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…
Michael Sandel engaged in a conversation with Chrystia Freeland. Sandel, a professor known for his work on justice, accepted the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture, highlighting the importance of philosophy in addressing significant questions. In his 1996 book “Democracy’s Discontent,” Sandel foresaw how globalization might reinforce divisions and prompt a politics focused on reclaiming…
Jayne Anne Phillips, in her memoir “Small Town Girls: A Writer’s Memoir,” reflects on her childhood days spent at a beauty shop in her rural West Virginia hometown. The memoir, published by Alfred A. Knopf, captures her experiences and observations from an era when beauty shops were exclusively female spaces, devoid of male presence except…
