In “Facing My Fears of AI” (June 2024) I blogged about my desire to find ways to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into my classroom assignments in a way that will enable students to learn to use new technological innovations, while also respecting academic integrity. While still a work-in-progress, I plan to share the ups and downs of my experiences as they develop.   In my summer courses I assigned research projects that required the use of library-based databases and materials. Knowing that students are increasingly likely to use AI, even when discouraged or even prohibited, my assignment instructions included the following statement: “Students should submit their own original work and cite all sources using MLA format. While use of AI is discouraged, any use of artificial intelligence should be cited as a source.”     We discussed as a class what it meant to submit original work and the importance of using each assignment in our introductory-level history course as a stepping stone to the challenges that will come later in their college careers. The vast majority of students followed my instructions and submitted work that was consistent with that of typical first-year students at my college. Several students came to me for help or consulted our college librarian outside of class for additional assistance.    Unfortunately, 10% of the students submitted work that was AI-generated and none of those submissions cited any AI-tool as a source per my instructions. I ran all student submissions through an AI and plagiarism detector and in each case it was determined that the work was 90% or more AI-written.    I reached out to each of the students to discuss the use of unattributed material as an academic integrity issue. Approximately half of the students did not respond to my email and accepted a zero for the assignment with no discussion. The other half denied any use of AI. When confronted with a detailed report from the detection tool, however, they changed their stories. They admitted to having used AI tools such as Grammarly and Brainly, they said, but not software that “created content.”    I learned a valuable, if not confusing, lesson from this experience: my students see a marked difference between tools such as Grammarly and Brainly, versus Chat GPT and the like. And so here is my quandary: is there harm in allowing the use of grammar-checking AI versus content-producing? Or, do they both create a product that is not the student’s original work?    My initial feeling was that grammar-checking tools can be helpful in “cleaning up” student work. In speaking with students, however, I realized that in a 3-4 page short essay they were accepting, without much thought, upwards of 30-40 suggested changes by Grammarly or Brainly. In other words: they were changing their entire paper based on suggestions from the AI tool.   As such, I’ve realized that either my instructions are going to need to be more specific or I need to re-evaluate my comfort level with grammar-corrective AI.    Some faculty reading this blog might ask: “I use Grammarly … why can’t my students?” This question is certainly valid. The difference for me, however, is that many of my students struggle with grammar. A tool that corrects their errors without requiring them to understand the fundamentals behind the mistakes is, in my view, unlikely to progress their writing skills.   I’d love to hear from others in the Macmillan Community about AI policies: how are yours evolving with new technology and new challenges? Please share.   ... View more

Last week I participated in the "Back to School with Achieve" webinar to learn about new tools available for students and faculty through Achieve as well as share my experience using the Achieve "Goal Setting & Reflection Surveys." The webinar, linked above, includes suggestions about how to start the semester off strong by gauging students' concerns about their academic performance, particularly the challenges they anticipate as they start a new semester. Learning more about the students through the Achieve surveys can help faculty to better plan for student support throughout the semester.  Please watch the webinar and share questions/thoughts/concerns for the new academic year here in Macmillan Community!  ... View more

