Category: student motivation

What Can College Instructors Offer Their Students in the Age of AI? – Faculty Focus

The Age of AI is Upon Us.

Generative AI is changing the landscape of higher education, in both good and bad ways (Balch, 2023). In a world where AI skills and fluency will be necessary and marketable, colleges and universities have made efforts to embrace AI in the classroom (e.g., Balch & Blanck, 2025; Butulis, 2023; Parks & Oslick, 2024) and to provide their students with instruction and practice in using AI in productive and ethical ways (e.g., Schoeder, 2024). As the capacity of AI grows to complete increasingly complex tasks, we (as college instructors) may wonder what we can offer our students in the age of AI. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recently stated in an interview that advances in AI will mean the humans will no longer be needed “for most things,” and stated that doctors and teachers in particular could be replaced by AI (CNBC, 2025). Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman stated the AI, because it will have the ability to complete tasks faster and more reliably than human workers, will change occupations broadly and will have a “hugely destabilizing” impact on the occupational landscape. Suleyman further stated that the fundamental purpose of AI is to be labor replacing (CNBC, 2025).

In higher education, we see our students use AI in many ways, to provide both authorized and unauthorized aid in their completion of assignments. We have crafted AI policies to help our students understand how AI is and is not permitted in our classes, and some of us have devoted energy to try to detect and police AI use in our classes. Given this reality in which AI can provide and synthesize information for and to our students at their requests in seconds, it is not completely paranoid to ask the question, “What can we, as college instructors, offer our students in the age of AI?”

Why College Instructors Matter: A Student’s Perspective

I had a conversation with one of my students recently about this exact question. He visited my office and in the course of our conversation he asked me how I thought I would use AI as a college instructor moving forward. I admit that I did not have the most thoughtful or eloquent answer as I discussed trying to keep up with advances, to recognize the utility of AI, but also to continue to foster critical thinking skills in my students. He told me that he uses ChatGPT all the time (and he is not alone among students in doing so; Kichizo Terry, 2023). He told me how quick and convenient it is. He surprised me, though, by telling me that he uses ChatGPT despite thinking that it would create “brain rot” in him and other students because it was doing their thinking for them. He then gave me the answer about what we can offer our students. He said that college instructors are not needed to give information to their students, at least not the foundations, definitions, etc., that comprise of a lot of traditional lecturing. He said that students could read much of the content off our PowerPoint slides and in the assigned readings without AI. What college instructors are needed for, he said, is to motivate our students to learn. We are needed to inspire students to come to class, to ask questions, to work out the answers with them. We are needed to engage them and to help them develop curiosity and critical thinking skills to offset their potential AI-induced brain rot. He said that students have had access to the information we teach prior to AI. They could always find and read the content on their own. What we can do as instructors is inspire them to learn the content, to ask their own questions, and to perhaps motivate their AI use to serve their own curiosity beyond the conversations in our classes.

Our Role as Instructors in the Age of AI

This is our role as instructors in the age of AI. This was our role as instructors prior to the advent of AI. As instructors, our role is not just to provide access to content. We cannot compete with the other resources available to our students in our fundamental content knowledge. Our role is to excite our students about the content. Our role is to inspire our students to learn that content. Our role is to bring PEACE to our classes so that our students will see the value in our classes and will engage in our classes to deepen their curiosity and their learning. PEACE is an acronym that stands for Preparation, Expertise, Authenticity, Caring, and Engagement (Saucier, 2019; Saucier, 2022; Saucier, Jones, Schiffer, & Renken, 2022). Beginning on the first days of our classes (Saucier, 2020; Saucier, Renken, Fulton, & Schiffer, 2024), we can demonstrate to our students that we have a plan, that we have content knowledge, that we are real living human beings with relatable thoughts and emotions, that we care about our students and their learning, and that we are enthusiastic and invested in the content we will learn with them. We can nurture our students’ intrinsic motivation to learn the content through demonstrations of our own engagement, activating the process of trickle-down engagement by which our own engagement as instructors promotes our students’ engagement and their subsequent learning (Saucier, Miller, Martens, & Jones, 2022). We can cue our engagement in the content by intentionally and explicitly sharing our own enthusiasm about the content and its value and importance (Saucier, Jones, Miller, Schiffer, Mills, & Renken, 2025).

