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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.

NEWS OF THE WEEK (January 23, 2026) 
This week’s issue is curated by Barb Bird.  Bird joined Ohio Wesleyan University in 2024. She is the inaugural Director of the Smith Center for Faculty Excellence.

Teaching & Learning

Supporting Students Through Feedback: Approaches for Faculty (Lynne N. Kennette and Phoebe S. Lin, Faculty Focus, Jan. 14, 2026). Kennette and Lin suggest faculty take a broad, more inclusive understanding of feedback, more as “touchpoints.” They provide six strategies to improve our feedback. 

Active Learning that Engages All Learners with Matthew Mahavongtrakul (Bonnie Stachowiak, Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast, Jan. 2, 2026). In this interview, Mahavongtrakul suggests simple ways to increase active learning in courses that are more lecture-oriented. He also presents processes for increasing engagement and active learning through a “token” system.

How to Spur Discussion Through Collaborative Note-Taking (Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 15, 2026). In this short blog, McMurtrie shares her strategy for collaborative note-taking. At OWU, most of our First-Year Seminar instructors use this same process with great success.

Today’s Students

Student-Driven Instruction, Agency, and Curiosity: Mediation Evidence from 46,084 Subjects Across Multiple Sites (Ji Liu, Dahman Tahri, Millicent Aziku, and Airini Mbowe, Education Sciences, 2025). In this peer-reviewed article, the authors present their research on the interactions between student-driven instruction, agency, and curiosity, finding that student agency is a “significant mediator.” 

‘Say My Name, Say My Name’: Why Learning Names Improves Student Success (Iris Villanueva and Julia VanderMolen, Faculty Focus, Jan. 9, 2026). Villanueva and VanderMolen summarize some research on saying names and give 5 strategies for learning students names.

Making Formative Assessments More Efficient and Effective (Marcus Luther, Edutopia, Jan. 15, 2026).  In this very practical, brief article, Luther describes 3 ways he has shifted to an emphasis on formative assessments in improving student learning.

Tidbits

Day 1 is Hard: Reflections on Being a First-Year Student (Again) (Brian Rempel, Faculty Focus, Jan. 16, 2026). Although most of our students have been at our institutions since August, we also have transfer or second-semester first-time freshmen. This is a nice reminder of some key things we can do to help our new students feel welcome.

The Butler-Thinking-Sparring Framework: A Practical Guide to Working with AI (Mike Kentz, Jan. 11, 2026). Kentz presents a model for using AI with our students that stimulates student thinking rather than replacing it. 

The Science of Learning Meets AI (Rebecca Mushtare and John Kane; Lew Ludwig and Tod Zakrajsek, Tea for Teaching, Jan. 14, 2026). In this podcast, Rebecca and John talk with Lew and Todd about their new book, The Science of Learning Meets AI. They begin with a foundation they use with faculty in talking about AI: We didn’t ask for this, and this is hard. They then discuss their new book, which provides tons of specific examples and activities, including discussion questions educational developers can use with the book.

Ten Tiny Experiments to Ease Burnout for Educators (Brett F. Shysel, Faculty Focus, Jan. 5, 2026). Whysel lists 10 small things we can do to increase our well-being.

How to Make the Most of an Academic Conference (Tom Tobin, Chronicle of Higher Education, January, 2026). In this lengthy and thorough article, Tobin gives a lot of very practical and helpful suggestions for conference attendance: choosing a conference, before you go, during the conference (both what to do and what not to do), and after the conference.

Resources I love

Self-Compassion (Kristin Neff). Neff has several resources to help you learn about self-compassion (which is not what most of us think it is), tests on our self-compassion, and resources for increasing our self-compassion. I recently did the 5-Day Challenge that she co-hosts with Chris Germer. 

Mindfulness for Students: Why Is It Important? (Greater Good in Education). This online resource summarizes research on the role of mindfulness and student learning and well being.

What I’m thinking about

Has the discussion around AI been heating up around your campus?  When talking to people with different perspectives about AI or any topic, I have found it helpful to review the best practices listed below from CDI and Bridging Differences.  Both resources remind us to increase our human connections across differences and the values we all share.