No matter who wins the Presidential Election in November, there is no doubt the events of July 2024 will be discussed and debated by historians and political pundits for decades to come. If the 2024 election ended tomorrow it would already be memorable.    I started writing this blog shortly after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump took place on July 13th. In the two weeks since the horrific events in Butler, Pennsylvania, we have witnessed a sitting president drop out of the presidential race and the emergence of the vice president, a woman of color, as the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party. Threads of sexism and racism have, predictably,  begun to infect the political discourse.   My reluctance to entertain any discussion of current events has only increased since 2016 and is firmly rooted in both the divisive nature of politics in the US today and social media’s role in worsening that divide. In the classroom political discussions can be civil, or they can devolve into anger and frustration that can carry over week to week as the students continue to meet in the classroom.    As future historians study the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections they will comb through volumes of video and print materials evidencing an unprecedented level of hate speech. When a Republican congressman called VP Kamala Harris a “DEI hire” earlier this week it appeared that the calls for a softening of rhetoric that followed the assassination attempt have been forgotten in favor of racially-charged politically divisive speech.    Barring total avoidance of conversation, how do we counter the chaos of the 2024 election in our classrooms? Here are three (simple) guiding principles to use in the next three months until Election Day.    Keep Discussion Brief – Taking 5 to 10 minutes at the start or end of class to discuss students’ observations of the political rhetoric can lead to greater understanding. Planning a start and end to the discussion is also helpful. I preface all political discussions with a simple: “let’s share observations rather than expressing personal viewpoints.” I ask the students what they’ve noticed: what is the rhetoric, what kinds of sources are they consulting, are they watching/listening to the news or has it become background in their daily lives as part of their social media feeds?    Explore Concepts and Ideas – Ask students if they understand the political conversations that are happening on television news, in print sources, and/or social media. As familiar as college faculty and administrators are with the acronym “DEI,” for example, many students do not know what the acronym stands for. When politicians use it as a slur the terminology only becomes more confusing. It’s up to us as teachers and historians to create an atmosphere in which students feel comfortable asking questions without being made to feel intellectually inferior or out of touch with current events.   Encourage Continuing Dialogue – Follow up with students at subsequent classes to provide an opportunity to offer new reflections that may have been percolating but were not expressed. This strategy is especially helpful for students who require more time to digest class discussion. Offering students the opportunity to submit questions about current events anonymously before class can also be a useful way to engage those who don’t feel comfortable speaking up in class.   As much as I would love to avoid all in-class political conversation for the next three months, it’s an impossible pursuit. My goal, instead, is to create a model for civil dialogue in the classroom that students can take with them into the rest of their daily experiences.   Suggestions? Please share!  ... View more

This week I'm sharing a presentation by Professor Erika Martinez about using artificial intelligence (AI) in the economic classroom, which has practical applications for history classes as well.   Recently I blogged about my need to come to terms with concerns about AI (see “Facing My Fears about AI”). Previously my worries about academic dishonesty have guided nearly all of my decision-making about AI. Professor Martinez’s presentation at Macmillan's TechEd has helped me to open my thinking to some new angles of consideration.   Tell me what you think!  AI for Educators_ Practical AI Applications (macmillanlearning.com) ... View more

It’s time to confront my fear of student use of artificial intelligence (AI). I realized this reality the first week of June while attending Macmillan’s 2024 TechEd where I heard from fellow Peer Advocates about their experiences bringing AI into the college classroom.   I have been admittedly reluctant to allow any student use of AI for the obvious reason: cheating. At the same time, I’ve avoided a zero-tolerance policy by reasoning that if students are going to use AI I want them to know how to properly cite it. My approach to AI has been to create assignments that require so many variants that AI use is exceedingly complicated and therefore, I reason, less attractive to students. As a result I’ve had only one case (that I’m sure of) in the last year where a student used AI instead of submitting their own original work.    Listening to my Peer Advocate colleagues at TechEd, however, made me question whether my approach has been short-sighted. If, for example, I am trying to help my students to be work-force ready, am I doing them a disservice by not allowing them some use of AI so that in an academic environment we can grapple with questions about appropriate and ethical uses? The history classroom, after all, is one of the best academic spaces in which to talk about sources. Do I need to start looking at AI as simply one more media source for consideration?    Part of my struggle with the use of AI in student writing has been my concern that a large percentage of my students do not have a strong grasp on basic grammar and writing skills. This reality is painfully obvious to me at the start of each semester when I ask students to introduce themselves in our class discussion board. Asking the students to write about themselves not only provides me information such as preferred pronouns, majors, and career goals, but also a sample of their skill level in regards to writing. I’ve had several students come across as articulate in class only to present significant academic deficits in their writing assignments. These no-stakes introductions alert me to students who require extra support for their writing assignments during the semester.    So what comes next? I have two plans for the summer to help move me from a place of fear and loathing of AI to one in which I better understand the role that the new technology may have in higher education.   First, along with more than 100 faculty at my college I will be participating in a summer read of Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024). My college’s Center for Teaching Excellence supplied copies of the book at no charge to faculty interested in engaging in discussion of AI-related education during the 2024-25 academic year and I’m excited to hear my colleagues’ perspectives on the ideas presented by the authors when we return to campus in the fall.   Second, I plan to develop one low stakes AI-based assignment for my upper-level history students who undertake research projects during the semester. What that project will look like remains to be seen. Suggestions welcome! Drop a comment below or email me at: suzannekmccormack@gmail.com ... View more

