News of the Week Archives - Great Lakes Colleges Association

News of the Week

March 3, 2026

This week’s Guest Curator is Amy Jo Stavnezer. Amy Jo is a Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at The College of Wooster.

Teaching and Learning

I Made My Students Write by Hand. It Gave Them Their Brains Back (Hannah Pittard, Chronicle for Higher Education, February 25, 2026). Pittard explains their requirement of a hard-bound sketch pad rather than a laptop for Introduction to Creative Writing and argues that “speed is the enemy of thinking”. She argues that we need to help our students slow things down, at least when we have them in our learning spaces.

Unlayering group activities: Tying together some threads on neurodiversity and group work (Sarah Silverman, Beyond the Scope, February 5, 2026). Silverman asks us to deconstruct group work and recognize the multiple layers impacting student engagement, learning, and how some actions impact neurodivergent students.

A Foot in the Door: Students are hungry for work-integrated learning, even if they’re not sure what all their options are. How ready are colleges to provide it? (Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, February 26, 2026). Flaherty discusses the value and barriers to work-integrated learning, internships, and apprenticeships from the 2025 Student Voice survey.

Teaching and Learning: alternative grading

(More) Student Perspectives on Collaborative Grading (Emily Pitts Donahoe, Unmaking the Grade, January 23, 2026). In this essay, Donahoe shares comments from student evaluations of courses and contextualizes them inside of her course learning goals, focusing on learning over grades.

Six things I no longer do with alternative grading (Robert Talbert, Grading for Growth, February 2, 2026). Talbert explores how he has removed areas of assessment to streamline grading. He explains how addition by subtraction has led to improved success for his students and his workload.

Pairs well with alternative grading: Supporting productive struggle by sending a consistent message. (David Clark, Grading for Grown, February 16, 2026). Clark reminds us of the importance of feedback loops for learning – in alternative grading systems, but also in group work, active learning, and reflection exercises. Supported, productive struggle isn’t always loved by our students, but it is linked to their growth.

Tidbits: Feeling the need just to be “seen”?

Higher Education’s Compensation Charade: We’ve come to accept illogical, unjust, and occasionally insulting pay practices. Why? (Kevin, McClure, Chronicle for Higher Education, February 2, 2026). McClure casts a cynical eye on the pay and raise structures in higher ed.

Burnout by a Million Paper Cuts. Behold: a job posting you’d never accept, but already did. (Tim Franz , Erin Halligan-Avery and Laurel McNall, Inside Higher Ed, February 18, 2026). In this opinion piece, the authors bring to light the overwhelming list of job expectations but also close with a set of ideas for personal empowerment and cohort support.

Rebalancing Academic Productivity: Writing accountability groups support all faculty and address unequal workloads. (Dustin T. Duncan, Inside Higher Ed, February 26, 2026). Duncan explores the importance of writing accountability groups as equity interventions to improve publication output across all faculty groups and areas of research.

Tidbits: Using spring break for self-reflection and renewal

Feeling Depleted? A Guide to Faculty Renewal, (Sarah Rose Cavanagh and Jennifer Herman, Chronicle for Higher Education, January 7, 2026). In this well-resourced piece, the authors provide 4 key ingredients to faculty renewal and reconnection, some of which you might be able to accomplish over an upcoming spring break.

They Need Us To Be Well: The surprising recipe for building students’ emotional well-being in the classroom? Rest and joy — for professors. (Sarah Rose Cavanagh, Chronicle for Higher Education, May 2, 2023). Cavanagh reminds us that our energy and passion are infectious to our students, but to maintain those, we have to care for ourselves. Though this article is framed as planning for fall semester, spring break might provide some space to make a shift.Less Busy, More Happy (Cassie Holmes interview with Mark Williamson, Action For Happiness, September 17, 2025). Holmes will share practical strategies to help you stop feeling time-poor and start living more intentionally. You’ll learn why more activity doesn’t always mean more fulfilment – and how making small shifts in how you spend your hours can lead to a happier life.

