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 AI and Learning About Cultures Several of the high-impact practices in higher education require learners to practice stepping out of their cultural comfort zone. For instance, a co-op or internship can require adapting to the culture of a workplace. Undergraduate research means learning to… Should AI be Involved in Assessing Student Work? I was at a campus workshop this week, and we discussed this recent article about a student requesting a tuition refund after discovering a piece of course content was generated by ChatGPT (Hill 2025). I thought the use of the… How Might Generative AI Impact DEI in University Classes I sometimes describe the content that generative AI creates as pumpkin spice latte content, to get a giggle from my students. I think the analogy holds up: It’s tasty. It’s filling. And it is absolutely not anything that will surprise… Unlocking the Link Between Generative AI Confidence and Critical Thinking Skills Educators aren’t the only ones thinking about the relationship between generative AI and critical thinking. A recent study by Lee et al. (2025) from Carnegie Mellon University and others from Microsoft Research surveyed 319 knowledge workers about their experiences using… When Education Becomes Performative, Learning Suffers Generative AI is great at writing to a script. I have a waking nightmare, of sorts, involving AI and email: someone writes to me by prompting an AI system with a topic. I feel I need to reply, but I’m… 1 2 … 5 6 >