Founder and chief executive of degree management ed-tech Stellic Sabih Bin Wasi used his own student experience of interacting with university systems to improve the student experience.
His platform, adopted by 70 universities, is designed to bring together academic planning, advising and scheduling so his peers can better “work out the complexity of higher education.”
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I drew much inspiration from this morning’s listen to Derrick Bruff’s interview with Jane Southworth about AI across the curriculum. Derrick Bruff’s podcast, Intentional Teaching, gives us bountiful opportunities to learn from the experiences of educators who are transforming educational experiences for students across a wide variety of disciplines and contexts. While the episode did focus on what is obvious from the title, AI Across the Curriculum, I drew a lot of inspiration well beyond just that topic of AI. There are many layers of what they talked about that go well beyond the broad topic of artificial intelligence. Other aspects of leading and teaching within a university context are shared well beyond the particular initiative they discuss.
Jane talks about the difficulty of making such a massive change across a complex institution. She made a few jokes about the difficulties, although she said it was such lightheartedness that I felt such kindness toward her in what must have been such challenging endeavors. Consider what it takes to make something like this happen, and all the committee work that it takes, all the different people that are need to be talked to, all the perspectives to consider. The intricacies, not just to make something work, but to make the fruit of that work visible to students such that they enroll in the program and pursue the educational aims beyond the requirements for their majors. Jane shares examples of them starting an AI certificate program within their curriculum. The mammoth effort that it was to make that technically possible from an operations standpoint, such that someone could take the right classes and that they would go through all the curriculum committees and get that to work within their policies and procedures is one thing. But another layer I found quite fascinating was how do you then make that visible to students such that they’re even aware that this certificate exists and that they find it of interest and worthwhile to pursue further learning.
As Sam Cooke sang years ago, I also “don’t know much about geography.” There’s no doubt in my mind that I have subscribed to some of the myths that Jane described about her discipline of geography. Jane described how in the United Kingdom, when she was in college, that it was the third or fourth most popular degree. Geography graduates found themselves receiving among the highest earnings as they left school, as well as being surprised when they discovered just how much more the field is than studying rocks, like they had initially believed.
In the show notes for the episode, Derek shares a couple of resources that come both from conversations with Jane, as well as from his ongoing collaborations with Flower Darby, co-author of Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes and The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching. The first article linked by Derek in the show notes is Developing a Model for AI Across the Curriculum: Transforming the Higher Education Landscape via Innovation in AI Literacy by Southworth et al. The second article was Building an AI University: An Administrator’s Guide by Joe Glover. I’m grateful, as always, to Derek and all of the opportunities he makes available to those of us interested in teaching with intention.
The last episode from HEDx’s Future Solutions conference features interim pro-vice-chancellor of teaching and learning at the University of Queensland Professor Kelly Mathews.
She joins Martin Betts to discuss a survey of over 8000 university students about how they use artificial intelligence.
She is followed by a panel that included deputy vice-chancellor (education and students) at the University of Technology Sydney Kylie Readman, deputy vice-chancellor (academic) at Deakin University Professor Lix Johnson, vice-chancellor of Western Sydney University George Williams, president of Torrens University Linda Brown of Torrens, and industry executive of higher education at Microsoft Katie Ford.
They call on universities to partner with students and the tech company eco-system. Is HE brave enough to get out of its lane?
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I was delighted to speak with Cristi Ford, D2L’s VP of Academic Affairs, about durable skills and AI in higher education. You can find the episode in all the usual places:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-teaching-skills-can-complement-the-use-of-ai/id1663544722?i=1000649960964
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1iYsMHqAKXzts9i4skDHPE
YouTube (audio only): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE6bbJHSa-A
Cristi is a delightful, thoughtful educator and a pleasure to talk with about these important issues. (Side note: D2L is building up a very impressive staff roster. They have more people I would gladly share a meal with—and more that I would call my personal friends—than any other company in EdTech today.)
The podcast flowed directly from a talk I gave at a D2L Ignite conference in Orlando, which, I’m gratified to say, has brought me more meaningful feedback and new connections than any talk I’ve given in a long time. We often talk aspirationally about AI being a humanizing technology. In my talk, I start by putting the idea of rapid change, including AI, in the context of humans learning from other humans. The heart of the talk is my own deeply personal story about how ChatGPT helped me cope with a terrible crisis. And I close by arguing that teaching skills are durable skills. Cristi was in the audience. Much of our podcast conversation elaborates on some of those themes in what was a packed 45-minute talk.