Time for a longer read over spring break?

The Caring Professor: A Meta-Analysis of Associations between Faculty-Student Relationships and Postsecondary Student Success. Educational Psychology Review. This is a January 2026, metanalysis exploring the importance of faculty-student relationships in college student academic achievement and persistence. In addition to the findings, this paper provides a good overview of the characteristics of strong faculty-student relationships

The Case for Warm Demanders in Today’s Schools(Wendy Amato, The Cult of Pedagogy, March 1, 2026). Though framed for K-12 educators, Amato’s characterization of warm demanders is completely applicable to a higher ed space. This is a different frame for explaining the importance of faculty-student relationships, with a paired expectation of high expectations with supported, productive student struggle.

Upcoming Pedagogical Conferences

Lilly Conferences on Evidence Based Teaching and Learning, May 18-20, Austin, TX

Annual Teaching & Learning Conference at Elon University, August 11, virtual and in person

AAC&U Conference on Learning and Student Success (CLASS), virtual and in person, April 15-18, Tucson, AZ

Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) Summer Workshop, July 16-19, North Central College, Naperville, IL

Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) East Regional Meeting, May 27-29, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY

News of the Week (February 20, 2026)

Teaching and Learning

Belonging by Design: An Asset-Based Approach to Inclusive Learning (Andrea Crenshaw and Natasha Ramsay-Jordan, Faculty Focus, Feb. 16, 2026). To improve the sense of classroom belonging, Crenshaw and Ramsay-Jordan recommend viewing students’ cultural backgrounds as assets and offer strategies for learning about them and connecting them to a course.

29 High-Impact Formative Assessment Strategies (Paige Tutt, Edutopia, Jan. 30, 2026). Tutt describes a wide variety of formative assessments and provides links to resources and testimonials from the teachers who use them.

How to Turn Vulnerability into a Teaching Superpower (Marissa Edwards and Eliza Compton, Times Higher Education, Jan. 15, 2026). Edwards and Compton discuss how educators can be open and authentic while protecting their own boundaries and work-life balance.

Tech-ish

Can an AI Tool Help Students Disagree Better? (Aisha Baiocchi, Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 30, 2026). Biocchi presents a case study of a sociology professor using a chat platform called Sway to structure anonymous conversations between students about hot button issues.

SIFT + AI for Fact-Checking: What I Learned Testing a Claim About Nursing Pay (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, Feb. 8, 2026). Stachowiak uses a specific claim as a test case for comparing Caufield’s SIFT framework for fact checking with a new AI assisted approach.

AI Belongs in Every Classroom: Why We Need Cross-Disciplinary AI Literacy (Karamatu Abdul Malik, Faculty Focus, Feb. 11, 2026). Malik lays out 6 approaches for integrating AI into the classroom, varying by amount of preparation and level of impact.

Tid-bits

The Research on Protecting Teacher Well-Being (Laurie Santos and Paige Tutt, Edutopia, Jan. 30, 2026). Santos and Tutt discuss several practices drawn from positive psychology research to help teachers regain a sense of balance in their lives and share healthy attitudes with their students.

Assessment Is Ruining Teaching (Andrew Davinack, Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 13, 2026). Davinack advocates a turn from assessments based on standardized benchmarks to more responsive evaluations that take into account the nonlinear nature of learning and the value of professors’ disciplinary experience.

To Solve the Student-Attention Problem, Professors Turn to Pencils and Paper (Sophia Bailly, Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 10, 2026). Bailly details the efforts of several professors to combat declines in student attention with no-tech and low-tech approaches to reading, note-taking, and assessment.

You’re Invited: GLCA CTL Event: Guiding Growth with AI: Building Independent, Persistent Learners

Join us March 3, 2026 for Guiding Growth with AI: Building Independent, Persistent Learners with Todd Zakrajsek (UNC at Chapel Hill) and Lew Ludwig (Denison University).

