Teaching Philosophies & Best Practices

AI Tools for Higher Education Instructors

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming higher education, offering instructors powerful tools to enhance teaching, streamline administrative tasks, and personalize student learning experiences. AI can be used by instructors in a variety of ways to aid in the research and writing process, bring efficiency and creativity to assignment and rubric creation, assist with written feedback, source and synthesize readings, and construct conversational spaces for students (e.g. interactive roleplay scenarios for counseling psychology students).

AI Tools to Consider:

• Claude.ai (https://claude.ai) - Developed by Anthropic, Claude is an LLM conversational AI assistant that excels at analysis, writing, and problem-solving tasks. Instructors can use Claude to generate discussion questions, create rubrics, draft syllabi, explain complex concepts in multiple ways, or get feedback on assignment designs. Its ability to process long documents makes it particularly useful for analyzing student papers or synthesizing research articles.  Unlike some other LLMs, Claude as a platform has a more "constitutional" or "ethical" framework which helps shape the way it combs the internet and interacts with users.

• ResearchRabbit (https://researchrabbit.ai) - This free tool revolutionizes literature review processes by visualizing connections between research papers and suggesting relevant studies based on your collection. Instructors can use ResearchRabbit to stay updated in their field, quickly identify seminal works for course readings, or help students navigate scholarly literature. The platform creates interactive networks showing how papers cite each other, making it easier to understand the scholarly conversation around any topic.

• LitMaps (https://litmaps.com) - LitMaps is an innovative literature mapping tool that helps instructors and students visualize scholarly research landscapes through interactive citation networks. By starting with a single "seed" article, LitMaps automatically generates a visual map showing related papers, citation relationships, and research trajectories over time. Instructors can use this tool to demonstrate how academic conversations evolve, help students identify research gaps for projects, or curate reading lists that show the progression of ideas in a field. The platform's discovery features also alert users to newly published papers related to their maps, making it valuable for staying current with emerging scholarship and teaching students effective research strategies. 

• Google NotebookLM (https://notebooklm.google.com) - Google's NotebookLM allows users to upload documents and interact with them through AI-powered conversations. Instructors can create "notebooks" from syllabi, textbooks, or lecture notes, then use the AI to generate study guides, FAQs, or quiz questions. The tool cites specific sources from uploaded materials, ensuring accuracy and helping students locate information in course readings. Because it is part of the Google Suite, content can be created and stored with the same level of security as your institutional Google account.  Additionally, this tool helps instructors control the source material (vs. combing sources from the entire internet).

• Canva (https://canva.com) - Canva (freemium model) has integrated AI features that help instructors create visually engaging course materials without design expertise. The platform's AI-powered "Magic Design" can generate presentation slides, infographics, worksheets, and social media graphics from simple text prompts. Instructors can use Canva to design professional-looking documents, create visual aids for lectures, develop branded course materials, or even help students learn to communicate complex information visually. Canva Pro also offers design assists with video creation. 

When implementing AI tools, instructors should maintain transparency with students about how AI is being used (model what is expected from students), address academic integrity considerations, and ensure these technologies complement rather than replace critical thinking and human interaction in learning.

*The above content written in collaboration with Claude.ai 😉

Backward Design helps ensure that the components of our course or workshop build toward our intended learning outcomes, and helps move us from a model of learning as content coverage to a model of learning as opportunity to engage in practice. The basic idea is that we begin with the end goals, and then work our way backward to determine not only what content to cover but how to provide learners opportunities to be introduced to concepts (knowledge), practice applying skills, and offer their practice up for feedback, refinement, and more growth. 

Backward Design helps us ask

• What do we want learners to know?

• What do we want learners to be able to do?

• How will we know that they've learned what we want them to learn?

• How will we know they can do what we want them to be able to do?

UW (Wisconsin) Backward Design

Watch the video and read more on Backward Design from the University of Wisconsin

Scholarly Articles on Backward Design

Bowen Ryan S. (2017). Understanding by Design. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved 23 August 2019 from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/understanding-by-design/ 

Wiggins, G.P. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design (Vol. Expanded 2nd ed). Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=133964&site=eds-live  

[retrieve through The Seattle School library]

In order to foster robust student engagement and a safe, inclusive classroom culture, it is wise for instructors to make space for cultivating agreed-upon classroom norms & standards.  These norms might be expectations provided by the instructor in the syllabus from the start of a course, or else they may be a jumping off point from which a classroom community might work to expand upon as a group (usually established during the first class meeting time).  Classroom norms can/should apply in both virtual and on campus classroom spaces: wherever students and faculty are meeting and engaging in learning together, and every classroom environment will look a bit different depending on the instructor, the content, the size of the class, the modality, etc. .  To help get you started, the examples below have been used in TSS faculty syllabi with additional resources and links provided at the end of this section.

