HomeBlogPodcasts AI and Engaged Learning in Higher Educationby Jessie L. Moore and Nolan SchultheisApril 7, 2025 Share: Section NavigationSkip section navigationIn this sectionPodcasts – Home 60-Second SoTL Limed: Teaching with a Twist Making College “Worth It” Special Series First-Year Seminars Land Acknowledgement Making College “Worth It” – Season 2, Episode 7 In this episode, Amanda Sturgill shares insights from her ongoing exploration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and engaged learning in higher education. Dr. Sturgill is the 2024-2026 Center for Engaged Learning Scholar and an associate professor of journalism at Elon University. We discuss the potential benefits of integrating GenAI into higher education teaching and learning activities, as well as tips for students, faculty, and staff who are navigating this quickly evolving technology. View a transcript of this episode. Meet our Guest Amanda Sturgill, associate professor of journalism, is the 2024-2026 CEL Scholar. Her work focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and engaged learning in higher education. She is the author of Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News, #WeAreAltGov: Social Media Resistance from th Inside, and editor of multiple other works, as well as the host of the UnSpun podcast, which covers news literacy and critical thinking. Episode Credits This episode is co-hosted by Jessie L. Moore, Director of Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning, and Nolan Schultheis, a second-year student at Elon University, studying Psychology with an interest in law. Nolan Schultheis also edited the episode. Making College “Worth It” is produced by Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning. Episode art was created by Jessie L. Moore and Jennie Goforth. Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash. Funky Percussions is by Denys Kyshchuk (@audiocoffeemusic) - https://www.audiocoffee.net/. Soft Beat is by ComaStudio. Explore Center Resources Related to this Episode Assessment in the Upside Down: Academic AI with Students as the Audience Recently, I downloaded Grammarly’s 2025–26 AI Trends Report. It had an interesting statement in its introduction: “Higher education is no longer at the beginning of its AI journey, but clarity of direction is still emerging” (2). Given other things I… Academic AI and Audience: Thoughts for Research Would you use AI to create materials for a tenure portfolio? How about a reference letter for a student’s graduate school application? For a conference? If so, what would you do with it? As faculty consider the risks and benefits of AI use, one area to think about is the… AI Literacy and Higher Education Instructors Is it time to teach kindergarteners prompt engineering, yet? This New York Times article is about grade school education, but I thought the subhead was telling: “Artificial intelligence companies are urging teachers to prepare students for an ‘A.I. -driven future.’ What that means varies from… The Human in the Loop: Considerations for Generative AI in Academia There’s a concept I’ve seen in many papers investigating generative AI (genAI) in education—the human in the loop. It’s important enough that Anthropic, makers of Claude, include it in their usage policy, stating, “When using our products or services to provide advice, recommendations, or in subjective… Might AI Assistance Take the Joy Out of Learning? There are different origins and interpretations of what liberal education means, but a favorite of mine is the idea that a liberal education liberates. You gain the ability to think critically and to know how to learn, which liberates you to learn other things, enabling you to act in line with your values. Generative AI (GenAI) tools have… 1 2 … 7 8 >