Generative AI is grabbing headlines, committee time, and a lot of faculty brain space. To be fair, it is pretty shiny. But if we chase features before foundations, we’ll end up with more AI and less learning. This webinar is about putting learning science back in the driver’s seat, using AI to support the learning journey, not run over it.

Drawing from Chapter 8 (Guiding the Journey from Novice to Expert) and Chapter 10 (Developing Persistent Learners) of their upcoming book, The Science of Learning Meets AI (Routledge), Zakrajsek and Ludwig will focus on how AI can assist with two problems faculty have long faced:

(1) how to give students just enough support to move forward without making them dependent, and

(2) how to help them persist when learning gets difficult.

You will leave with classroom-ready language, prompts, and design moves (no course overhaul required). AI is undoubtedly a powerful tool, but it will facilitate learning only to the extent that teaching structures students to become more independent and more persistent learners.

Register HERE for this virtual event on Tuesday, March 3 at Noon EST. A link and calendar invite will be sent the day before the event. Can’t join Tuesday? Register anyway – the recorded session will be emailed to registrants.

News of the Week – February 6, 2026

This week’s issue is curated by Alex Alderman. Alex is an Instructional Designer at Kenyon College. He works with the Instruction and Engagement Team at Chalmers Library.

Teaching and Learning

An Ancient Answer to AI-Generated Writing (Stephen Kidd, Inside Higher Ed, Jan. 27, 2026). Kidd, a classics professor, advocates a return to public speaking and debate in the classroom as an antidote to the use of generative AI in writing assignments.

Adapting the Library of Congress Tool for Place-Based Learning (Hillary Van Dyke, Faculty Focus, Jan. 30, 2026). Van Dyke describes adapting a framework developed for primary source analysis into a classroom activity for exploring a physical space.

Managing the Load: AI and Cognitive Load in Education (Michael Keener and Laura Landon, Faculty Focus, Feb. 2, 2026). Keener and Landon give an overview of cognitive load theory and make 7 suggestions on how faculty can use AI to reduce extraneous cognitive load for their students.

Tech-ish

Digital Tools for Note Taking and PKM (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, Dec. 17, 2025). Stachowiak reviews several tools for digital notetaking and other forms of Personal Knowledge Management, such as reference managers and digital bookmarks.

How Meta Quest VR Is Transforming Experiential Learning in Higher Education (Alexander Slagg, EdTech, Jan. 5, 2026). Slagg describes some classroom applications for Meta’s virtual reality technology, including simulations, virtual labs, and AI-assisted virtual tutors.

Can AI Improve Intro Courses? A New Courseware Project Hopes So (Becky Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 29, 2026). Supiano gives an overview of Learnvia, a Gates Foundation sponsored courseware initiative that is piloting a free, interactive Calculus I module to improve student engagement in a typical “gateway course”.

Tidbits

Colleges Must Help Professors Reimagine Assessment. Here’s How (Michelle D. Miller, Chronicle of Higher Education, Dec. 17, 2025). Miller gives some advice to institutions creating policies and workflows to regulate student AI use: protect innovators, keep workgroups focused, center disciplines, and let goals drive choices.

Flipping the Lens on Classroom Observations With the ‘Inside-Out’ Method (Michael McDowell, Edutopia, Jan. 28, 2026). McDowell advocates shifting the focus of institutional classroom observations away from criticizing faculty choices towards examining the evidence of student learning with a shared goal of supporting students better.

The Accidental Winners of the War on Higher Ed (Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, Jan. 29, 2026). Bogost outlines the advantages that small liberal arts colleges possess adapting to the current challenges to higher education in America, among them less dependence on research grants, a greater focus on teaching excellence, and more robust faculty governance.

November 21, 2025

We Heard You!

