Transform Your Teaching

What did Rob and Jared learn about Competency-Based Education? Is Jared fully on board with it? What questions remain? Listen to hear their lessons learned as they wrap up the series. Transform Your Teaching is also launching a monthly newsletter where we reflect on the past series, preview our upcoming content, and share an exclusive article. Subscribe today to get our inaugural June issue! Resources Acton Academy Connect with us! discuss this seriesctlpodcast@cedarville.educedarville.edu/focusblog

What impact is competency-based education currently having in the pharmacy education world? Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles chat with Dr. Aleda Chen—Associate Dean and Professor in the School of Pharmacy at Cedarville University—about the possibilities of CBE curriculum in training future pharmacists. Resources Join us on Flip to discuss this series! Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.

What does Competency-Based Education look like in theological education? What does CBE look like in a hybrid format? What are some of the ground-floor decisions that need to be made when starting a CBE program? Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles cover this and more with Dr. David Croteau, the Dean of the Seminary and School of Counseling at Columbia International University, as they talk about the origins of CIU’s Competency-Based Theological Education program. Resources Join us on Flip to discuss this series! Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Genny McDole who has an MEd in Instructional Design from Western Governors University. She gives a student perspective on competency-based education and shares how CBE has influenced her teaching practice. Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. Genny was drawn to CBE courses because of the flexibility it provided. During that season of her life, she needed a flexible option that fit their family, could be done quickly, and would fit within their budget. CBE allowed her to take as many courses as she wanted, access all the resources she needed, and show mastery of assignments at her own pace – unlike her experience in traditional education in undergrad. Even though she was able to move at her own pace through the course, Genny noticed that she received feedback very quickly – sometimes within a few hours of turning in an assignment. Her coursework contained a lot of papers and research, and the feedback was detailed, filled with suggestions on how to improve and look at the content differently. In addition to the quick feedback, she noticed specifically the quality of the rubrics because they were clear, easy to understand, and provided her with exactly what she needed to help her demonstrate mastery. Having experienced both traditional educational models and CBE, Genny suggests that the approach to education needs to be student-oriented and able to meet students where they are. It may involve a shift away from traditional models to something more supportive of student needs, like CBE.

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Nate Brock, Lead Evaluator in the Science Education Department at Western Governors University. They discuss WGU’s approach to Competency-Based Education and the key features that make WGU’s programs distinct. Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. Western Governors University is a fully competency-based institution that designs their courses with a student-centered mindset. If a student can complete a course in a shorter amount of time, that benefits the student as they progress through the degree. This competency-based approach enables a student to progress at their own rate while ensuring they have mastered the course's competencies. In order to evaluate if students are meeting competencies, WGU uses two types of assessments that are both evaluated based on rubrics. For some students, they are able to meet the competencies quickly. This is quite a shift from other higher ed institutions, but he extends a helpful reminder that the instructor's mindset for CBE needs to be different than for more traditional educational models. Homework: Follow backward design and consider how competency-based education can help students gain mastery of a portion of your course. Resources WGU’s Guide for Implementing a CBE Program Nate recently posted more thoughts on CBE on our Flip. Discuss this series with him!

In this episode, Rob and Jared continue talking about Competency-Based Education, specifically what the design process looks like in developing a CBE course. They discuss the different considerations instructors need to consider when creating a CBE course and how that affects design. Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. Designing a Competency-Based Education (CBE) course is similar to designing a traditional course. The goal is still to design with the end in mind—paying close attention to the course objectives and module objectives, how the assessments give students the opportunity to show mastery of the objectives, and the course content that prepares them for those assessments. The difference, however, lies in how an instructor creates the modules within the course. The course design is based on content rather than on time. Another difference is that CBE curriculum is not as concerned about the prior knowledge of students as traditional curriculum is. Instead, CBE curriculum focuses on identifying the learner's knowledge when they begin the course (through a pretest or placement exam) and providing resources to help them at their level of understanding. This does require more work at the beginning because the instructor must consider the kinds of resources necessary to meet the needs of all learners. Because CBE curriculum aims at mastery of content, the assessments rely on key performance indicators. CBE courses could be designed so that assessments and content unlock for students once they demonstrate mastery of existing content and assessments to allow for a structured, learning path. Challenges: An implicit desire to fit things into a time-bound system. Homework: Take one module of a course and redesign it in a CBE format. Use technology to lock materials until the student shows mastery of previous content. Resources How to Write Learning Objectives – Dr. Haisong Ye Back to the Basics - Objectives Join us on Flip to discuss this series!