AI is here. It is here to stay. It is a valuable tool that can accomplish important tasks quickly. Our students recognize its value and are already using it in many ways, both in and out of our classes. As college instructors, we are best served in providing our students with something that AI is not yet able to – our authentic investment in the learning, experiences, and success of our students. We have the ability to inspire our students’ wonder and curiosity in ways that will inspire them to be intrinsically motivated to learn and to keep learning. We should embrace this role as we teach in the age of AI.

Donald A. Saucier, Ph.D. (2001, University of Vermont) is a University Distinguished Teaching Scholar and Professor of Psychological Sciences at Kansas State University. Saucier has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and is a Fellow of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and the Midwestern Psychological Association. His awards and honors include the University Distinguished Faculty Award for Mentoring of Undergraduate Students in Research, the Presidential Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Teaching Resource Prize. Saucier is also the Faculty Associate Director of the Teaching and Learning Center at Kansas State University and offers a YouTube channel called “Engage the Sage” that describes his teaching philosophy, practices, and experiences.

References

Balch, D. E. (2023, August 25^th). Artificial intelligence: The rise of ChatGPT and its implications. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/artificial-intelligence-the-rise-of-chatgpt-and-its-implications/

Balch, D. E., & Blanck, R. (2025, March 31^st). AI-powered teaching: Practical tools for community college faculty. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/ai-powered-teaching-practical-tools-for-community-college-faculty/

Butulis, M. (2023, December 6^th). Embracing artificial intelligence in the classroom. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/embracing-artificial-intelligence-in-the-classroom/

CNBC (2025). “Bill Gates: Within 10 years, AI will replace many doctors and teachers—humans won’t be needed ‘for most things’.” Published March 26, 2025.

Kichizio Terry, O. (2023, May 12^th). I’m a student. You have no idea how much we’re using ChatGPT. Chronicles of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/im-a-student-you-have-no-idea-how-much-were-using-chatgpt

Parks, M., & Oslick, M. E. (2024, May 22^nd). Empowering student learning: Navigating artificial intelligence in the college classroom. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/empowering-student-learning-navigating-artificial-intelligence-in-the-college-classroom/

Saucier, D. A. (2019, September 9^th). Bringing PEACE to the classroom. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/philosophy-of-teaching/bringing-peace-to-the-classroom/

Saucier, D. A. (2020). Rocking your first day of class (and beyond!). E-xcellence in Teaching, Society for the Teaching of Psychology. Retrieved from: https://teachpsych.org/E-xcellence-in-Teaching-Blog/8454525

Saucier, D. A. (2022, February 23^rd). Bringing PEACE to support all students. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from: https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2022/02/23/professors-should-learn-about-respond-students-unique-experiences-opinion

Saucier, D. A., Jones, T. L., Miller, S. S., Schiffer, A. A., Mills, H. D., & Renken, N. D. (2025). Cueing engagement: Applying the trickle-down engagement model to instructors’ in-class behaviors. Teaching of Psychology, 52(1), 45-52.

Saucier, D. A., Jones, T. L., Schiffer, A. A., & Renken, N. D. (2022). The empathetic course design perspective. Applied Economics Teaching Resources, 4(4), 101-111.

Saucier, D. A., Miller, S. S., Martens, A. L., & Jones, T. L. (2022). Trickle down engagement: Effects of perceived teacher and student engagement on learning outcomes. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 33(2), 168-179.

