaching students to embrace this reality is essential for students to commit and persist. Design manageable projects that are suited to each students’ strengths, so they can experience small wins.