Transform Your Teaching

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Genny McDole who has an MEd in Instructional Design from Western Governors University. She gives a student perspective on competency-based education and shares how CBE has influenced her teaching practice.

Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover. Contact us at [email protected] with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.

Genny was drawn to CBE courses because of the flexibility it provided. During that season of her life, she needed a flexible option that fit their family, could be done quickly, and would fit within their budget. CBE allowed her to take as many courses as she wanted, access all the resources she needed, and show mastery of assignments at her own pace – unlike her experience in traditional education in undergrad.

Even though she was able to move at her own pace through the course, Genny noticed that she received feedback very quickly – sometimes within a few hours of turning in an assignment. Her coursework contained a lot of papers and research, and the feedback was detailed, filled with suggestions on how to improve and look at the content differently. In addition to the quick feedback, she noticed specifically the quality of the rubrics because they were clear, easy to understand, and provided her with exactly what she needed to help her demonstrate mastery.

Having experienced both traditional educational models and CBE, Genny suggests that the approach to education needs to be student-oriented and able to meet students where they are. It may involve a shift away from traditional models to something more supportive of student needs, like CBE.

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with (Ret.) Lt. General Loren Reno, Professor of Management and Senior Advisor to the Office of the President at Cedarville University. Check out the episode to hear how he uses servant teaching to encourage and inspire students.

Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover. Contact us at [email protected] with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.

General Reno’s goal as an educator is to serve. He seeks to inspire his students instead of attempting to control their involvement in the learning process since educators can intrinsically motivate students through inspiration. With this foundation, General Reno provides several traits of a servant teacher:

• Listening – listening to the needs of students both in class and outside of class. General Reno shares his cell phone number with his students to help alleviate potential stress students have over assignments or course content
• Modeling – modeling the content, modeling affirmation, modeling high standards, modeling leadership
• Encouraging/Giving feedback – inspiring students to do better through the feedback you give them in assignments and during class participation

All these principles are based on approaching teaching with humility. General Reno shares that there are several ways that pride can be a barrier for teachers to acting in humility. In order to overcome this obstacle, teachers should give attention to their students, rather than placing attention on themselves.

General Reno challenges educators to know the needs of students, meet those needs, and show students that they care. When students feel that an educator cares, they are more willing to engage with class sessions and the content.

Resources

We want to hear from our listeners, so we’ve launched a discussion on Flip – a video discussion platform. Join us with all your questions and reflections.

Join Transform Your Teaching's Flip discussion group: https://flip.com/e5ea081d (if it asks for a join code, use e5ea081d)

Generative AI Flip discussion: https://flip.com/84387b64

In this episode, Rob and Jared continue their chat about the use of generative AI in Higher Education with faculty from Tiffin University. They focus on how instructors can employ Generative AI in their day-to-day teaching practices. Contact us at [email protected] with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.

The rapid changes of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT makes keeping up with them challenging. To combat this challenge, instructors learn how to use these tools better through training in prompt engineering. At Tiffin, they have recently hired someone to assist faculty in incorporating AI tools into teaching.

The Tiffin faculty also shared about an upcoming webinar on using AI in courses and course design that they are hosting for faculty and graduate design students. AI has a wide variety of uses that range from getting ideas to create lesson plans to uploading a student paper and rubric and having it generate initial feedback that the instructor then reviews and revises before giving it back to the student.

They also talk about how generative AI is well-suited for academic work and course design because of its origins. It can help to write content for online courses in a neutral way. And it can be used for specific activities as well – revising assignments to be more authentic or creating better discussion questions.

Even with all these benefits, the introduction of generative AI can cause instructors to think, “what am I needed for?” It’s important to remember that AI is just a tool. These kinds of tools can help faculty focus on higher order issues and let the AI make initial evaluations on things such as grammar, spelling, and low-level content. Additionally, ChatGPT can create a good lesson, but the human input of an instructor is still needed to question its validity, relevance, and alignment to courses. And that element of humanity is still needed in education for the personal connection between educator and student. ChatGPT doesn’t have the experience and personality that an instructor would and cannot foster those kinds of relationships.

Resources

Design Statements - Tiffin University
The Ethics of Using Generative AI Tools - Tiffin University

How Can You Use Generative AI Tools at Tiffin University

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Dr. Jules White who has a Ph.D. in Computer Science and serves as Senior Advisor to the Chancellor for Generative AI in Education and Enterprise Solutions at Vanderbilt University. They discuss how instructors can help students become comfortable with generative AI and use it effectively. Contact us at [email protected] with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.

Dr. Jules White is excited about generative AI and sees it as a “new medium”—fundamentally transformative to how people live their daily lives. More specifically, Dr. White has seen AI’s impact in education. In his current position, he has been able to explore how to use it effectively in higher education through teaching prompt engineering. In these classes, he has seen others become comfortable using generative AI as they have found personal applications, such as analyzing data for lab reports. What would typically take days to do, ChatGPT could do in hours. All it took for those people to become comfortable with using generative AI was the personal connection and creative thought to apply it.

To use generative AI effectively:

1. Find ways of amplifying your own creativity (augmented intelligence), then practice.
2. Ask ChatGPT for three options, then choose one for yourself. This requires you to thoroughly engage with its responses.
3. Improve on what ChatGPT gives you. Consider everything from it as a “draft.”

Dr. White understands the hesitation around generative AI, but he recommends you deeply understand it before you dismiss it. It’s not beneficial to develop a culture of fear surrounding AI in education. Shape the conversation about how to use it effectively so students are prepared for the future where generative AI is widely integrated. Find examples and methods of using generative AI to make that personal connection with your students.

Resources

Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT

Innovative Teaching with ChatGPT

In this coffee drop, Rob and Jared are joined by Haisong and newbie to the podcast, Jason to discuss a potential usage of AI as a teaching assistant. If you have questions or comments, contact us at [email protected]. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.

Resources

How AI could save (not destroy) education