With the reelection of Donald Trump, a candidate who has flaunted his desire for autocracy—aided and abetted by a Republican-controlled Congress that will not constrain him with guardrails—the United States is now poised to become an authoritarian state ruled by plutocrats and fossil fuel interests. It is now, in short, a petrostate. –professor Michael Mann, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists How can we do climate crisis work within the higher education

Access has been restored to the Student Perceptions of Learning Survey (SPLS); the tool used to gather end-of-course feedback. The service provider issues reported earlier this week have been resolved.   What do you need to do?  Students: Please finish any end-of-course surveys you have been invited to complete.  Instructors and Administrators: Management panels, reports, and dashboards are available.  If you experience any errors when trying

5-Minute Educational Technology Tips Based on feedback from our monthly workshops, we have developed an ongoing series of brief 5-minute videos to help you with D2L Brightspace and other educational technology tools. End-of-Semester 5-Minute Videos Upload Grades to D2L from a Spreadsheet Use an exported CSV file from the grade book to manually upload grades to D2L. This video will show how to export the file from your course, edit

I want to thank David Stein for sharing his insights into teaching and working with AI. David Stein’s passion for teaching and his innovative approach to technology have made him a trailblazer in integrating generative AI into education. As an educator with a career devoted to guiding diverse learners in harnessing technology, it’s no surprise he was an early adopter of AI tools. Our conversation revolved around how playful,

How are colleges and universities responding to financial pressures? I’ve been blogging about some answers to this question for nearly all of 2024 (sample posts: March 1, March 20, March 28, April, May, June, July, September), partly as evidence for some points in the book I’m writing.  I also think it’s important to document these institutional strategies and tactics, including for noting the human impact. Today I’ll share exemplary stories from the past two months since

At the end of Fall 2023, we asked students to share the names of any instructors they thought had used Canvas particularly well. We were thrilled to see dozens of instructors recommended, and are pleased to share with you a selection of these student-approved Canvas course sites. We hope this series provides inspiration for instructors who are either just starting out with Canvas or are reimagining how they organize their course sites.

Recently, I had a conversation with Robert Duvall, Senior Lecturer of Computer Science, to discuss generative AI and teaching. This interview is part of a series of posts in which Learning Innovation and Lifetime Education will speak to instructors across the university to capture their insight into this emerging trend in teaching and learning. Robert Duvall primarily teaches upper-level undergraduate students in the Computer Science department at Duke. Some of

How is international higher education enrollment changing? Today I’m blogging the release of new research into this subject.  This morning the new Open Doors report appeared, from the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the United States Departments of State and Education. I’ll share notes and a summary along with some reflections. This post is done quickly, basically a live-blog of the announcement, so it might appear to be more

What might a second Trump administration mean for academia? I’ve been exploring this question as a futurist for some time. Way back in 2016 I blogged about Trump’s higher education possibilities.  We read Project 2025 for months in our open, online bookclub.  I dug into JD Vance’s academic attitudes when Trump picked him as VP. In October we held a Future Trends Forum scenario exercise, exploring a Trump win (including

(Greetings from a darkening November. I have several substantial posts in the pipeline concerning the election.  I’ve been sharing thoughts across social media and my Patreon. Yet for today, on a weekend, I wanted to share something lighter and perhaps inspiring, while it is still fresh in mind.  This is a true story about a delightful thing with no politics.  If you’re in the mood, enjoy.  Then look to my