 Constructive Dialogue Principles (CDI, 2026). This site lists their 5 principles: 1) Let go of winning; 2) ask questions; 3) share stories; 4) respond rather than react; 5) find what’s shared.

Bridging Differences (Greater Good Science Center, 2026). This site explains their recommendations based on their research: 1) Create and maintain intergroup contact; 2) focus on our shared identities; 3) walk in the shoes of your opponents; 4) focus on others’ individual characteristics, not their group identity; 5) practice moral reframing; 6) cultivate mindfulness.

You Are Invited!  GLCA/GLAA CTL Event: Getting Students to Read with Chris Hakala

Are your students reading…or just turning the pages?  Could a few small changes shift how students approach reading? 

Reading requires students to integrate what they are reading with prior knowledge. One of the biggest problems that students face is that they don’t often bring the right strategies to a reading situation. Rather, they attempt to read a text the same way they read a novel.  We hope you will join us for a workshop: Getting Students to Read with Dr. Chris Hakala, (Springfield College), January 29, 2026 at Noon EST.

In this workshop, we will talk about what it takes to learn from text.  That is, what reading strategies might be helpful to ensure that students have a better understanding, and better motivation, to learn from text.  Some strategies include pre-reading, pre-lecturing, goal-oriented reading, etc.

Dr. Chris Hakala is the Director for the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship at Springfield College, where he is also Professor of Psychology. His academic work in psychology has focused on psycholinguistics, and specifically, reading comprehension.

In the workshop, Chris will:

  • Introduce the concept of reading from the cognitive science perspective
  • Show the differences in processing that is required to learn from text versus narrative
  • Do a demonstration to show what it’s like for students to try to read without prior knowledge
  • Give examples, and demonstrations, of how to improve the ability to read this kind of text

Register HERE for this virtual event on Thursday, January 29th at Noon EST (confirm time zone here).  A link will be sent the day before.  The session will be recorded.

NEWS OF THE WEEK (January 9, 2026) 

And we’re back!  We are piloting a few exciting changes as we relaunch in the new year.  Look for bi-weekly publication (rather than weekly) featuring guest curators from across the GLCA.  We are here to support YOU!  We will continue to provide access to teaching resources and connections to a vital community of educators with a shared commitment to enhancing liberal arts teaching and student-centered learning. Thanks for reading!   

This week’s issue is curated by Barb Bird.  Bird joined Ohio Wesleyan University in 2024. She is the inaugural Director of the Smith Center for Faculty Excellence.

Teaching & Learning

How to write Clearly Defined Standards (Robert Talbert, Grading for Growth, Dec. 22, 2025). Talbert briefly reviews backward design best practices, and then he shows a nice workflow diagram and three key questions that help instructors determine what content to cut or consolidate. 

In the age of AI, Human Skills are the New Advantage (Jean Daniel LaRock, World Economic Forum, Jan. 2, 2026). Since AI threatens human agency, LaRock suggests that “we need an updated model for teaching students how to think with rigour, depth, and originality, and to act with wisdom and efficacy.”

If you Care about it, Do it in Class (James Lang, Chronicle of Higher Education, Dec. 16, 2025). Lang argues that faculty need to shift class time from “first exposure” (as in, lecture) to practicing the skills we care most about, giving 3 specific examples from different disciplines.

Active Learning That Engages All Learners with Matthew Mahavongtrakul (Bonnie Stochawiak, Teaching in Higher Ed, Jan. 2, 2026). Stochawiak and Mahavongtrakul discuss research on active learning and the effects on students and the classroom experience–for classes of 8 or 200. 

Rethinking Student Attendance Policies for Deeper Engagement and Learning (Simon Cullen & Dannie Oppenheimer, Bonnie Stochawiak, Oct. 9, 2025). Their article: Choosing to Learn, Science Advances, 10(29), July 17, 2024. This is one of the best articles I have read in the last year! 

Attention Activism (D. Graham Burnett, LearningWell Coalition Radio, Jan. 6, 2026). In this interview, Burnett, discusses the research and collaborative work on attention and the exploitation by the tech industry of human attention. 

Timely Tips

Constructing a Learner-Centered Syllabus (Aaron S. Richmond, IDEA, Sept. 2016). Although this is older, it is still one of my go-to resources for new faculty because it is clear, great concise explanations, and practical.