In March I had the good fortune to participate in this year’s American Association of Colleges & Universities Conference (AACU) on Diversity, Equity, and Student Success in Philadelphia, PA. Preparing for my roundtable discussion on “Diversifying the US History Survey” prodded me to think about what I’m currently doing in my courses, and encouraged some dialogue with students about what is/not working from their perspectives.   Often we as teachers are not the best judges of what our students require to be successful because we subconsciously lean on our own educational experiences when we develop expectations of our students’ needs. Thinking about diversity and inclusion in the college history classroom, therefore, requires us to reflect on our biases and open ourselves up to learning about topics that we might not have studied in graduate school to encourage our own growth, and our students'. In the United States history survey courses, inclusion demands that we expand the narrative beyond electoral wins and losses and look more deeply into how decision-making by leaders (local, state, and national) has impacted the diverse communities that together create our nation. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in history education necessitates consideration not just of race and gender, but also economics and social class, particularly the way in which those in political power often utilize their advantages to the detriment of others.    After hearing from colleagues in states with anti-DEI legislation either passed or pending it struck me that at the heart of the movement is fear of the unknown – of people and ideologies that are different from those who for so long have had political and economic control. Historically there is nothing new about this kind of resistance. While I feel fortunate to teach in a so-called “blue state,” the angry sentiments of DEI resistance exist in every community, though their voices and the power they wield are stronger in some than others. As I listened to presentations at the AACU conference it was reaffirmed for me that what my students need most is a broad knowledge of our national past so they can better understand the current debates about DEI and place those debates within historical context. In other words, a student who knows nothing about the movement for civil rights in the United States will fail to understand the detrimental impact of anti-DEI legislation.    Yesterday students in my US History since 1877 class watched a segment of the classic documentary “Eyes on the Prize” as part of a larger discussion of school desegregation efforts in the 1950s/1960s. The community college where I teach has approximately 11% students who identify as black and/or African American, and is a federally- designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). Many of my students did not realize that segregated schools were a part of our national history. Having these conversations about the history of civil rights reminds us all that the playing field has never been equal and that there is considerable danger in political movements that seek to silence the very efforts that have moved us towards a more integrated society (with much work still left to do).   I would love to hear from Macmillan Community members about the challenges they are facing in their communities related to DEI. What kinds of resources are you as educators relying on to help students understand the centrality of diversity to our national history? And, what kinds of resources would be helpful as we navigate these challenging educational waters?    Please share by commenting here or emailing me at suzannekmccormack@gmail.com ... View more

Tagging on to my Macmillan Community colleague’s post “Recommendations for Black History Month” I’d like to share two web sites that I find particularly pertinent for educators in all disciplines as we continue to watch state legislatures and local school boards mercilessly target history education. No matter our politics, as educators we have a responsibility to our students to encourage critical thinking about both current events and historical topics. Here are two additional links for those who are seeking ideas, discussion, and resources. Both of these sites go beyond the scope of Black History Month to maintain up to date information year round:   Teaching History with Integrity – part of the American Historical Association’s multi-faceted efforts to counter-balance efforts against teaching all aspects of our national history. The site includes videos featuring historians describing the challenges educators are currently facing and why we as a society need to be honest with students even when the narrative is uncomfortable.   The Zinn Education Project provides lesson plans on topics not commonly found in textbooks, including this month’s focus on environmental racism. If you’re looking for resources to supplement discussions on race, gender, climate justice, imperialism and many other areas, this website is regularly updated and full of ideas for expanding conversation in your classrooms.   Other suggestions, please share!  ... View more

