Teaching involves more than just providing information; it is about guiding students through growth, discovery, and change. College educators aim to create experiences that challenge students, nurture their potential, and prepare them for independent navigation of the world. The Monarch butterfly’s life cycle—from caterpillar to chrysalis to flight—serves as a powerful metaphor for transformation, patience,…
A linguistics professor, teaching during the rise of generative AI, explores using AI as a collaborative tool to enhance student learning. The professor found that AI errors can lead to valuable teaching moments. Despite AI’s polished mistakes, these errors can be used to foster critical thinking, research validation, and active learning. Students learn to be…
Every semester, students encounter major difficulties in their courses. They may feel discouraged, fall behind, or think about dropping out (Trusty et al., 2025). Educators invest significant time and creativity to motivate these students to persevere and keep up with their coursework (Blanco et al., 2025; Faucett, 2025). Often, students’ struggles are not due to…
Many college instructors face a familiar issue: students can discuss the “main idea” of readings but struggle with specific passages, argument development, or in-depth text engagement. This surface-level knowledge often stems not from actual reading but from AI-generated summaries. Tools like ChatGPT and NotebookLM provide quick overviews of complex texts, which can aid review or…
Asynchronous online courses typically have a consistent weekly format. While students find this setup orderly and useful, they also mention that it can become monotonous. They progress through modules, complete tasks, and advance to the next week with limited opportunities for novelty or surprise. To introduce moments of curiosity, I adopted a strategy common in…
Mather and Scheepers (2025) highlight that feedback is crucial in education. Despite instructors dedicating substantial time to detailed comments, students frequently disregard feedback. Written feedback is often ignored, misused, or misunderstood. This raises the question: why do students not engage with feedback, and how can teachers modify their methods? Here are some reasons students might…
Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to transform the job market, prompting higher education institutions to adjust in order to equip students for a new professional environment. Business leaders are acknowledging the significant changes on the horizon, including shifts in job roles and the automation of mundane tasks. The core challenge is that AI will replace…
Educators in various fields are trying out new teaching methods like flipped classrooms, active learning, and flexible assessments to boost student engagement. However, many still find that students participate without truly owning their learning. This indicates that the issue might not be the teaching methods themselves, but rather when meaning is introduced into the learning…
Cybersecurity experts, including Fred Heiding, Josephine Wolff, James Mickens, and Robert Knake, have stressed the urgent need for government and business leaders to establish regulations for AI cybersecurity. The rise of agentic AI models presents both opportunities and threats, with the potential for misuse by cybercriminals. During a Berkman Klein Center discussion, experts highlighted the…
Harvard President Alan Garber expressed concerns about the potential for the United States to experience a brain drain similar to post-war Europe, during a discussion with Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker. The event, titled “Universities, Democracy, and the American Future,” took place at 92NY in New York. Garber highlighted the parallels between today’s America…