If you want 2026 to be the best year of your life . . . (Dan Pink, You Tube, Dec. 29, 2025). As with all of Dan Pink’s work, this video would is practical in research-based. He includes a free “workbook” to work through his strategies. I highly recommend this! 

26 Stats for 2026 (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, Dec. 19, 2025). This is an interesting, short list of stats related to higher education. Look at #10 & #22.

Tech-ish

Can Educators Counter Agentic AI? (Marc Watkins, Chronicle of HE, Nov. 20, 2025). Marc Watkins discusses the dangers of agentic AI, especially for online learning. 

Colleges and Schools Must Block And Ban Agentic AI Browsers Now. Here’s Why. (Aviva Legatt, Forbes, Sept. 25, 2025). Although this is a little older, this is a great article on what agentic AI browsers can do and how we can respond. 

5 predictions on how AI will Shape Higher Education (Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed, Jan. 5, 2026). Palmer invited 5 experts to provide predictions about AI in higher education.

Tidbits

A Professor’s Framework for Meaningful, Joyful, and Sustainable Work (Julie Sochacki, Faculty Focus, Dec. 15, 2025). Sochacki gives 5 specific suggestions for more joyful, sustainable work, each ending with one specific way to get started in that practice.

Why loving Moments with Strangers Carry Lasting Benefits (Taylor N. West & Barbara Fredrickson, Greater Good Magazine, Dec. 10, 2025). New research finds that connecting with strangers not only boosts your mood–it helps build a kinder, more cooperative society (and a more kinder, cooperative faculty). 

Resources I love:

The Little Book of Joy: Tiny Ways to infuse Delight into Teaching and Learning (Joy Cards)  (Curated by Eugene Korsunskiy, Korsunskiy). Knowing that a “joyful learning environment helps students thrive,” they have created an edited collection of specific activities that create joyful moments. 

Active Learning Continuum 2.pdf (Chris O’Neal and Tershia Pinder-Grover, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan–from this site: CRLT Teaching Strategies). I have used this handout in many faculty development workshops or institutes. It is a great list of the most common types of active learning.

Happiness Calendar (Kira M. Newman, Greater Good Magazine, Jan. 1, 2026). I have been subscribing to these calendars for several months. If you subscribe, you will see the daily happiness recommendation show up at the top of each day. 

Thoughts on recent books I’ve been reading

Kind: The Quiet Power of Kindness at Work (Graham Allcott). Although the book discusses kindness at work (which obviously applies to how our campus cultures operate), this research also applies to the classroom culture.

The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success (Emma Seppala). “. . . being happy is the most productive thing we can do to thrive—whether at work or at home. 

I am currently reading The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World. Allison Pugh’s extensive research reveals a “connective labor” involved in most jobs, and this mostly invisible labor is essential.  

We know that human connection is essential for student learning and thriving, and the research on connection, happiness, kindness, and attention strongly support the need for connection, especially in our highly tech- and AI-driven context. One of the most effective ways to counter students’ AI misuse is to double down on our human connections with students. 

Additionally, all of these sources (and both Dan Pink’s video and the Attention Activism interview) mention the power of the pause: taking time to disconnect from “focus” and technology to allow our brains to process and create.

GLCA Announces Winners of the 2026 New Writers Award

The Great Lakes Colleges Association is pleased to announce the winners of the 2026 GLCA New Writers Award  for Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Non-Fiction.  Since 1970, the New Writers Award confers recognition on promising writers who have published a first volume in one of the three genres. This award reflects outstanding literary achievement in the judgment of a committee of scholars-critics-writers who are faculty at GLCA member institutions.  Winning writers visit GLCA institutions by invitation to give readings, participate in discussions, and engage with students and faculty.  We extend our warmest congratulations to the 2026 Award Winners:  

Poetry:  Tarik Dobbs, Nazar Boy:  Poems (Haymarket Books)

Judges: Travis Chi Wing Lau (Kenyon College), Pablo Peschiera (Hope College), Marlo Star (The College of Wooster)

Fiction: Alisa  Alering, Smothermoss, (Tin House)

Judges: Ghassan Abou-Zeineddine (Oberlin College), Kari Kalve (Earlham College), Chris White (DePauw University)

Creative Non-Fiction:  Hala Alyan, I’ll Tell You When I’m Home, (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster)

Judges: Marin Heinritz (Kalamazoo College), Agata Szczeszak-Brewer (Wabash College), Angela Zito (Albion College)

Read the full 2026 announcement here.