Saucier, D. A., Renken, N. D., Fulton, C. E., & Schiffer, A. A. (2024, August 26^th). Making memories on the first day of class. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/teaching-strategies/making-memories-on-the-first-day-of-class/

Schoeder, R. (2024, July 31^st). Our responsibility to teach AI to students. Insider Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/blogs/online-trending-now/2024/07/31/our-responsibility-teach-ai-students

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May 12, 2025
Taking Grades (Stress) Out of Learning – Faculty Focus
I found myself sitting in a classroom, staring at a test I couldn’t answer. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t recall learning any of the material. The harder I struggled to remember, the more my anxiety grew—until I jolted awake, covered in sweat. It was the same nightmare that had haunted me for over a decade. One day, during a casual conversation, a colleague—a psychology professor—made an unexpected observation: my experience resembled symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Me? Trauma?

My Learning Experience: From a Model Student to Getting Lost

I grew up in China in the 1980s as the only child of factory workers. Having experienced hardship, my parents hoped I would escape their life by earning a college degree. They told me a good education would guarantee a bright future.

From a young age, I pushed myself to excel academically. In my mind, the purpose of learning was to get good grades. Grades were everything—symbols of success and a source of validation. But this came with a constant fear: the fear of failure, of disappointing my parents, and of falling short of expectations.

This fear intensified in high school, where frequent tests ranked students publicly. I studied relentlessly under immense pressure, and my hard work paid off when I was accepted to my desired university. I continued this pattern in college, focused solely on grades and making my parents proud. But when I graduated, I felt lost. I had no clear direction or career. Didn’t my parents tell me a college education would ensure a bright future? Where was my future?

In my confusion, I began reading for curiosity rather than exams. One day, I came across The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang, who critiqued the Chinese education system. He argued that modern education prioritized memorization over true understanding, with grades and diplomas replacing the real purpose of learning. He compared knowledge to an adventurous exploration, best enjoyed with an open and curious mind.¹

That moment of reading was transformative. I realized I had never understood the true purpose of education; I had equated learning with good grades, a narrow and misleading focus. Reflecting on my educational journey, I saw how it had been marked by stress, fear, and a constant chase for perfection.

In that moment, I knew I wanted to become a teacher educator. I wanted to help future teachers see education for what it truly is—a journey of growth, curiosity, and empowerment, not just a pursuit of grades. My goal was to break the cycle of stress and fear that had shaped my own experience and instead inspire educators to foster passion, encourage exploration, and create a lasting, positive impact on their students’ lives.

My Teaching Journey: Cultivating a Growth Mindset Through Ungrading

For the past 11 years, I have been a professor of social studies education, working with both pre-service and in-service teachers. I have never used traditional tests in my classes because I don’t believe that teaching ability can be measured through exams. Instead, I assess my students’ learning through lesson plans, presentations, and projects—assignments that require logical reasoning, creativity, and critical thinking. To accompany this teaching philosophy, I adopt ungrading² in all my courses.

Below are some practices I use in my ungraded class, focusing on learning and growth.

Feedback-Only: No Points

I do not attach points to any assignments. Instead, I provide rich feedback. If students want to know how well they did in an assignment, they must read my feedback. I believe that mistakes are one of the most powerful learning tools. By removing the pressure of grades, students are less afraid to take risks and make errors, knowing they will have opportunities to revise and improve. In my classroom, mistakes aren’t something to fear—they’re an essential part of the learning process.

Steps:
1. Provide explicit instructions in class. Ask for questions to ensure every student understands how to complete the assignment.
2. Follow the “Feedback Sandwich”³ method to give each student rich feedback. Through the Learning Management System (LMS) in my university, Desire2Learn (D2L), I prefer giving feedback through video, allowing my students to hear my voice and see my facial expressions to better understand the tone. This personalized approach makes feedback more engaging and encourages students to reflect, revise, and improve their work.
3. Students revise and resubmit their work.
4. I review their revised work and provide further feedback.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until students’ work reaches the standards and the lesson’s objectives.
Guided Reflections

Reflection is a vital part of learning. It encourages students to recognize the value of their experiences, deepen their self-awareness as learners, and apply their knowledge in meaningful ways to their lives.

