• Educational Theories,  Podcast,  Teaching & Learning

    Transform Your Teaching: Designing Competency-Based Education Curriculum

    Reading Time: 2 minutes In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles continue talking about Competency-Based Education, specifically what the design process looks like in developing a CBE course. Check out this episode to hear about the different considerations when creating a CBE course and how that affects planning.  Podcast links Show notes Designing a Competency-Based Education (CBE) course is similar to designing a traditional course.  The goal is still to design with the end in mind—paying close attention to the course objectives and module objectives, how the assessments give students the opportunity to show mastery of the objectives, and the course content that prepares them for those assessments.…

  • Educational Tools,  Teaching & Learning

    Generative AI, In Practice: ALT Text, Part II

    Reading Time: 5 minutes Last week, we looked at some examples of alt text that Copilot generated for us and evaluated what we’d need to change before using them. It had done a good job with simple graphics, though the nuance of having elements faded more to the background and the meaning of that was lost on it. Copilot did not do a good job describing a still shot from a movie. But today, we’re going to look at this from a different angle – what can we do to help GAI create better alt text for us? Are there ways to prompt or feed it context to get drafts…

  • Educational Theories,  Podcast,  Teaching & Learning

    Transform Your Teaching: What is Competency-Based Education?

    Reading Time: < 1 minute In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles kick off a new series on Competency-Based Education. Check out the episode to hear the characteristics of CBE and how it compares with traditional educational practice.  Podcast links Show notes In traditional educational models, time is the constant and education is the variable. With Competency-Based Education (CBE) models, time is the variable and education is the constant. In the current educational landscape, CBE is commonly seen in apprenticeships and in trades. Typically, it involves an instructor coming alongside a student to help them achieve mastery of content.   Jared is currently apprehensive about CBE because it turns…

  • Educational Tools,  Teaching & Learning

    Generative AI, In Practice: ALT Text, Part I 

    Reading Time: 4 minutes Now that we’ve finished our series on Generative AI over on Transform Your Teaching, we wanted to take this opportunity to dive into specifics for some of the ways GAI can help speed along parts of your process.   CTL recently worked on a course project that included designing a lot of figures and graphics to be included in lesson pages – and each of those images needed to have alt text written for it. Now, I’m no stranger to writing alt text, and it isn’t the most complicated piece of work to do; but it can take a decent bit of time when you’re starting with…

  • Podcast,  Teaching & Learning

    Transform Your Teaching: A Conversation with (Ret.) Lt. General Loren Reno

    Reading Time: 2 minutes In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles chat with (Ret.) Lt. General Loren Reno, Professor of Management and Senior Advisor, Office of the President at Cedarville University. Check out the episode to hear how he uses servant teaching to encourage and inspire students.  Podcast links 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:  All these principles are based on approaching teaching with humility. General Reno shares that…

  • Podcast,  Teaching & Learning

    Transform Your Teaching: Behind the Scenes with Ryan Liming

    Reading Time: < 1 minute In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles chat with Ryan Liming, a member of the Transform Your Teaching team, to discuss some of the work that goes into producing the podcast. Transform Your Teaching is also using a new tool to hold asynchronous video discussions with listeners. Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover.  Podcast links 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…

  • Educational Tools,  Podcast

    Transform Your Teaching: Recapping Generative AI Applied

    Reading Time: < 1 minute In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles conclude the series on Generative AI and reflect on what they learned. Check out the episode to hear their top three takeaways. They also announce the launch of a new tool we are using to hold asynchronous video discussions with listeners. Join on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover.  Podcast links Show notes Jared’s takeaways:  Rob’s takeaways:  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…

  • Educational Tools,  Teaching & Learning

    Transform Your Teaching: Generative AI Applied with Dr. Jodie Penrod

    Reading Time: 2 minutes In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles chat with Dr. Jodie Penrod who has a PhD in Educational/Instructional Technology from Ohio University and is the Chief Information Officer at Marshall University. Check out this episode to hear how Marshall University has approached Generative AI and how other educators can use GAI to enhance teaching and learning.  Podcast links Show notes Marshall University has decided to embrace using Generative AI and harness it to fit their goals. Their advice for faculty in using GAI falls into three categories: open use, moderate use, and prohibited. They created these categories to provide a framework to get started.…

  • Educational Tools,  Teaching & Learning

    Transform Your Teaching: Generative AI Applied with Dr. Thomas White 

    Reading Time: 2 minutes In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles talk with Dr. Thomas White, president of Cedarville University. Check out this episode to hear about possible applications of Generative AI at Cedarville and in higher education at large.  Podcast links Show notes Dr. White sees how influential Generative AI will be on higher education and has explored it by using ChatGPT4 and plugins. While using the tools, he has found uses outside of education – recently using Generative AI to help book his family’s vacation. However, Dr. White’s main emphasis for Cedarville faculty is that they need flexibility and freedom to handle how GAI is used…

  • Educational Tools,  Podcast,  Teaching & Learning

    Transform Your Teaching: Generative AI Applied with Kim Woodruff 

    Reading Time: 2 minutes In this episode, Jared Pyles and Dr. Rob McDole talk with Kim Woodruff who is the Director of Instructional Design at Manhattan College. Check out this episode to hear about Manhattan College’s current experience with Generative AI and possible applications that instructors can try.  Podcast links Show notes Manhattan College’s approach to integrating Generative AI (GAI) begins with conversations with their faculty to reach them where they are at. They do not want to push for innovation too quickly, so they provide tips and tricks based on sound pedagogical ideas. Kim often encourages instructors to be experimental and use GAI to perform authentic tasks.  Manhattan faculty have…