The Great Lakes Colleges Association is pleased to announce the winners of the 2026 New Writers Award for Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Non-Fiction.  Since 1970, the New Writers Award confers recognition on promising writers who have published a first volume in one of the three genres. This award reflects outstanding literary achievement in the judgment of a committee of scholars-critics-writers who are faculty at GLCA member institutions.  Winning writers visit GLCA institutions by invitation to give readings, participate in discussions, and engage with students and faculty. 

The 2026 winner for Poetry is Tarik Dobbs, Nazar Boy:  poems, published by Haymarket Books. Our GLCA judges note:

Tarik Dobbs’ electric debut, Nazar Boy, is a searing indictment of imperial military surveillance that powerfully explores the intersections of Lebanese Arab experience, queerness, and disability.  Innovating and expanding on concrete and blackout poetry traditions, Dobbs contorts nostalgic nationalism and the sanitized language of state violence into shapes on the page.  His turn to the archival reanimates histories of violent oppression like the eugenics movement, which pathologized and persecuted vulnerable people in ways that ought to have created more solidarity among them. Refusing to forget, Dobbs registers these traumatic pasts in dense typographical palimpsests, revealing how the reverberations of the past in the present challenge any misconception that current political and cultural conditions are somehow “unprecedented”; rather, the accumulated layers of evidence are thick and sedimented in ways that only poetry can begin to slowly unpack. 

Behind these ominous elements, someone grows in touch with life’s violences, someone whose sensitivities become attuned to the world in such a way that they can speak witness to both the violence wreaked Palestine and the violence of immigration, while still reveling in the powers of experimentation with form.  These insightful poems ripple with threat, surveillance and its dangers, and the knowledge of what is wrought in the imbalances of power.  Throughout the book, the speaker makes visible the ableist, homophobic, and racist gazes that shape the contemporary landscape.  Dobbs’ experiments in form dazzle, both as intricate structures and as poems of substance. 

Judges of the Poetry Award were:
Travis Chi Wing Lau (Kenyon College)
Pablo Peschiera (Hope College)
Marlo Star (The College of Wooster)

The 2026 winner for Fiction is Alisa Alering, Smothermoss, published by Tin House.  Our GLCA judges note:

The mesmerizing prose of Alisa Alering’s Smothermoss brings the reader close to two sisters, Sheila and Angie, both social outsiders, and to the living ground of their Appalachian home.  Magical realism juxtaposes with the stark realities of the place – poverty, prejudice, human fragility, and brutality – to make for a lyrical, raw, tender, and sometimes gruesome tale that’s part coming-of-age story, part murder mystery.

In evocative language and striking imagery, Alering explores the relationships between sisters and mother and daughters, queerness, and community, among other topics. With touches of folklore and magical realism, the town of Smothermoss comes to vivid life.  Alering adeptly guides us through grotesque and fantastical enchantments, forbidden desires, and wounds both psychic and physical, in a place out of sight to many but alive with the mysterious forces of the natural world and the ways we are bound to them.  Eerie and beautiful, the novel creates a world that is both familiar and magical.  Smothermoss is a terrific debut from a writer to watch. 

Judges of the Fiction Award were:
Ghassan Abou-Zeineddine (Oberlin College)
Kari Kalve (Earlham College)
Chris White (DePauw University)

The 2026 winner for Creative Non-Fiction is Hala Alyan, I’ll Tell You When I’m Home, published by Avid Reader Press.  Our GLCA judges note:

Hala Alyan’s I’ll Tell You When I’m Home is a gorgeous, poetic memoir of surrogacy and exile that centers around the themes of conception and birth—of humans, stories, and worlds.  The book’s prose is fragmented, poetic, both brutal and tender, at times philosophical, at times mournful. Alyan uses fragments and myth to wend her way through a personal narrative that is inextricable from family and global tales to uniquely reveal a riveting, deeply emotional process of discovery for both the narrator and the reader.  Nothing about the waiting or the story is simple, though, and the threading of catastrophe across the Arab world and in her marriage leads to falling and spinning out and always a return to family, to what could be home. Ultimately, through unwinding and building, again and again, even through terrible destruction and patterns of behavior linked to larger entities, she—and we—are redeemed. 