In addition to the reflections accompanying projects, I use one mid-term reflection and one end-of-semester. ⁴

Some typical questions in the mid-term reflection include:
- What were your goals for this course?
- What are some of the main things you’ve learned so far?
- Review all your reading quizzes (or any other small assignments). How do you evaluate your preparation for them?
- How many assignments have you completed, including peer evaluations?
- Is there anything remaining uncompleted? If so, please list them here.
  
  Item(s)
  
  Anticipated date(s) of completion
- How do you feel about your participation during class? Explain.
- How many class meetings did you miss? If you missed any, what were the legitimate reasons?
- Is there anything you would like me to help with?
- What would it be if you were to give yourself a grade right now? Why?
Some typical questions in the end-of-semester reflection include:
- Read your (individual assignment) and feedback. Have you revised your work based on the feedback? Why or why not?
- Read your (group project) and feedback. Thinking of your contribution to this project, what did you learn from it?
- What do you know now that you didn’t know at the beginning of the semester?
- After taking this course, what profound insights have you gained about social studies education?
- How many classes did you miss? What legitimate reasons did you have for missing those classes?
- Please suggest a grade for yourself. Justify why you give yourself that grade.
Ungrading may not lighten an instructor’s workload, however, the effort I invested in this approach has proven immensely rewarding. I’ve witnessed a noticeable shift toward more internally motivated students, stronger professor-student relationships, and, most importantly, happier, less stressed students. The sense of fulfillment that comes from these positive changes is unparalleled.

Jing A. Williams is Professor of Social Studies Education at the University of South Dakota (USD). She teaches elementary and secondary social studies methods courses. She is the three-time recipient of the Faculty Excellence Awards in Teaching at the School of Education at USD. In 2024, she was the keynote speaker at the Online Faculty Symposium hosted by USD’s Center for Teaching and Learning. Dr. Williams’ research interest focuses on the global perspective of social studies education. She is the lead author of Teaching with a Global Perspective: Approaches and Strategies for Secondary Social Studies Teachers, published by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) in 2024. She is the Book/Media Review Editor of the Journal of International Social Studies, the official publication of the International Assembly of the NCSS.

¹ Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living (Beijing, China: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1998).

² Susan Blum, Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead, ed. Susan Blum (Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2020).

³ The Muse Editors, “Feedback Sandwich: Does It Really Work? When and how to Use It,” The Muse, 12/23/2024, accessed on December 29, 2024. https://www.themuse.com/advice/feedback-sandwich

⁴ These reflection prompts are revised based on the samples from: Susan Blum, “Just One Change (Just Kidding): Ungrading and Its Necessary Accompaniments,” in Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead, ed. Susan D. Blum (Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2020), 53-73.

References

Blum, Susan. Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead). Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2020.

Fink, L. Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2013.

Lin, Yutang. The Importance of Living. Beijing, China: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1998.

The Muse Editors. “Feedback Sandwich: Does It Really Work? When and how to Use It.” The Muse, 12/23/2024. Accessed on December 29, 2024. https://www.themuse.com/advice/feedback-sandwich
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April 18, 2025
Motivational Force: Building a Foundation for Student Success – Faculty Focus

Eighteen students crammed themselves into a stuffy classroom assigned for my first-year seminar course on a sunny day in September. With desk tops touching and knapsacks piled high, we maneuvered through introductions and the kind of icebreakers that research indicates can strengthen learning outcomes. At one point, I asked these college newcomers to share academic and career aspirations. Their responses were a tribute to the dreams of young minds: future pediatric nurses, speech pathologists, and more than one veterinarian were gathered in our small, unassuming space.

These students appeared motivated to learn—a direct contrast to the disengagement narrative that permeates today’s education circles. But despite the enthusiasm, research points to a far more sobering reality: approximately half of all college students fail to graduate within six years of enrollment. Those rates can be even more perilous for certain cohorts, including recipients of Pell Grants, the federal financial aid awarded to undergraduate students demonstrating need.

