September 2, 2025Tell the Robot How You Feel About Learning by Amanda SturgillIn many ways, AI assistance can be helpful with writing, but one that has never made sense to me is asking AI to help formulate an opinion. I occasionally see this from students when I ask them what they think…
August 19, 2025Blue Books and In-Class Writing Are Not a Panacea by Amanda Sturgill In comments sections and replies in both educator spaces and mass media articles, it’s common to see exhortations to simply return to an earlier time where students demonstrated knowledge in class. I myself recall needing to remember to stop by…
August 12, 2025When it Comes to AI in Education, Timing May Matter by Amanda Sturgill I’ve participated in several professional education opportunities this summer related to AI as a tool for higher education, and one of my biggest takeaways is that there is little agreement among faculty. Even in a tiny academic unit of fewer…
July 8, 2025AI and Learning About Cultures by Amanda Sturgill 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…
June 24, 2025Should AI be Involved in Assessing Student Work? by Amanda SturgillI 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…
May 6, 2025How Might Generative AI Impact DEI in University Classes by Amanda SturgillI 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…
April 7, 2025AI and Engaged Learning in Higher Educationby Jessie L. Moore and Nolan SchultheisMaking 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…
March 25, 2025Unlocking the Link Between Generative AI Confidence and Critical Thinking Skillsby Amanda SturgillEducators 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…
February 21, 2025When Education Becomes Performative, Learning Suffers by Amanda SturgillGenerative 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…
January 31, 2025Examining AI Use in the Workplace by Amanda SturgillAs a teacher in higher education, it’s easy to feel pressure to have my graduates job-market ready, and at my university, we have had some engaging discussions about how well we should prepare students to use AI on the job….