Example 1: Guidelines for Discussions and Class Presence (applicable to all types of classes, sourced from syllabi by Dr. Lauren Sawyer)

• Be present: Deep learning occurs best when we opt to unplug and focus. Be willing to be as present as possible to yourself, the materials, and others, even if only for a short time.

• Presume welcome: Hospitality is a key ingredient in cultivating a space for collective learning. It means to welcome one another with openness, curiosity, generosity and care. Try to extend (and be open to receiving) hospitality.

• Rather than judgment, turn to wonder: When your first response is to lash out in response to something that offends you, rather than judge, become curious. “I wonder why they believe that?” Or more importantly, “I wonder why I’m having such an intense reaction to what I just saw or heard. What can I learn from what I’m feeling?”

• Think twice before speaking more than once: People process information in different ways and at different speeds. Our hope is to make room for everyone to feel as if there is time and space for their voice in the discussion.

• We come as equals: The learning space is about valuing every member in the community, regardless of social, economic, professional, or educational status.

• Reserve the right to end when the discussion is over: It’s important to have a clear stopping point when engaging difficult matters. When you leave the classroom, it is okay to say “no thanks” to further discussion of opinions and narratives shared during the appointed class time.

Adapted from the work of Crumpton, Stephanie M. "Trauma-Sensitive Pedagogy." In Teaching Sexuality and Religion in Higher Education: Embodied Learning, Trauma Sensitive Pedagogy, and Perspective Transformation. Edited by Darryl W. Stephens and Kate Ott, 30-43. New York: Routledge, 2020. 

Example 2: Guidelines for Zoom (specifically applicable for online classrooms, sourced from syllabi by Dr. Kj Swanson)

• Our Zoom space is a classroom. Just as you would show up to a campus classroom for a designated set of time with your materials handy, your phone on silent, and fully clothed, show up for your Zoom course as well. 

• Designate a learning workspace from where you will attend live Zoom class. Have your books handy, paper or blank screens for writing, and reduce all potential distractions that you can. 

  • • Driving, lying in bed, doing laundry, taking a walk, cooking, riding the ferry, sitting on the back porch: these are all great things but should be done before or after class, not during.

    • You can’t be in two places at once, so arrange your schedules accordingly. If you couldn’t pick your friend up at airport while attending a campus course, the same applies to Zoom class. 

• Default to having your camera on. Most of our Zoom time will be spent interacting with one another, so seeing each other’s’ faces and reactions is a big part of that. There will generally be times, such as free-writing or solo activities, when it makes sense to mute your video, but in general, plan to show your face and see others’. 

  • • If your WIFI is struggling, muting video can often help, but ideally, wouldn’t need to be off all the time.

    • If you do step away to use the restroom, etc., muting your screen helps prevent your roommate or cat from photobombing the class.

• It’s an online space, but its classroom engagement. In the past decade, our methods of online interaction have exploded in styles, tones, methods, and purposes. Unconsciously, you may find yourself responding to the class space as if it’s like other online spaces you are more used to, whether that’s social media, networking sites, etc.  Pay attention  to what and how you share during class. 

  • • Different courses and instructors will use Zoom’s CHAT feature in different ways, which will generally be communicated—often a space to post questions at specific times. No matter what, it may be helpful to think of the CHAT feature as a microphone, not a feed. When a microphone is passed around the room, we all wait, listen, and then respond. Filling the CHAT with commentary can be distracting for various types of learners and can equate to talking (typing) while others are speaking. Show hospitality. 

• Come to class. All courses have their own attendance polices, found in the syllabus. But showing up is about showing up for each other as much as for yourself. Unpreventable absences happen for all of us from time to time but showing ready to work should be your default. 

Additional Resources:

• Establishing Community Agreements & Classroom Norms, Cornell University Center for Teaching Innovation

• Setting Norms & Commitments, Stanford University Teaching Commons

• Suggested Norms for Online Classes, Stanford University IT Teaching Resources

Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching

https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/teaching-guides/

Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching curates guides on a wide range of pedagogical topics, grounded in scholarship with discussion of best practices.