Last summer I instituted open-notebook exams in my introductory-level history courses. Previously I had relied on traditional practices: a mix of essays and objective questions for which students had to be well-versed in a half-semester’s worth of material. I was, however, increasingly concerned about the low grades that students, especially those in their first-year, were earning on exams that required memorization. The fact that many of our current first-year students had at least some period of remote learning during COVID, during which it's possible they were not required to prepare for closed book/notes exams further encouraged me to try some alternative practices aimed at improving student outcomes.   My goal was to focus my students’ attention on note taking with the idea that this skill is one that can and is used in virtually every professional career. As I was writing this blog, for example, I unscientifically polled friends – a banker, a sales professional, and two personal trainers – all of whom confirmed that they take notes every day while they work. Sometimes on paper, but more often using cell phones or even napkins. As professionals they have learned that there are key stats/terms/ideas that they need to be able to reference at a later time and they acknowledge that their memory is often flawed. Notes trigger memory and, in the case of my students, I hope that their notes connect them to the discussions we had in class days/weeks after, which would enable more success on exams. [FYI: For more on the topic of linking professional skills to open-note exams, see Carol E. Holstead’s piece “In Praise of Open-Note Exams” in The Chronicle of Higher Education (5 September 2023)]   I’m now in my second full semester of open notebook exams with my US History I and II students. Each week I distribute a handout to guide student note-taking: key terms, images/maps from lecture, and sometimes definitions or references to place in the textbook that I think are particularly helpful. I also invite a professional from our college Tutoring Center to meet with the class during the first two weeks to offer support for note-taking skills/guidance.    Admittedly I have not yet done any statistical analysis of students’ test results, though I have witnessed first hand the reduction in stress level as we get closer to exams. I have also discovered that the open-notebook exams policy created an avenue for me to regularly address the importance of taking notes in class. This past week, for example, during a particularly complicated discussion about politics in the Progressive Era I noticed several students not taking notes. I took a few moments at the end of class to discuss with the class what specific information they felt was important from my lecture and what they had written down. I pointed out some details that I hoped they had recorded, and suggested that they share their notes with a classmate after our meeting to ensure that they were not missing any key information. Several students stayed after class to ask me questions and to clarify their notes.    This change from memory-based to notes-based exams has been small but so far meaningful. The greatest challenge for me, however, has been determining what kinds of questions work best for open-note exams. Doing some basic internet searches on open-notes exams has shown me that, like everything else in the field of education, there is no consensus on what works best with students. I would love to hear from colleagues in the Macmillan Community about what kinds of questions have worked best in open-notes exams.    Please share! ... View more

Recently a Catholic school in Massachusetts found itself immersed in controversy over their decision to serve a fried chicken lunch as part of Black History Month. The public attention and discourse surrounding the incident reminded me how far we still need to move as a society in terms of understanding our national history and integrating non-white perspectives. While I’m certain that as a society we will never be in complete agreement over what constitutes the “truth” about American history, I do believe that as teachers and historians we must guide our students towards a more comprehensive view of our nation’s diverse past.   For me, the “fried chicken” controversy speaks to the general problem of “Black History Month” – a mere month to turn the public’s short attention span to the history of a people that is far more complex and important than can be covered by snippets over the course of twenty-eight days. Those of us who teach black history recognize that it is filled with both triumphs and tragedies – too many to squeeze into a singular four-week period. I worry, for example, that years from now students will remember the fried chicken controversy but will have gained no lasting, concrete knowledge or understanding of the lives of black Americans.   Here, however, are two web-based resources that I have recently recommended to students and teachers to help integrate black history into every day, not just the days in February:    Joel Christian Gill is an illustrator and historian whose Instagram posts showcase his efforts to bring black history to a wider audience through comic books and graphic novels. Students love his illustrations and are inspired to research the subjects about which he publishes. Gill’s posts also include his sometimes funny, often painful, observations as a professor of color, which can offer prompts for honest conversations about race in the classroom.   The Zinn Education Project is valuable to teachers but useful to students of history as well. Of particular interest currently is the site’s publication of the National Report on the Teaching of Reconstruction (January 2022), which includes a state-by-state analysis of what K-12 students are learning about the topic. For those teaching US history at the college level the report provides valuable information about what public school students are taught prior to high school graduation based on state guidelines and standards. The information is both enlightening and alarming. While I’m often surprised at my students’ lack of knowledge of Reconstruction, I was shocked to learn that in my state public schools are not required to teach any Reconstruction history. This new insight will certainly inform my planning for future curriculum.   What black history-focused resources that should not be relegated to February have you encountered recently? Please share!    This article was originally published on 2.10.22  ... View more