In this episode, Rob and Jared continue talking about Competency-Based Education, specifically what the design process looks like in developing a CBE course. They discuss the different considerations instructors need to consider when creating a CBE course and how that affects design. Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. Designing a Competency-Based Education (CBE) course is similar to designing a traditional course. The goal is still to design with the end in mind—paying close attention to the course objectives and module objectives, how the assessments give students the opportunity to show mastery of the objectives, and the course content that prepares them for those assessments. The difference, however, lies in how an instructor creates the modules within the course. The course design is based on content rather than on time. Another difference is that CBE curriculum is not as concerned about the prior knowledge of students as traditional curriculum is. Instead, CBE curriculum focuses on identifying the learner's knowledge when they begin the course (through a pretest or placement exam) and providing resources to help them at their level of understanding. This does require more work at the beginning because the instructor must consider the kinds of resources necessary to meet the needs of all learners. Because CBE curriculum aims at mastery of content, the assessments rely on key performance indicators. CBE courses could be designed so that assessments and content unlock for students once they demonstrate mastery of existing content and assessments to allow for a structured, learning path. Challenges: An implicit desire to fit things into a time-bound system. Homework: Take one module of a course and redesign it in a CBE format. Use technology to lock materials until the student shows mastery of previous content. Resources How to Write Learning Objectives – Dr. Haisong Ye Back to the Basics - Objectives Join us on Flip to discuss this series!

In this episode, Rob and Jared continue talking about Competency-Based Education, specifically what the design process looks like in developing a CBE course. They discuss the different considerations instructors need to consider when creating a CBE course and how that affects design. Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. Designing a Competency-Based Education (CBE) course is similar to designing a traditional course. The goal is still to design with the end in mind—paying close attention to the course objectives and module objectives, how the assessments give students the opportunity to show mastery of the objectives, and the course content that prepares them for those assessments. The difference, however, lies in how an instructor creates the modules within the course. The course design is based on content rather than on time. Another difference is that CBE curriculum is not as concerned about the prior knowledge of students as traditional curriculum is. Instead, CBE curriculum focuses on identifying the learner's knowledge when they begin the course (through a pretest or placement exam) and providing resources to help them at their level of understanding. This does require more work at the beginning because the instructor must consider the kinds of resources necessary to meet the needs of all learners. Because CBE curriculum aims at mastery of content, the assessments rely on key performance indicators. CBE courses could be designed so that assessments and content unlock for students once they demonstrate mastery of existing content and assessments to allow for a structured, learning path. Challenges: An implicit desire to fit things into a time-bound system. Homework: Take one module of a course and redesign it in a CBE format. Use technology to lock materials until the student shows mastery of previous content. Resources How to Write Learning Objectives – Dr. Haisong Ye Back to the Basics - Objectives Join us on Flip to discuss this series!

In this episode, Rob and Jared kick off a new series on Competency-Based Education. They discuss the characteristics of CBE and how it compares with traditional educational practice. Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. In traditional educational models, time is the constant and education is the variable. With Competency-Based Education (CBE) models, time is the variable and education is the constant. In the current educational landscape, CBE is commonly seen in apprenticeships and in trades. Typically, it involves an instructor coming alongside a student to help them achieve mastery of content. Jared is currently apprehensive about CBE because it turns time into a variable. He still is concerned about the level of understanding that a student can reach in certain academic areas that require higher-level thinking if the primary variable is time. For example, since he comes from a language arts background, he is concerned about the level of synthesis and critical reading that may not be reached using competency-based education. Competency-based education can already seen in more traditional education settings through some modalities (such as flipped classroom). In this series, Rob and Jared will learn from the experiences of others who have used CBE to shed more light on where it is being used and how faculty can use it to design some or all of their instruction the experiences of others who have used it. Resources What is Competency-Based Education? (SNHU) Join us on Flip to discuss this series!

