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News of the Week – September 18, 2026

This week’s issue is curated by Jen Adams. Jen is the Assistant Dean for Academic Projects and Chair/Professor of Communication and Theatre at DePauw University.                                                       

Teaching & Learning

The Return of the Oral Exam (Beth McMurtrie, The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 2, 2026): Prompted by concerns about AI, faculty are rediscovering oral examinations, and finding that they can encourage deeper learning, authentic assessment, and stronger faculty-student interaction.

Teaching Controversial Topics When Information is Incomplete (Ahlam Lee, Inside Higher Ed, September 15, 2026): Offers practical strategies for helping students move beyond emotional reactions to unfolding controversies by slowing down discussion, examining bias, distinguishing among types of claims, and expanding context before reaching conclusions.

The Power of Prequestioning (Michelle D. Miller, R3 Newsletter, September 8, 2026): Drawing on recent research in cognitive psychology, Miller explores how asking students questions before they encounter new material can focus attention and improve learning, offering faculty a simple, low-stakes strategy for helping students engage with challenging readings.

Student Connection & Belonging in the Classroom

Learning and Being: Building Belonging Through Relational Teaching Practices (Brianne Morettini, Belonging, July 14, 2026): Examines how relational teaching practices, including seeking student input, demonstrating care, and treating students as co-creators of the learning experience, can foster students’ sense of belonging, well-being, and engagement in the classroom.

Belonging Should Not Mean Only That Students Feel Welcome (Sunah Cho, Times Higher Education Campus, September 14, 2026): Drawing on universal design for learning, Cho offers practical ways to move beyond simply making students feel welcome toward creating classrooms where all students can participate meaningfully in the learning experience.

The Liberal Arts in Practice

How the Liberal Arts Became Countercultural (and Essential) in the Age of AI (Deseree Probasco, Jason Gulya, and Bethany Smith, EDUCAUSE Shop Talk, June 1, 2026): Explores how liberal arts capacities such as critical thinking, curiosity, imagination, and the ability to translate between technical and nontechnical worlds become increasingly valuable in an age shaped by artificial intelligence.

Memorable Teaching Doesn’t Just Transfer Knowledge – It Transforms Perspective  (Andrew Gipe-Lazarou, Times Higher Education Campus, September 15, 2026): Explores how authentic learning experiences can move students beyond disciplinary knowledge toward deeper perspective, professional judgment, and a stronger sense of responsibility.    

GLCA is hiring!

The GLCA is hiring a Senior Program Director to help lead collaborative academic and administrative initiatives across our thirteen liberal arts colleges. This hybrid role is an opportunity for an experienced faculty or faculty-adjacent administrator to convene faculty and academic leaders, strengthen professional development and leadership programs, and help institutions respond creatively to a changing higher education landscape. Review of applications begins October 30, 2026.  More information about the position and the application process can be found here.

 

Editor:  Colleen Monahan Smith, GLCA, [email protected]

This week’s issue is curated by Zachary Adams.  Zach is the Assistant Director, Center for Teaching and Learning and Instruction Specialist at Hope College.

Dear Colleagues:  The NOTW is heading off for its summer break and will return in August.  This semester, we moved to an every-other-week format with guest curators from across the GLCA.  What did you think?  Let me know!   Wishing you all a joy filled summer! 

Teaching & Learning

Bringing Learning to Life with ThingLink (Georgette Kluiters & Ally Fleischer, The Teaching Professor, April 13, 2026): ThingLink lets faculty turn static images, videos, and 360-degree media into interactive course materials with clickable hotspots for text, links, audio, and quizzes. Kluiters and Fleischer offer cross-disciplinary examples, making this a practical tool to explore before fall. Free account required to read.

Teaching Toward Slow Hope (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, March 11, 2026): Warner interviews Douglas Haynes, whose new book connects place-based, community-rooted learning to a basic question prompted by pandemic-era burnout: What is college for?

Grading That Feels Good (Molly Gutilla, Alyson Huff, Mark Hussey & Jess Rushing, Grading for Growth, May 4, 2026): Four faculty ask whether alternative grading made them like their jobs more. Their answer is yes: specs-based and outcomes-based approaches reduced end-of-term stress, improved student relationships, and better aligned grading with their reasons for teaching. Published on the Grading for Growth Substack, edited by Robert Talbert and David Clark at Grand Valley State University.

Surviving Peak Higher Ed with Bryan Alexander (Derek Bruff, Intentional Teaching Podcast, May 5, 2026): Bryan Alexander joins Derek Bruff to discuss enrollment contraction, campus closures, faculty implications, and what AI may or may not change.

Why Civil Discourse Powers New Levels of Engagement (Alcino Donadel, University Business, May 13, 2026): Pandemic-era students often arrive on campus without practice navigating disagreement. This piece profiles institutions using structured civil dialogue programs to rebuild those skills in low-stakes settings, with benefits that extend well beyond the political into critical thinking, communication, and career readiness.

Tech-ish

Maintaining Academic Integrity in the Age of AI (Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Kansas): A free faculty resource with syllabus language, policy frameworks, and guidance for student conversations about generative AI. Useful as a working document for fall course prep.

