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News of the Week – April 3, 2026

This week’s issue is curated by Stephanie Strand.  Stephanie is an Associate Professor of Biology,  Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at The College of Wooster. 

Teaching and Learning

Throwback: Rigor: (David Clark and Robert Talbert of Grading for Growth;  March 30, 2026) The term rigor is often used to describe courses, yet definitions of rigor vary.  This post discusses some of the challenges associated with the term and how we might get at some of the assumptions of rigor by using alternative grading systems.

In-class Writing with James Seitz (Intentional Teaching Podcast: Episode 85, March 10, 2026). Derek Bruff of the Intentional Teaching Podcast interviews University of Virginia English Professor Jim Seitz.  As stated in the episode description Jim “has moved the writing his students do into the classroom. This move is a response to generative AI’s disruption of writing instruction, yes, but it’s also the latest in a series of teaching choices Jim has made to teach his students writing as a way of thinking and to change their relationship with writing.

“Blips” of Knowledge Reduce Accuracy and Increase Confidence (written by Cindy Nibel, The Learning Scientists Blog, March 2026). Does a “blip” of knowledge (in a brief summary for example) make people overconfident about what they know?  And if so (and in the age of many “blips of knowledge”, what are the implications for teaching and learning? 

Instructor Talk and Student Belonging in Introductory Biology: Not all Talk Matters and Relationships Very by Student Identity (Benjamin D. Jackson et. Al; CBE Life Sciences Vol. 25, No. 2). I recently attended the American Association of Colleges and Universities Transforming STEM Conference.  The authors of this paper led a session at the conference about the research studying “non-content instructor talk” in the classroom.  While this research was done in the context of STEM education, I believe it is worth thinking about how the findings could apply to other disciplinary areas. 

Tidbits

Why College Graduates Feel Betrayed (Noam Scheiber; New York Times, March 26, 2026) As graduation seasons approaches, encourage those students who are entering the job market to begin the career search early and to make good use of the resources available at their institutions to help them with the process.

When Faculty Stop Showing Up (David DeMatthews, The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 20, 2026)  Faculty engagement on campus has changed, and it may be impacting the student experience.

10 Books for the Evidence-based Professor (by Benjamin Pacini, Inside Higher Ed, February 25, 2026)  I love a book list, and this list of ten books about evidence-based teaching practices is a good one.   If you are thinking about engaging in some professional development reading over the summer or are looking for a book to read and discuss with colleagues, this list might be a good place to start.

Around the GLCA

Plato’s Symposium “Read-A-Thon”: A Stand for Academic Freedom at DePauw – The DePauw

On March 11, supporters of academic freedom filled Meharry Hall for a “Read-A-Thon” of “The Symposium” by Plato. 20 readers recited various sections of “The Symposium,” braving the heat of East College to publicly oppose censorship in higher education. The Read-A-Thon was organized by Professors of English David Alvarez and Harry Brown, along with Professor of Philosophy Jennifer Everett; the event was co-sponsored by the Departments of Art, Art History, Classical Studies, Communication and Theatre, English, German Studies, Global French Studies and Political Science.

According to Alvarez, the organizers were “inspired by Dr. White’s championing of academic freedom at DePauw.” In his opening remarks at the Read-A-Thon, he again emphasized Dr. White’s mission to have DePauw “shine brightly as a beacon for the liberal arts and sciences.”

Read more here:  Plato’s Symposium “Read-A-Thon”: A Stand for Academic Freedom at DePauw – The DePauw

March 20, 2026

Teaching and Learning

Slow Learning (Alexandra Mihai, The Educationalist, Substack, February 9, 2026). Mihai provides a list of suggestions to help us slowdown in the classroom – to return to thinking, and the belief that learning is a process rather than an outcome.

The process of writing forces the writer to be present (Jackie Webb and Christina Birnbaum, Times Higher Education, February 14, 2026). The authors provide suggestions to help students build a writing practice by putting pen to paper in a variety of classes. This supports the post by Pittard from the last NOTW and relates to the Slow Learning post above.

Ten tips for embedding retrieval practice in university teaching (Katie Burgess, Times Higher Education, March 13, 2026). Burgess provides 10 quick tips to help students retrieve information in low stakes activities across the semester.

Teaching and Learning (AI)

AI Is Not Replacing Learning—It’s Exposing Where Learning Was Thin to Begin With (Xinyao Yi, Inside Higher Ed, March 10, 2026). Yi asks us to consider what we have been assessing all along – learning or output – and poses the idea that AI is a problem only if our assessments focus on producing, rather than understanding, an answer.

Is AI Making us Stupid? Cal Newport is worried. (Cal Newport, Chronicle for Higher Ed, March 12, 2026). In this interview, Newport, a longtime advocate of deep work and email reduction, argues that allowing AI to automate thought is problematic. He discusses the challenges we’ve already weathered with the internet, but is concerned that as we allow AI to autofill sentences and generate responses, we lose the “cognitive strain” that is central to learning and our “cognitive health”.

OpenAI’s Education Pitch Has a Free Version Problem (Marc Watkins, Rhetorica, SubStack, March 12, 2026). Watkins reports on a recent meeting with OpenAI and university leaders on the rollout of an educational version of ChatGPT and the limits and considerations that should be discussed.

Tidbits – Supporting Wellbeing

How to Form and Sustain a Faculty Growth Club (Zhanna Sahatjian, Jimena Ramirez Marin and Eileen L. Zurbriggen, Inside Higher Ed, March 4, 2026). This group of female faculty members provide ideas on how to find our people and create a meaningful, supportive and collaborative growth network in a virtual space.

Workplace Hygiene: Salutary Habits to Combat the Great Detachment (Raymond E. Crossman, Inside Higher Ed, March 11, 2026). Crossman provides ideas that may help to reengage faculty and staff given the current and growing sense of detachment at our places of employment. He argues that by placing care, attention and practice on supervision, meetings and social capital, we can decrease feelings of being demoralized.

Sometimes Stress Is Just Stress (Jessie Gold, Inside Higher Ed, March 12, 2026).  In this piece, Gold suggests ways that we can validate a student’s feelings and help them see that stress is sometimes both normal and part of adulting.

CTL Event

The Grading Redesign I Kept Putting Off (And What Finally Made It Possible) with Lew Ludwig

This semester, my 200-level course — mostly non-majors in economics, data analytics, and computer science — are demonstrating a depth of understanding I haven’t seen in fifteen years of teaching. The difference isn’t a new textbook or a smaller class; it’s standards-based grading, with students demonstrating what they know through entirely in-class, AI-free assessments. It’s a redesign I’ve wanted to attempt for years but never had the bandwidth to execute. Since generative AI first arrived in our classrooms, I’ve argued that alternative grading would be our most productive path forward — not to catch cheaters, but to refocus on what students actually know. This semester I finally put that conviction to the test, using AI itself to help with the planning overhead that had kept me on the sidelines.

You will leave with a practical framework for using AI as a course-design partner and, perhaps more importantly, permission to try a grading redesign you’ve been putting off.

Register HERE for the event on April 9, 2026 at Noon EDT.  A link and calendar invite will be sent the day before the event.   Can’t join us live?  Register anyway – the recorded session will be emailed to registrants. 

 

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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