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with (Ret.) Lt. General Loren Reno, Professor of Management and Senior Advisor to the Office of the President at Cedarville University. Check out the episode to hear how he uses servant teaching to encourage and inspire students. Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. General Reno’s goal as an educator is to serve. He seeks to inspire his students instead of attempting to control their involvement in the learning process since educators can intrinsically motivate students through inspiration. With this foundation, General Reno provides several traits of a servant teacher: All these principles are based on approaching teaching with humility. General Reno shares that there are several ways that pride can be a barrier for teachers to acting in humility. In order to overcome this obstacle, teachers should give attention to their students, rather than placing attention on themselves. General Reno challenges educators to know the needs of students, meet those needs, and show students that they care. When students feel that an educator cares, they are more willing to engage with class sessions and the content. Resources We want to hear from our listeners, so we’ve launched a discussion on Flip – a video discussion platform. Join us with all your questions and reflections. Join Transform Your Teaching's Flip discussion group: https://flip.com/e5ea081d (if it asks for a join code, use e5ea081d) Generative AI Flip discussion: https://flip.com/84387b64

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Ryan Liming, a member of the Transform Your Teaching team, to discuss some of the work that goes into producing the podcast. Transform Your Teaching is also using a new tool to hold asynchronous video discussions with listeners. Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover. Resources We want to hear from our listeners, so we’ve launched a discussion on Flip – a video discussion platform. Join us with all your questions and reflections. Join Transform Your Teaching's Flip discussion group: https://flip.com/e5ea081d (if it asks for a join code, use e5ea081d) Generative AI Flip discussion: https://flip.com/84387b64

In this episode, Rob and Jared conclude the series on Generative AI Applied and reflect on the lessons they learned. They also announce the launch of a new tool we are using to hold asynchronous video discussions with listeners. Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover. Jared’s takeaways: Rob’s takeaways: Resources We want to hear from our listeners, so we’ve launched a discussion on Flip – a video discussion platform. Join us with all your questions and reflections. Join Transform Your Teaching's Flip discussion group: https://flip.com/e5ea081d (if it asks for a join code, use e5ea081d) Generative AI Flip discussion: https://flip.com/84387b64

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Dr. Jodie Penrod who has a PhD in Educational/Instructional Technology from Ohio University and is the Chief Information Officer at Marshall University. They discuss how Marshall University has approached Generative AI and how other educators can use GAI to enhance teaching and learning. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. Marshall University has decided to embrace using Generative AI and harness it to fit their goals. Their advice for faculty in using GAI falls into three categories: open use, moderate use, and prohibited. They created these categories to provide a framework to get started. Faculty usage of GAI has varied, much like most technology adoption, but Marshall does want faculty to take the lead in the conversation around GAI. A major area Dr. Penrod is working on is preparing Marshall’s foundational infrastructure for using GAI. This requires thinking through the challenges of access/equity, especially at a school like Marshall. Students’ access to GAI is also causing her to question the idea of the “traditional student,” and she is looking at how GAI can cater to all students, not just the 18-year-old who is just out of high school. GAI can help meet students where they are and provide opportunities to get an education by creating access regardless of life circumstances. Dr. Penrod sees GAI's future making an impact on personalized learning and changing the educational landscape. However, she is concerned about information security. How do we educate our students on using their personal information with GAI and the risks involved with that? Resources Marshall University’s approach to GAI Faculty Resources for AI (from Marshall)

