Reading Time: < 1 minuteIn 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 guest…
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Transform Your Teaching: Generative AI Applied – Introduction
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIn 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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Transform Your Teaching: Communication with Dr. Sandra Yang
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIn this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles discuss communication with Dr. Sandra Yang who has a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and serves as a professor of Music History at Cedarville University. Check out the episode to hear how she approaches communication with students and instructors. Podcast links Show notes Dr. Yang discusses the importance of communication with her students in both face-to-face and virtual environments. She emphasizes the need for clear communication and establishing guidelines at the beginning of a course for both students and instructors. In her syllabi, she addresses her own responsibility as a teacher to be punctual,…
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Transform Your Teaching: Instructional Management with Dr. Kevin Jones
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIn this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles discuss instructional management with Dr. Kevin Jones who has an Ed.D. from Spalding University and serves as the Dean of the School of Education and Social Work at Cedarville University. Check out the episode to hear about his philosophy of education and how he seeks to effectively meet students’ needs. Podcast links Show notes Dr. Jones emphasizes the importance of planning and preparation in teaching. As he prepares to teach, he focuses on key tasks such as identifying essential questions and learning objectives, and then he utilizes backward planning to ensure students achieve the intended goals. This…
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Transform Your Teaching: Content Delivery with Dr. Quentin Schultze
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIn this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles revisit content delivery with the return of the podcast’s first guest, Dr. Quentin Schultze. Check out the episode to hear how Dr. Schultze makes sure his students see the relevance and importance of his courses. Podcast links Show notes Dr. Schultze approaches course content delivery carefully, knowing that content can easily be perceived as “boring.” He wants to make sure the content is the best while still ensuring that the delivery of that content is engaging and inspiring and that students walk away motivated. He does so by using narrative to show the content’s relevancy. In a…
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Transform Your Teaching: Assessments with Dr. David Mulder
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIn this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles revisit assessments with Dr. David Mulder, professor of education at Dordt University. Check out the episode to hear how Dr. Mulder approaches objectives, assessments, and serving his students. Podcast links Show notes Dr. David Mulder emphasizes the need for clear learning targets and aligning assessments to those targets. He uses the analogy of an archery range, where the learning targets are the bull’s eye and assessments measure how close students come to hitting that mark. These assessments provide opportunities for educators to deliver specific and timely feedback to help students grow and improve. They also touch upon…
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Transform Your Teaching: Objectives with Dr. Haisong Ye
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIn this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles discuss objectives with Dr. Haisong Ye who has a PhD from Indiana State University and is an instructional designer in the Center for Teaching and Learning at Cedarville University. Check out the episode to hear them engage in a thought experiment to create objectives for a course on how to make a good cup of coffee. Podcast links Show notes Dr. Haisong Ye advocates for working through creating course objectives by starting with a simple question: what do you want students to be able to do by the end of this course? This strategy helps instructors begin…
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Transform Your Teaching: A Conversation with Dr. Vladimir Bratic
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIn this episode, Dr. Rob McDole talks with Dr. Vladimir Bratic who has a PhD in Mass Communication from Ohio University and is an assistant professor of Media and Communications at Hollins University. Check out this episode to hear how Dr. Bratic advises higher education instructors to navigate the future of education with the growth of ChatGPT. Podcast links Show notes Dr. Bratic wants students to think critically so they can learn on their own and be able to ask the right questions. Rather than focusing on content delivery, he is passionate about teaching students “how to think, not what to think”— and this informs how…
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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 minuteIn 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 of…
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Transform Your Teaching: Building a Community of Inquiry for Effective Online Learning – Cognitive Presence with Dr. Norm Vaughan
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIn this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles chat with Dr. Norm Vaughan who has a PhD in Education from the University of Calgary and is currently a professor in the Department of Education at Mount Royal University. Check out the episode to hear them discuss a key component of the Community of Inquiry framework—cognitive presence. Podcast links Show notes Dr. Vaughan emphasizes the importance of understanding students’ needs and prior experiences to connect the learning with their existing knowledge. The design of a course should consider the unique characteristics of different groups of students and create an environment that fosters collaboration and interaction. He…