Thanks for your thoughtful responses to the NOTW survey. We are delighted that readers find NOTW to be a valuable, trusted, and well-curated source of teaching and learning ideas. We also appreciate your constructive suggestions to make the newsletter stronger: you would like to see more GLCA-focused stories, more practical teaching ideas, and occasional thematic or discipline-based issues.

After today, we will pause and on January 9, 2026 we will launch a refreshed NOTW shaped by your insights, including piloting bi-weekly publication and having GLCA guest editors and curators.

Thanks for reading NOTW and for supporting the teaching and learning community across small liberal arts colleges.

Teaching and Learning

Comparing Wikipedia, Traditional Encyclopedias, and Generative AI: The Wikipedia Assignment as Tool for Student Information Literacies (Katherine Holt, Aileen Dunham Professorship in History, The College of Wooster, WikiEdu, November 14, 2025): Holt blogs about a class exercise having students compare historical information provided in Wikipedia, library encyclopedias, and Generative AI queries as an approach to build their information literacy.

What’s Happening to Reading? (season 1; episode 3; Teaching@Tufts: The Podcast, Julye 23, 2025): Hosts Carie Cardamone and Heather Dwyer welcome guest Jean Otsuki, who brings expertise in English literature, to explore why students seem to be struggling more with assigned reading, and what factors might be at play.

How AI Is Changing Higher Education (Chronicle of Higher Ed, November 5, 2025): The technology is reshaping every aspect of university life. Fifteen scholars on what happens next.

Teaching: Why professors are using AI in course design (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Ed, November 20, 2025)

Lessons From a Conversation About AI, Future of Higher Ed (James DeVaney, Inside Higher Ed, November 19, 2025): Five lessons from a conversation about AI and the future of higher education.

Extra Credit Reading

Life as a Middle Manager: Responsibility Without Authority (Vicki L. Baker, Chronicle of Higher Ed, October 28, 2025): Advice from Vicki Baker, professor and chair of economics and management at Albion College, on how to start fixing a system that sets up midlevel leaders to fail.

College is still worth it, even with student debt, but we can do better (Guangli Zhang, Jason Jabbari, Mathieu Despard, Xueying Mei, Yung Chun, and Stephen Roll, Brookings, November 3, 2025)

How to Start Strong as a New Enrollment Leader (Angel B. Pérez and Ken Anselment, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 22, 2025): Here’s a roadmap for navigating seven key moments that will define your early tenure.

7 basic science discoveries that changed the world (Michael Marshall, Nature, October 29, 2025): Ozempic, MRI machines and flat screen televisions all emerged out of fundamental research decades earlier — the very types of study being slashed by the US government.

Editor: Colleen Monahan Smith ([email protected])

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Have a short article or some news related to teaching and learning at your institution that you’d like to share with colleagues? Send your contribution along to us. Distributed by the GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning

A Note from the Editor

This will be my final NOTW. It’s been my honor and – as cliched as it sounds – pleasure to prepare the weekly newsletter for many years. I will miss combing through the higher ed news each morning in search of articles rich with pedagogical insights, as well as news reports that might help you prepare for the increasingly difficult environment in which we find ourselves. Speaking only for myself, I have never experienced a time in which honest and inclusive teaching, in both K-12 and higher ed, has been as threatened as it currently is. I have never felt before now that the challenges we face are truly existential. But my years of working with the GLCA, along with more than four decades in the academy, have also made me aware of how many of you are working your hearts out every day to guarantee that higher ed continues to serve our students with honesty, integrity, and courage. I wish you all the best.

Teaching and Learning

How Do You Like Them Apples? On the Importance of Teaching in the Time of AI (Althea Need Kaminske, Learning Scientists, October 30, 2025): If you think AI can, in any meaningful way, replace communities of learning, then you fundamentally misunderstand what learning and teaching are.