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Dr. Thomas White, president of Cedarville University. They discuss possible applications of Generative AI at Cedarville and in higher education at large. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. Dr. White sees how influential Generative AI will be on higher education and has explored it by using ChatGPT4 and plugins. While using the tools, he has found uses outside of education – recently using Generative AI to help book his family’s vacation. However, Dr. White’s main emphasis for Cedarville faculty is that they need flexibility and freedom to handle how GAI is used in their classes, but they need to set clear expectations for their students. He plans on continuing that stance this coming academic year. Within higher education, Dr. White sees many possible applications of GAI in various areas. GAI can be leveraged to take care of smaller, lower-level tasks that keep faculty from spending time building relationships with students, researching, and completing other complex tasks. He sees GAI helping faculty with grading, answering common questions, and finishing mundane tasks that keep them from doing more authentic, enriching tasks. Dr. White also wonders how GAI could serve as a research assistant to help faculty with writing and publishing. Dr. White recommends that both faculty and staff should look for ways to incorporate GAI into their workflow. For faculty, he advises them to think of one activity in the classroom where they can use GAI to expose students to it. From there, faculty can evaluate what GAI can do and if it is useful. For staff, he encourages them to think of a task they hate to do and find a way to use GAI to accomplish it, freeing up their time to do something else.

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Kim Woodruff who is the Director of Instructional Design at Manhattan College. They discuss Manhattan College’s current experience with Generative AI and she provides possible applications that instructors can try. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. Manhattan College’s approach to integrating Generative AI (GAI) begins with conversations with their faculty to reach them where they are at. They do not want to push for innovation too quickly, so they provide tips and tricks based on sound pedagogical ideas. Kim often encourages instructors to be experimental and use GAI to perform authentic tasks. Manhattan faculty have been adventurous with GAI in two areas: in the Communication department (to prepare students for it in the workforce) and in the Education department (there is a tendency to share information like lesson plans). Other innovators are interested in trying new things, including a professor using it in the game design program. On the student side, Manhattan College has made minor wording changes to its academic integrity policy but is relying on faculty to create their own policy, rather than creating a campus-wide policy on it. Kim also tested student usage of GAI, asking them to use it in an assignment. Only a few students used GAI, which was unexpected. Those that did use it had a better product. Kim thinks students are using tools like Grammarly but are still apprehensive about tools that use GAI. She has also used GAI as a student to help her understand articles/terms that seem to be wordy or overly complicated. She also asked ChatGPT to create a cartoon to help understand content. Kim recommends those interested in using GAI to integrate it into authentic daily tasks to get used to it and use it to simplify complicated information. Resources Designs for the Pluriverse: A Digital Story based on Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds by Arturo Escobar. When you click on the link, the presentation will start automatically. A parody of Led Zeppelin’s “What is and What Should Never Be” called “What Is and What We Think Should Be” based on The Science of Design: Creating the Artificial by Herbert Simon. Interactive Games with ChatGPT

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Dr. Vladimir Bratic who has a PhD in Mass Communication from Ohio University and is an assistant professor of Media and Communications at Hollins University. They discuss how ChatGPT has gone from being a flashy innovation to an everyday tool. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. Dr. Bratic has noticed that over the past year, ChatGPT has gone from a flashy innovation to a normalized, embedded tool that influences the average person’s daily life. It is “coming to us and begging us to use it.” However, he notices that there are still obstacles to ChatGPT’s usage in education since instructors are still uncomfortable with ChatGPT. The solution to overcoming this is to practice and interact with generative AI; but at the same time, it’s hard to keep up because of the rapid innovation. He predicts that in the future, generative AI is going to be further integrated into our everyday lives so it can be accessed anytime, anywhere. For example, ChatGPT is already integrated into Microsoft products and is being used in image generation (like with DALL-E). From his teaching, Dr. Bratic sees ChatGPT as a way of helping us use knowledge differently because of how much information is available to us. He encourages educators to ask, “What do I expect of students? What is the world they’re going to live in? How can I anticipate that world, and how can I prepare students for it?” The answers to these questions will impact how educators approach their teaching and could cause a change in their role.