University of Wisconsin-Madison’s EXCEL Program

EXCEL: Extending Teaching Professional Development to the Classroom

https://edinnovation.wisc.edu/excel/

The Flipped Classroom teaching model reverses the traditional model of teaching, whereby instructors assign pre-reading, hold lecture in class, assign homework, and repeat. In a Flipped Classroom, the learning structure is flipped and the instructor uses pre-reading/viewing/listening and recorded lectures to allow students to complete passive learning at home while prioritizing active learning activities during synchronous class time.

The underlying assumptions behind the flipped model are: 

• Students learn more by doing, practicing, and creating than they do by passively listening. 

• More generative questions will be raised after students work with the material on their own. 

• Synchronous class time is valuable, and should be used for active learning. 

• When students engage with one another, they develop more nuanced and complex thinking. 

• When class time is spared a live lecture, more content can be covered in a term. 

Research-Based Recommendations for Flipped Learning:

• Create quality videos to prevent distractions due to audio/video quality

• Keep lectures interesting and limit length. 

• Pair with other pedagogical strategies such as JiTT, games, etc. 

• Create a social experience for students during class time (group work, peer-to-peer)

• Provide opportunities for immediate feedback to better measure personal learning or gaps in knowledge

• Consistently organize content for ease of access to students (by using a template, for example)

Further Reading

• Harvard University Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning | Active Learning

• University of Texas at Austin Center for Teaching and Learning | Flipped Classroom 

• Al-Samarraie, H., Shamsuddin, A. & Alzahrani, A.I. A flipped classroom model in higher education: a review of the evidence across disciplines

• Stephen Noonoo | Why Flipped Learning is Still Going Strong 10 Years Later 

• Flipped Learning | Topics and Tutorials

Bean, John C. (2011). Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. Chapter 7: Informal, Exploratory Writing Activities. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1ll-kXNem0AoYLBTcqNVkfl6XMrlafACB

https://resources.depaul.edu/teaching-commons/teaching-guides/feedback-grading/Pages/low-stakes-assignments.aspx

Low-Stakes Writing Assignments. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo.

https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/developing-assignments/cross-discipline-skills/low-stakes-writing-assignments

As scholars, we often ask questions, collect data, and ask questions. We often share our results and allow others the opportunity to replicate and share their results. When we apply this concept to our teaching, we refer to it as Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL).  This practice can sometimes require feedback from students and an effort from the instructor to try new approaches to teaching such as using technology. 

Resources: 

Elon University Center for Engaged Learning (for many resources and a definition for SOTL) https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/studying-engaged-learning/

International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning - holds annual conferences and publishes an interdisciplinary journal https://www.issotl.com/

The Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning is a journal for interdisciplinary scholarship on teaching and learning housed at Indiana University https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/josotl

University of Washington's Center for Teaching and Learning provides a list of interdisciplinary and discipline-specific SOTL journals and conferences https://www.washington.edu/teaching/programs/teaching-and-learning-symposium/scholarship-of-teaching-and-learning/

TILT is a movement in higher education to make assignments and learning activities more transparent and thus more accessible to a wider range of learners. It involves being explicit about the purpose, tasks, and criteria for success for any learning opportunity. 

TILT Framework

Website: https://tilthighered.com/tiltexamplesandresources 

ASU Instruction by Design: Going Full TILT

Listen to "Going Full TILT: Supporting Learner Success Through Intentional Transparency" (Podcast on SoundCloud)

TILT and Transparency

Website: https://tilthighered.com/transparency

Designing Transparent Assignments for Equitable Learning Opportunities

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqUQhSKmD9U&feature=youtu.be 

Backward Design helps ensure that the components of our course or workshop build toward our intended learning outcomes, and helps move us from a model of learning as content coverage to a model of learning as opportunity to engage in practice. The basic idea is that we begin with the end goals, and then work our way backward to determine not only what content to cover but how to provide learners opportunities to be introduced to concepts (knowledge), practice applying skills, and offer their practice up for feedback, refinement, and more growth. 

Backward Design helps us ask

• What do we want learners to know?

• What do we want learners to be able to do?

• How will we know that they've learned what we want them to learn?

• How will we know they can do what we want them to be able to do?

UW (Wisconsin) Backward Design

Watch the video and read more on Backward Design from the University of Wisconsin

Scholarly Articles on Backward Design

Bowen Ryan S. (2017). Understanding by Design. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved 23 August 2019 from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/understanding-by-design/ 

Wiggins, G.P. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design (Vol. Expanded 2nd ed). Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=133964&site=eds-live  

[retrieve through The Seattle School library]