Alyan elegantly weaves the threads of her family line—through war, displacement, alcoholism, and infertility—in an exquisite work of storytelling. The book is a patchwork of stories, identities, and lives that come beautifully together through Alyan’s poetic language.  Its beauty has been haunting us long after we finished reading the memoir. For us, this is a clear winner.

Judges of the Creative Non-Fiction Award were:
Marin Heinritz (Kalamazoo College)
Agata Szczeszak-Brewer (Wabash College)
Angela Zito (Albion College)

For more information on the New Writers Award, please contact Colleen Monahan Smith ([email protected]) or visit:  GLCA New Writers Award.

The GLCA is excited to announce the selection of a cohort of ten Arts and Humanities faculty who will serve as Academic Leadership Fellows.  

This program was established in August 2025 and the Fellows will serve through the 2026-27 and 2027-28 academic years.  They will hold a titled administrative position on their campus throughout the Fellowship, working on a specific project and/or overseeing a portfolio of academic administrative responsibilities. Additionally, the cohort of Fellows will meet regularly to foster their professional and leadership development grounded in self-reflection and strategic self-awareness while sharing their learning and their successes and challenges on their project and administrative responsibilities with each other.

The Fellows are: 

  • Albion College, Peter Valdina, Stanley S. Kresge Associate Professor in Religious Studies
  • Allegheny College, Michael Mehler, Professor of Theatre
  • DePauw University, Jennifer Adams, Professor of Communication and Theatre
  • Hope College, Matthew Farmer, Professor of Dance, Dorthy Wiley DeLong Endowed Chair of Dance
  • Kalamazoo College, Babli Sinha, Professor of English
  • Kenyon College, Pashmina Murthy, Associate Professor of English
  • Oberlin College, Corey Barnes, Robert S. Danforth Professor and Chair of Religion
  • Ohio Wesleyan University, Andrea Colvin, Associate Professor of Spanish
  • Wabash College, Adriel M. Trott, Professor of Philosophy, Andrew T. and Anne Ford Chair in the Liberal Arts
  • The College of Wooster, Ibra Sene, Associate Professor of History

Learn more about the Fellows here

TEACHING and LEARNING

Teaching: Are grading practices ‘out of whack’? (Beth McMurtrie, The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 6, 2025)

A Way to Save the Essay (opinion) (Lily Abadal, Inside Higher Ed, November 7, 2025):  We can encourage slow thinking by reimagining the essay as a scaffolded, in-class—and AI-free—assignment.

Agentic AI Invading the LMS and Other Things We Should Know  (John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, November 07, 2025):  A Q&A with Marc Watkins, director of the AI Institute for Teachers.

5 Reasons Why Faculty Should Collect Class Data (opinion) (Keenan Hartert, Inside Higher Ed, November 12, 2025). 

Faculty Lead AI Usage Conversations on Campus (Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed, November 11, 2025): Survey data shows a majority of college students are aware of appropriate AI use cases in the classroom because their instructors—not administrators—set the expectations.

TODAY’S STUDENTS

New Thinking in College Student Mental Health (Marjorie Malpiede, Learning Well, November 11, 2025):  An interview with Alexis Redding: psychologist, researcher, and faculty co-chair of Higher Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education .

The Other Engagement Problem (Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, November 10, 2025):  A third of students don’t participate outside of class. What can be done to boost campus involvement?

Why Competitive College Students Feel They’re Falling Behind Before They’ve Even Begun (Scott Carlson, The Edge, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 6, 2025):  How the fear of falling behind affects competitive college students.

AROUND THE GLCA

Ohio Wesleyan University receives a 10 million gift to endow the Smith Center for Faculty Excellence.

Editor: Colleen Monahan Smith ([email protected])

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