In this episode, Rob and Jared continue their chat about the use of generative AI in Higher Education with faculty from Tiffin University. They focus on how instructors can employ Generative AI in their day-to-day teaching practices. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. The rapid changes of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT makes keeping up with them challenging. To combat this challenge, instructors learn how to use these tools better through training in prompt engineering. At Tiffin, they have recently hired someone to assist faculty in incorporating AI tools into teaching. The Tiffin faculty also shared about an upcoming webinar on using AI in courses and course design that they are hosting for faculty and graduate design students. AI has a wide variety of uses that range from getting ideas to create lesson plans to uploading a student paper and rubric and having it generate initial feedback that the instructor then reviews and revises before giving it back to the student. They also talk about how generative AI is well-suited for academic work and course design because of its origins. It can help to write content for online courses in a neutral way. And it can be used for specific activities as well – revising assignments to be more authentic or creating better discussion questions. Even with all these benefits, the introduction of generative AI can cause instructors to think, “what am I needed for?” It’s important to remember that AI is just a tool. These kinds of tools can help faculty focus on higher order issues and let the AI make initial evaluations on things such as grammar, spelling, and low-level content. Additionally, ChatGPT can create a good lesson, but the human input of an instructor is still needed to question its validity, relevance, and alignment to courses. And that element of humanity is still needed in education for the personal connection between educator and student. ChatGPT doesn’t have the experience and personality that an instructor would and cannot foster those kinds of relationships. Resources Design Statements - Tiffin University The Ethics of Using Generative AI Tools - Tiffin University How Can You Use Generative AI Tools at Tiffin University

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with two faculty members from Tiffin University about the use of Generative AI. Dr. Michelle L. Meadows, Associate Professor of Education, and Dr. Dan Clark, Vice Provost & Dean for the School of Education & Extended Learning, share about how Tiffin equips students and faculty to use AI well. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. Tiffin University’s approach to Generative AI is marked with innovation. They start with being transparent about how Generative AI should be used, giving students an AI “toolkit” so they are aware of AI’s limitations and are able to use it ethically. Dr. Meadows, Dr. Clark, and Tiffin introduced design statements (statement that students include into assignments describing how they used AI to aid in completion) into their courses to monitor and guide student use of Generative AI tools. These design statements are a way for students to share their metacognitive processes and explain how they completed assignments, including their use of AI. The design statements encourage transparency and provide instructors with insight into how students use these tools. As Tiffin University implemented these ideas, their faculty members have generally been supportive of incorporating design statements in their courses, but more training is needed for both faculty and students to effectively implement and assess the statements. They also highlight the importance of building trust between students and faculty when it comes to using AI, since some students were reluctant to disclose their use of AI tools.

In this episode, we celebrate the 50th episode of Transform Your Teaching with a live Q&A. Listen as Jared and Rob answer teaching and learning-related questions from our live audience. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Dr. Jules White who has a Ph.D. in Computer Science and serves as Senior Advisor to the Chancellor for Generative AI in Education and Enterprise Solutions at Vanderbilt University. They discuss how instructors can help students become comfortable with generative AI and use it effectively. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources. Dr. Jules White is excited about generative AI and sees it as a “new medium”—fundamentally transformative to how people live their daily lives. More specifically, Dr. White has seen AI’s impact in education. In his current position, he has been able to explore how to use it effectively in higher education through teaching prompt engineering. In these classes, he has seen others become comfortable using generative AI as they have found personal applications, such as analyzing data for lab reports. What would typically take days to do, ChatGPT could do in hours. All it took for those people to become comfortable with using generative AI was the personal connection and creative thought to apply it. To use generative AI effectively: augmented Dr. White understands the hesitation around generative AI, but he recommends you deeply understand it before you dismiss it. It’s not beneficial to develop a culture of fear surrounding AI in education. Shape the conversation about how to use it effectively so students are prepared for the future where generative AI is widely integrated. Find examples and methods of using generative AI to make that personal connection with your students. Resources Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT Innovative Teaching with ChatGPT