Reading Time: < 1 minute In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles explore a generative AI tool called “Whisper” through asking it to play the role of “guest” on the podcast. Check out the episode to hear the conversation and strategies Whisper provides for teaching and learning. Podcast links Show notes Jared and Rob explore the capabilities of a generative AI tool created by OpenAI called “Whisper.” According to OpenAI, it is “an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system trained on 680,000 hours of multilingual and multitask supervised data collected from the web.” To showcase its capabilities, Rob and Jared create a prompt for Whisper to act as a…
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Transform Your Teaching: Generative AI Applied – Introduction
Reading Time: 1 minute In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles start a new series on generative AI and its practical usage in higher education. Check out the episode to hear a general overview of generative AI models and possible ways that instructors can begin using these models in their teaching. Podcast links Show notes Generative AI Language models are designed to process large amounts of information and are trained to understand and generate text like a human through a vast amount of data, including books, websites, and articles. In many ways, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has become synonymous with generative AI, however, a wide variety of generative AI models…
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Alicia McCartney: Using Google Slides for Classroom Collaboration
Reading Time: 3 minutes Perhaps you already leverage small group discussions to powerfully engage your students in the classroom. Or, perhaps, like me, you’ve wondered: How do I push students towards more specific, quality discussion answers? In this post, I’ll share how I’ve used collaborative Google Slides in the classroom to encourage students to actively engage in analysis and problem-solving. Why use digital collaboration for discussions? I began implementing small group student discussions in the classroom during my first year of graduate teaching after reading Stephen D. Brookfield and Stephen Preskill’s Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms (2nd ed., 2005). Brookfield and Preskill’s classic…
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Transform Your Teaching: Building a Community of Inquiry for Effective Online Learning – Adapting to Online Learning and Future Outlook
Reading Time: < 1 minute In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles conclude our series on the Community of Inquiry framework. Check out the episode to hear their discussion on the future of online learning in higher education. Podcast links Show notes Building on the Community of Inquiry framework, Jared and Rob emphasize the importance of constructing an online course that is well-designed. They encourage frequent communication between instructors and students in an online setting and suggest strategies such as using video feedback and monitoring student engagement to ensure effective communication. As Rob thinks about the future, he emphasizes the potential of AI in online learning, citing examples…
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AECT Reflection: Rob McDole on Seize the DAI
Reading Time: 2 minutes Like my colleagues, I spent three days at the AECT conference. I had contemplated not going because of mental fatigue. But I decided David Wiley—Chief Academic Officer for Lumen Learning and former president of AECT—may have something interesting to say about AI. As I approached his session, it was standing room only. Attendees filled the seats and others stood in the back and in the doorways. I found a table right outside and put my headphones in and joined the Zoom session from my iPad. I felt a little like Zacchaeus. From the start, the session was different from what Mr. Wiley had originally planned. He…
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Canvas Update: New Quizzes Can Build on Last Attempt
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canvas has allowed instructors to give students multiple attempts on quizzes for a while, but they recently modified this feature. Now, Canvas allows instructors to choose whether a student must re-do the entire quiz in subsequent attempts or if they only need to answer questions they had previously gotten wrong. Accessing this feature This feature is already live in Canvas and can be accessed in the settings page for a New Quiz. Toggle “allow multiple attempts” on, then check the box for “Build on last attempt.” When this feature is enabled, students can reattempt questions until they either get it correct or run out of allowed…
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Canvas Update: Canvas Links
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canvas is improving how linking works throughout courses. One of these changes that we’ll be talking about has already been implemented, but the other two have yet to be released. Course link sidebar displays name of current link The first change Canvas has made is already present in your courses. Previously, if you wanted to change a link that you’d already added to the Rich Content Editor, it was faster to just remove the link entirely and create a new link. Now, Canvas has made it simple to replace the link – and it shows the name of whatever you currently have linked in the sidebar. To…
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Transform Your Teaching: A Conversation with Professor Jeff Simon
Reading Time: 2 minutes In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles talk with Jeff Simon, Associate Professor and Assistant Chair of the Department of Communication at Cedarville University. Check out this episode to hear about student learning, creative assessments, and tech integration. Podcast links Show notes Professor Simon shares how he has adjusted his teaching practice over his 13 years in higher education to match the learning needs of his students. He creates more open-ended assignments focused on concepts and processes so students obtain a set of tools that will aid them to be creative problem solvers. In this process, he assesses students based on their proposed solution so…
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Transform Your Teaching: Adopt, Adapt or A(d)bandon
Reading Time: < 1 minute In this episode, Rob and Jared discuss options for implementing ChatGPT into instruction. They share some questions educators can ask to help them make their own decision. Check out the episode to hear how they would include ChatGPT. Podcast links Show notes Rob and Jared propose three options for using ChatGPT in instruction: Jared and Rob agree that “Adapt” fits best for how they would use ChatGPT in instruction. For educators considering how they will use ChatGPT, Rob and Jared recommend considering teaching style, needs of students, resources available (accessibility), and their personal comfort level with technology. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. We would love…
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Transform Your Teaching: Education in the Age of AI – Professor Roundtable, Part II
Reading Time: < 1 minute In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole continues his conversation with Jared Pyles, Dr. Chris Miller, and Dr. Dan Sterkenburg about ChatGPT and OpenAI. Check it out to hear the panelists discuss challenges with student usage of ChatGPT, resources the tool can provide, and potential policies that can be implemented into courses to set clear expectations for the students. Podcast links Show notes The panelists discuss some of the challenges associated with student usage of ChatGPT as well as appropriate uses. Every course has different learning objectives, so instructors should be careful to match ChatGPT usage with their objectives for the course. They also discuss ChatGPT…