Are Tech-Heavy Classes Stressing Students Out? (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 30, 2025): What if technology is adding to students’ stress? That’s the argument at the heart of Pamela Scully’s recent essay, “The Case for ‘Slow Teaching.’” Scully describes an approach she takes with her teaching that involves as little technology as possible, with emphasis on immersive reading and longer-term planning. This approach, she writes, helps students to develop a sense of agency and reduces their anxiety.

Listen: Putting AI Tools in the Classroom (Inside Higher Ed, October 29, 2025): Inside Higher Ed’s Voices of Student Success discusses the role of faculty in embracing and teaching alongside AI tools for career development.

Teach Writing, Not Document Production (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, October 29, 2025): If we want students to learn to write, AI tools shouldn’t have much of a role. If we don’t think students need to learn to write anymore, I’m not sure what we’re doing here.

The Case Against AI Disclosure Statements (Julie McCown, Inside Higher Ed, October 28, 2025): There’s a reason students don’t want to admit their use of AI, even in classes where it’s permitted.

The Great Campus Charade (Jeonghyun Kim and Cory Koedel, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 28, 2025): Students are learning less, studying less, and skipping class more — yet their grades go up and up.

My Students Use AI. So What? (John McWhorter, Atlantic, October 23, 2025): Young people are reading less and relying on bots, but there are other ways to teach people how to think.

What Do You Think of the Trump Compact’s Take on Grades? (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 23, 2025): Supiano shares highlights from her recent story about why grading is included in the Trump compact.

Analog inspiration: Human Centered AI in the Classroom with Carter Moulton (Bonni Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, October 23, 2025): 36-minute podcast in which Carter Moulton shares his Analog Inspiration (AI) card deck and human centered AI in the classroom.

The Trump Administration’s and Higher Education

More College Leaders Speak Out Against Compact but Don’t Reject It (Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed, October 30, 2025): Experts say the mixed messaging reflects confusion over the Trump administration’s muddled rollout of the agreement and a desire to keep all options open.

What Does Trump Want from UCLA? The Proposed Settlement Was Just Made Public (Gavin Escott, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 27, 2025): UCLA would pay $1.2 billion, eliminate diversity practices in scholarships and hiring, and adopt the Trump administration’s limited definition of gender.

Americans Think Trump Is Overreaching on Higher Ed (Eric Kelderman, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 24, 2025): 57 percent don’t want the federal government setting colleges’ policies, a new Quinnipiac poll reveals.

Why the Compact Failed (Suzanne Nossel, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 22, 2025): Colleges led the way in bucking Trump’s authoritarian incursions.

What Does UVa Have to Change Under Its Deal with Trump? Here’s What We Know (Kate Hidalgo Bellows, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 23, 2025): Details are scant on how the U. of Virginia can satisfy concerns about its DEI commitments — a contrast with previous agreements between the Trump administration and colleges.

Extra Credit Reading

How the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Threatens Student Success (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, October 30, 2025): At a webinar Tuesday, experts shared projections about how the budget bill could impact college students and their financial stability.

Remembering Ken Bain (Bonnie Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, October 20, 2025): Dave and Bonnie Stachowiak join in remembering Ken Bain in this 17-minute podcast.

Black Student Enrollment Shrinks at Selective Institutions (Emma Whitford, Inside Higher Ed, October 27, 2025): This fall, some colleges reported shrinking Black populations, which in some cases now comprise less than 2 percent of the student body, the Associated Press reported.

As SB-1 Impacts Ripple Across Ohio College Campuses, Students, Faculty Say ‘the Chill Is Real’ (Sheridan Hendriz, Columbus Dispatch, October 26, 2025): Students see its impact as “like a quiet roar.”

America Is Slipping in Higher Education. The Slide Starts Long Before College (Courtney Brown, Lumina Foundation, October 23, 2025): Once a global leader in higher education, the country now finds itself spending more than nearly any of its peer nations while delivering outcomes that fall increasingly short.