Many of the students gathered in my classroom fit within this most vulnerable category and would likely face the types of hurdles that can diminish learning resolve. Academics demands coupled with the pull of daily life can negatively tip the balance of student outcomes, siphoning away student motivation, according to educational scholar Howard McClusky. His Theory of Margin framework likens student motivation to the calibration of “loads,” versus the counter force of resources, or what he refers to as “power.” Students with sufficient margin between these competing forces have the capacity to take on new challenges, including the hard work of learning; students with insufficient margin fall into overwhelm and have a higher rate of failure.

Determined to hold onto and even strengthen the learner motivation that was apparent on day one of my class, I was committed to the following motivational practices that could lessen the load and promote the type of power needed to make it to the finish line. Here’s what that looked like:

Community lies at the heart of successful student outcomes, so emphasizing the relational aspect of learning became a guiding principle for the class. Leveraging the energy of the first few weeks when enthusiasm is especially strong is an opportunity to forge group connections and cultivate peer-to-peer support. Research points to these informal bonds as a vital form of power, so beginning on the first day of class, my students were placed in groups determined by common areas of academic focus and career aspiration. To override reticence to working collaboratively, we spent class-time setting up What’s App groups and practicing the type of outreach and response that familiarized group members with the act of reaching out to one another.

Career Readiness has become a valued currency in today’s higher education sector, not only because it helps ease entry into the workforce but also serves to more deeply bind education with employment. Our class therefore included assignments requiring students to research their future fields. Using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website, students were able to deepen understanding of specific fields in terms of industry growth, income, and even entry requirements. Anchoring aspirations with real-world realities was an opportunity to guide students towards their stated goals in real and relevant ways which further enhanced their learning motivation.

Continual Reflection invites students into their learning journeys while also kick-starting metacognition, thereby contributing to learning motivation and success. The simple act of inviting students to think about their learning process can deepen engagement while helping to nudge knowledge acquisition into retention, the goal of good teaching. Reflection can be as simple as dedicating the last few minutes of class to having students write about what they learned and what they would like to revisit for better understanding. We undertook this exercise in almost every one of our 15 weeks. In addition, students captured their reflections via electronic portfolios that served as a permanent record of their progress.

Harnessing the drive and energy needed to maintain motivation over the course of a semester can present challenges, particularly in our post-pandemic years when factors of isolation, stamina, and access to optimal learning environments have taken their toll. We encountered many stumbling blocks over the course of the semester, but in the end each of my 18 students reached the finish line of the course. Countering learning head winds requires an understanding of the complex phenomenon of learner motivation and then committing to evidence informed practices that can maintain—even strengthen—the energy and drive to succeed. That can mean more work and effort in the classroom, but for instructors committed to student success, this is its own deeply satisfying motivational force.

Juli S. Charkes, EdD, has been a classroom instructor for the past 14 years, teaching organizational leadership, communications, and media studies at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. From 2021 to 2025, she directed the Center for Teaching and Learning at Mercy University, where she oversaw faculty development and strategy across 100 academic programs.

References

Ash, S. L., & Clayton, P. H. (2009). Generating, deepening, and documenting learning: The power of critical reflection in applied learning. Journal of Applied Learning in Higher Education, 1(1), 25-48.

Biney, I. K. (2022). McClusky’s Theory of Margin and its implications on adult learners in higher education institutions. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 28(1), 98-118. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477971421989337

National Center for Education Statistics. (2022). Undergraduate Retention and Graduation Rates. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved May 31, 2022, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/ctr.

Sasan, J. M. V., Tugbong, G. M., & Alistre, K. L. C. (2023). An exploration of icebreakers and their impact on student engagement in the classroom. International Journal of Social Service and Research, 3(11). https://ijssr.ridwaninstitute.co.id/index.php/ijssr/article/view/566

Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.

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February 17, 2025