2026 Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence: Human Wisdom for the Age of AI (Elon University, AAC&U & The Princeton Review, 2026): This free guide helps students build human capabilities that remain essential in an AI-rich world: curiosity, critical thinking, creativity, ethical reasoning, and relational skills. Institutions may share, distribute, and adapt it under a Creative Commons license.

Book Recommendation

Purpose and Joy: Pursuing a Meaningful Career in Christian Higher Education (Dr. Elisabeth E. Lefebvre & Dr. Kristin VanEyk, ACU Press, June 2, 2026): Essays by and for faculty navigating promotion, leadership, research, sabbath rest, and vocation in Christian higher education. GLCA connection: co-author Kristin VanEyk is Assistant Professor of English Education at Hope College. Pre-order now; releases June 2.

Editor:  Colleen Monahan Smith, GLCA, [email protected]

News of the Week – May 1, 2026

This week’s issue is curated by Zachary Adams.  Zach is an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the Center for Teaching & Learning at Hope College

Teaching & Learning

Grade Inflation Is Called a Crisis. The Real Problem Is Deeper Than That. (Beth McMurtrie, The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 27, 2026): McMurtrie examines the tension many faculty are feeling as students arrive with weaker academic preparation while institutional and evaluative pressures make it harder to hold firm lines.

The COPE Method for Assisting Struggling Students. (Dr. Jaime Davis and Maria Lyon, Faculty Focus, April 6, 2026): A useful article for faculty who want earlier and lighter-touch ways to support students before small problems become bigger ones.

What I Learned from Giving 71 Oral Exams in 12 Days. (Jason Linn, Faculty Focus, April 20, 2026): Linn highlights their experiments with oral exams in lower-division history courses and found that they created opportunities for immediate feedback, more personal assessment, and richer academic conversation. Free.

The Students Who Won’t Use AI. (Beth McMurtrie, The Chronicle of Higher Education Teaching Newsletter, April 16, 2026): A look into the students who remain skeptical, cautious, or resistant to AI use as found in a Gallup-Lumina survey.

Podcast Pick & Book Recommendation

Reimagining Grading with Sharona Krinsky and Robert Bosley (Derek Bruff, Intentional Teaching, February 24, 2026): A grounded conversation about grading reform, barriers to change, and how centers for teaching and learning can help faculty rethink grading practices.

The Joyful Online Teacher: Finding Our Fizz in Asynchronous Classes (Flower Darby, University of Oklahoma Press, April 21, 2026): A timely spring pick for readers thinking about motivation, rapport, and course climate in digital learning spaces.

Tech-ish

Make Learning Accessible to All in Higher Education. (Luke Searle, Times Higher Education Campus, April 16, 2026): Searle focuses on digital accessibility in higher education and argues that accessibility should be built into teaching and learning design from the start, not treated as an afterthought.

Editor:  Colleen Monahan Smith, GLCA, [email protected]

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

The GLCA hosted a Summit on Student Academic Success February 23-25, 2026 in Ann Arbor, MI. The Summit is part of GLCA’s signature professional development program, GALI (GLCA Academic Leadership and Innovation).  Forty-eight staff and faculty from all 12 GLCA institutions, including our newest member, Washington & Jefferson, participated.

The Summit opened with a presentation by Jillian Kinzie, Associate Director of the Center for Postsecondary Research and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Institute at the Indiana University School of Education. Kinzie talked about using data to advance contemporary frames for student success – particularly around relationship building, career-connected learning, and academic support. 

Regan Gurung, Professor of Psychology at the School of Psychological Science, Oregon State University, kicked off Tuesday morning by engaging participants in thinking about how to leverage the science of teaching and learning to enhance and sustain student success. A participant noted, “Regan was terrific and I really enjoyed hearing his perspective. I already shared his website with staff back on campus and they are looking to incorporate his ideas into our new summer bridge program.”

Tuesday also featured a team from Ohio Wesleyan University, including Provost Karlyn Crowley, presenting a case study of OWU’s approach to move the needle on retention, something for which they have received national recognition. Ian Binnington, Dean for the Student Experience at Allegheny College, gave a presentation on ways to be cautious of and utilize gen AI in the work we do as small college staff and faculty.

Throughout the summit, campus teams had structured and unstructured time to work in teams, meet colleagues in similar roles and interact with and receive feedback from the facilitators.  

One participant remarked, “This was great! Hard to leave work behind, but so important to consider these issues AND meet wonderful colleagues across GLCA schools.”

The final step was a tour of targeted action steps and suggestions to take back to campus to further their work on enhancing student success.  Some ideas included improving communication to students, developing new mechanisms to reach student athletes, ways to use AI for personalized approaches, reviewing academic standing policies, establishing unique cross-campus partnerships, thinking about physical spaces and the naming of programs, ways to harness and utilize existing data in addition to many other small and large ideas to impact students and improve student success.  

Heading into the summit, participants hoped to learn more about what others are accomplishing, what challenges they are facing and gain insights to move their own efforts on campus forward. The energy, engagement and reflections of the campus teams demonstrated they took full advantage of these opportunities to connect and collaborate and keep students at the center of their shared work in student success.  

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.