‘Who Needs College Anymore?’ (Scott Carlson, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 23, 2025): A debate on how college is and isn’t changing – and who it’s for.

Editor: Steven Volk ([email protected])

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Teaching and Learning

Ask Your Students Why They Use AI (Ernesto Reyes, Inside Higher Ed, October 22, 2025): The answer may surprise you.

How Will ED’s Latest Layoffs Affect Students with Disabilities? (Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed, October 22, 2025): Inside Higher Ed spoke with a leading advocate for students with learning disabilities to hear what the consequences will be across colleges and universities.

Making Gen-Ed Relevant (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 17, 2025): For one science professor, it’s about connecting to what motivates students.

10 Ways AI Is Ruining Your Students’ Writing (Wendy Laura Belcher, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 16, 2025): And how to help them see that AI cannot craft good essays.

The Trump Administration’s Compact for Higher Education

Higher Education’s Compact with America: Shared Principles for the Common Good (American Association of Colleges & Universities and the Phi Beta Kappa Society, October 17, 2025): A statement of principles issued jointly by the American Association of Colleges and Universities and the Phi Beta Kappa Society. It was developed in collaboration with college and university presidents and other educational leaders across the country. In addition, Three dozen higher-ed associations signed a statement opposing the White House’s offer. “It would impose unprecedented litmus tests on colleges and universities as a condition for receiving ill-defined ‘federal benefits’ related to funding and grants,” they wrote.

Our Politics Differ, But We Agree: Trump’s ‘Compact’ Violates Academic Freedom (Robert P. George et al, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 2025): Using federal funds to dictate who colleges admit and what faculty can say crosses a dangerous line.

Wash U Will Not Endorse Compact (Chronicle Staff, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 22, 2025): Of the nine, only the University of Texas at Austin hasn’t commented publicly on its response to the document.

Arizona Rejects Compact, Others Leave Options Open (Josh Moody, Inside Higher Ed, October 20, 2025): Monday’s deadline to provide feedback on the Trump administration’s proposed deal passed with no signatories and silence from some university leaders invited to join.

Vanderbilt Didn’t Accept or Reject the Compact (Francie Diep, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 20, 2025): The Chancellor plans to provide feedback instead.

U. of Virginia and Dartmouth Reject Compact as Trump Invites Some Colleges to Meet (Claire Murphy and Francie Diep, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 17, 2025): The White House invited representatives from the four remaining compact recipients that had not yet responded, in addition to Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Kansas, and Arizona State University, to discuss the proposal.

University of Virginia Declines Trump Deal for Priority Federal Funding (Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Washington Post, October 17, 2025): The fifth of nine universities to decline the offer, stating that “A contractual arrangement predicating assessment on anything other than merit will undermine the integrity of vital…research and further erode confidence in American higher education.”

Penn’s President Declines Trump’s Compact Offer, Joining Brown and MIT (Claire Murphy, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 2025): J. Larry Jameson said he provided “focused feedback” to the Department of Education that highlighted “areas of existing alignment as well as substantive concerns” the university continues to have.

USC Rejects Trump Proposal for Funding in Exchange for Policy Changes (Julia Barajas, LAist, October 16, 2025): The University of Southern California becomes the fourth of nine universities to reject the administration’s “Compact.”

Extra Credit Reading

Trump’s Unprecedented Actions Deepen Asymmetric Divides (Public Religion Research Institute and Brookings Institution, PRRI Survey, October 22, 2025): Some 70 percent(and 58% of Republicans) don’t think the feds should have the authority to dictate admissions, faculty hiring, and curricula.

College Has a Positive RPI for Most, but Outcomes Vary Widely (Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed, October 17, 2025): 70 percent of the country’s college graduates see their investment pay off within 10 years, but that outcome correlates strongly to the state where a student obtains their degree, according to the Strada Foundation’s latest State Opportunity Index.

Editor: Steven Volk ([email protected])

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