Over the past year many publications have explored the COVID 19 pandemic-related “gaps” that educators are seeing in elementary school-aged children who missed out on important opportunities for social and emotional growth as part of in-person classes. As we move forward in the post-COVID era, here are some (unscientific) observations of what I have witnessed with my students during 2023. I’m sharing my experiences in hopes of inspiring us all to think about what we can do with future classes to close the social/emotional gaps among the 18+ year-olds that we teach at America’s colleges:   Students feel overwhelmed. Many students feel alone in their educational journeys in spite of available safety nets and support systems.   Example: my students can meet with an advisor in person or complete the advising process on their own by following carefully written directions and utilizing a virtual assistant. After the enrollment period for 2024 opened I asked one of my classes if anyone was taking the second half of the US history survey with me during the spring semester. Silence. Then I asked if anyone had met with their advisor or utilized the advising app. Fewer than a handful of hands were raised in a class of 20-plus students. When I expressed concern about how many were unprepared for the course selection process a student shared that she was completely overwhelmed by the process. Several students nodded in agreement. Later that day a student from the class stopped by my office to discuss her concern that she is in the wrong major.   Students are isolating themselves from their peers. On any given day, walk into a college-level lecture and the majority of students will be scrolling their social feeds or texting with people who are not in the same room. Especially at commuter-colleges but no doubt also at places with active dorm cultures, students often make little to no effort to get to know their classmates unless we engage them in that practice.    It has been reaffirmed for me this year numerous times that student resistance to even general conversation with peers in an academic setting is evidence of how much they need that interaction. Case in point: my US history students in a medium-size lecture hall. After splitting them randomly into groups to begin discussion, many sat with their backs to their group members until I told them to face one another for their discussion.   Students are in desperate need of all kinds of support. No doubt there is nothing surprising to anyone about this observation, and the reality is that college-aged students have historically struggled with stress, anxiety and depression in addition to academic challenges. The COVID-19 Pandemic only exacerbated a problem that already existed. Encouraging students to take advantage of on-campus counseling support is critical, but I would further suggest that bringing academic support measures into the classroom from the first day of school can help alleviate some of the stress before it builds to a breaking point. I’m excited to be part of a pilot program at my college in which we will embed a peer tutor into my US history classes. I look forward to writing more about this experience in future blogs.   What challenges are you anticipating as we begin a new calendar year? How can we, the Macmillan Community, best support our colleagues through these and other challenges? Please share by commenting below or email me at suzannekmccormack@gmail.com   Happy New Year!    ... View more

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a Macmillan webinar titled “Working with Divided Student Attention: Engaging Learners in A World Full of Distractions.” Professor Christin Monroe (Landmark College) and I shared some of our experiences working with diverse student populations in our respective fields, chemistry and history. We heard from lots of faculty participants from all over the country during the webinar who asked questions and shared experiences from their own classrooms. Most helpful for me was our discussion of what it means to be “distracted” and how to tell if a student truly is not paying attention. As we seek a better understanding of how the brain works and how much information we can process at one time, these kinds of conversations are critical for faculty seeking to make the most of the in-person time they have with students.    I’m happy to share a recording of the webinar below and welcome the opportunity to continue this conversation in a future blog. Comments are welcome through the comment box below or to me via email at suzannekmccormack@gmail.com   Working With Divided Student Attention: Engaging Learners In A World Full of Distractions (macmillanlearning.com) ... View more

As Professor Scribner notes, it's not always easy to have historians explore new digital features! However, LearningCurve adaptive quizzing provides improved results for students without extra stress. Listen as he discusses the most popular digital asset combination to get students to come to class prepared and having done the reading: Learning Curve adaptive quizzing + eBook within Achieve! ... View more

The community college at which I teach is designated a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), which means that at least 25% of our students are Hispanic. Many of our students are first-generation college students making it imperative that we provide a curriculum that affords them an opportunity to explore their cultures as well as examples of people from their communities who have been successful in their professional pursuits. Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15 to October 15th, is a great time to review our courses and extracurricular offerings to ensure that we are meeting the needs of these valued members of our academic communities.   This past summer our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council reached out to the Rhode Island Latino Arts (RILA), a statewide cultural institution, to connect with a Dominican-American filmmaker. Alberto Genao grew up only five miles from our campus in one of the communities from which many of our students graduate high school. He visited campus last week to share his work in documentary and narrative filmmaking, as well as his efforts to document the Dominican and Colombian communities in our state.   Students had an overwhelmingly positive response to Genao’s visit and his message encouraging them to network in both their home communities and the collegiate environment. Having a professional filmmaker show students music videos he has made with performers in the Caribbean was motivating and inspiring, allowing them to see the possibilities that exist beyond the boundaries of their neighborhoods and the success of a man with a shared socio-economic background. Many of the students in the room during Genao’s talk could identify directly with his upbringing and the familial and cultural challenges he faced as he pursued a non-traditional career path.    Anyone in the Macmillan Community looking for an engaging speaker to connect with students during Hispanic Heritage Month, is encouraged to reach out to state cultural organizations such as RILA who can introduce students to speakers with whom they can directly identify. Just as we want students to see themselves reflected in a diverse teaching faculty, community members’ participation on our college campuses can present valuable role models for our students as they navigate the challenges of higher education. ... View more

Historian and professor Vaughn Scribner explains Achieve in his own words and why it's changed his classroom for the better. ... View more