Below, you can see my original talk, recorded for my hospitalized sister on my iPhone.
May 9, 2022 – Edu Alliance announces the launch of Higher Ed Without Borders a podcast series dedicated to education professionals worldwide. The series is hosted by Dr. Senthil Nathan and Dean Hoke co-founders of Edu Alliance. Each episode is a half-an-hour-long conversation with international thought leaders that will enlighten and provide some new thoughts on critical issues facing higher education globally.
The series will examine critical issues in higher education that are common to universities throughout the world. The introduction episode titled “What Makes This New Series Unique?” Dr. Senthil Nathan and Dean Hoke, discuss why they created this international higher education podcast series.
The initial 13-part series will begin on June 7th and a new episode will air every two weeks. The free podcast series will be available on Spotify, Apple, Google Podcasts, IHeart, Deezer, Player FM, and others, just search for the phrase “Higher Ed Without Borders”.
Higher Ed Without Borders is conducting a short survey asking members of the higher education community to suggest future topics and guests. You can participate by going to Podcast Topics and Guest Suggestions.
If your organization wants to know more about how Edu Alliance can best serve you, please connect with either Dean Hoke in the United States or Dr. Senthil Nathan in the United Arab Emirates.
The podcast is a production of Edu Alliance an education consulting firm located in Bloomington, Indiana and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Founded in 2014 Edu Alliance assist higher education institutions worldwide on a variety of mission critical projects. Our consultants are accomplished leaders who share the benefit of their experience to diagnose and solve challenges. We have provided consulting and executive search services for over 35 higher education institutions in Australia, Egypt, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Nigeria, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, and the United States.
A special thanks to:
White Rabbit in Bloomington, Indiana who is providing graphics, and audio support.
Higher Education Digest is the media partner for Higher Ed Without Borders podcast. The Digest is an independent Higher Education Portal and Magazine.
I started producing weekly Teaching in Higher Ed podcast episodes in June of 2014. Since that time, a new episode has aired each week. This is something that I’m both proud of – yet a little horrified that I have got a streak going that may not be sustainable (or make sense) in the long run. As of today (October 2), I also have another streak going… I’ve closed my Apple Watch rings for 334 days straight. That means I’ve done at least 30 minutes of cardio, stood for at least a minute for 12 hours, and burned at least 440 calories during the day. I’m thinking it might be healthy if I were to not focus as much as I have been on maintaining either of these streaks and give myself a bit of a break. But I plan on sticking with them both (if I can) at least until the end of 2021.
A few years ago, Dave and I switched hosting companies for our podcasts. That’s why, instead of this being a list of the top 21 episodes of all time, I’m sticking with the top 21 since 2019. Someday, I might go back and combine the data from before the switch and now. However, for now, I’m keeping it simple.
Here are some other more recent popular episodes from 2021:
The first person to inspire me to list out annually which podcasts are taking up my “ear share” was Bryan Alexander. In January of 2021, he wrote up his most recent list of what podcasts he’s listening to, while admitting he hadn’t done this in a while. I have also missed keeping up with what I sometimes think of as an annual list. I wrote up favorite podcast lists in 2019, 2018, 2017, 2014, and also published an article about podcasting in the University of Austin’s Flow Journal in 2017.
Here’s my 2021 list of favorite podcasts, organized by category. At the end of the list, for the first time, I select ten shows that if I was only allowed that many to listen to each week, I would choose. Note to self: Why did you do that to yourself? Note to readers: Because I listen to a podcast, doesn’t mean I agree with what is said in episodes… I appreciate having my mind-expanded, yet do find that I sometimes wish some of the people I listen to would do a bit more of the same, which you will read about a little toward the end of this post.
See more technology-oriented podcasts that I listen to under the: Podcasts I Pay For section.
The overwhelming majority of podcasts remain free in 2021. However, some podcasts have ad-free options, while others use some form of a subscription model. I pay for two podcasts (one directly; the other, as a part of a broader, content subscription).
Narrowing down all of the wonderful podcasts, above, to just ten is incredibly hard to do. The world of podcasting is rich with compelling content. Additionally, I enjoy some shows because they are “easy” to listen to – in that I don’t have to think very hard while taking them in. I’m trying to be realistic about which ones I tend to move to the top of my listening queue versus ones I “think” I should be listening to more. I suspect I would change my mind on this attempt at narrowing my favorites down to an arbitrary number of them, were I to compile such a list tomorrow.
In no particular order:
