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Last fall, I was interviewed on a podcast called Transform Your Teaching from the Cedarville University Center for Teaching and Learning. Hosts Rob McDole and Jared Pyles had me on to talk about my book Intentional Tech six year out from its publication date. I shared the Intentional Tech principles I find most relevant today, especially as higher ed continues to respond to generative AI, and I talked about what I would put in a second edition of the book were I to write one. Rob and Jared asked me very good questions, and we had a lot of fun with the interview.  Episode Resources Transform Your Teaching podcast Cedarville University Center for Teaching and Learning Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

Annette Vee is an associate professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh and co-author (with Marc Watkins and your podcast host) of the forthcoming book The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching. Annette and I met through this writing project, and I invited her on the podcast to get to know her better.  Annette and I cover a lot of ground in our conversation: how computational literacy is changing in light of AI, whether there is such a thing as “AI literacy,” what she has learned from talking to hundreds of students about AI, and why AI needs to be on the college curriculum.  Episode Resources Annette Vee’s faculty website Annette Vee on LinkedIn Annette Vee’s Computation & Writing newsletter AI & How We Teach, a Norton newsletter for AI-aware teachers The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching, forthcoming by Annette Vee, Marc Watkins, and Derek Bruff “How Are Students Using AI? A Research Toolkit for Faculty” webinar recording “What Past Education Technology Failures Can Teach Us about the Future of AI in Schools” by Justin Reich Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

About a year ago, I appeared on the Ed Up Provost podcast hosted by Gregor Thuswaldner to share some educational technology advice for academic leaders. Topics included strategic planning around edtech adoption to managing innovation and organizational change to investing in faculty and staff, and I think my advice holds up well. Today, I'm sharing that interview here on the Intentional Teaching podcast feed. Whether your job title includes the word provost or not, I hope you find the conversation useful. Episode Resources The Ed Up Provost podcast Gregor Thuswaldner on LinkedIn Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

Ken Bain was the author of What the Best College Teachers Do, a book that has helped many college educators apply the science of learning to their teaching practice. He was also the founding director of the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching, which is why I interviewed him in 2023 for an oral history I was producing about the CFT. Ken Bain passed away in October 2025, and I wanted to honor his legacy by sharing my full interview with him from 2023. In this episode, Ken talks about his work starting the teaching center at Vanderbilt and how that work helped faculty at Vanderbilt and elsewhere develop teaching strategies for deep learning. I was honored to talk with him that day in 2023, and I've always been honored to follow in his footsteps in faculty development. Episode Resources Ken Bain’s obituary Jim Lang’s post about Ken’s passing What the Best College Teachers Do An Oral History of the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching Photos from the CFT’s 35th Anniversary   Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

What if your college or university decided that every undergraduate student there would be an entrepreneur, not just studying entrepreneurship but doing it? That’s exactly the decision made a few years ago by the leadership at Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas. Paul Quinn is an HBCU with a small student body, just 700 students. This year, the college has launched a new program called Every Quinnite Is an Entrepreneur. The goal? Every student, regardless of major, launches and operates a real venture before graduation. On the podcast today, I talk with Jeff Meade, founding director of Every Quinnite Is an Entrepreneur. Jeff came to Paul Quinn last year with 20 years experience growing companies and advising businesses. We talk about his institution’s bold approach to preparing students for life after college and what venture-based learning looks like as this new program gets moving. Episode Resources Jeff Meade on LinkedIn Paul Quinn College Every Quinnite Is an Entrepreneur Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

I’m back with another “Take It or Leave It” panel! This one is a little different. On October 2nd, in my role as associate director of the UVA Center for Teaching Excellence, I hosted a virtual panel titled “Take It or Leave It: AI’s Role in Online Learning” featuring three fantastic UVA colleagues. The conversation went very well, and the panelists and the CTE gave me permission to share the audio from the panel here on the Intentional Teaching podcast.  The panelists for this edition of Take It or Leave It are all at the University of Virginia. Michelle Beavers is associate professor and coordinator of the Administration and Supervision Program in UVA’s School of Education and Human Development. Leo Lo is dean of libraries and university librarian, advisor to the provost on AI literacy, and professor of education. Sara McClellan is assistant professor of professional studies and program coordinator of the Public Administration Certificate Program at UVA’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies. You’ll hear me briefly describe five recent op-eds on teaching and learning in higher ed. For each op-ed, I’ll ask each of our panelists if they “take it,” that is, generally agree with the main thesis of the essay, or “leave it.” This is an artificial binary that I’ve found to generate rich discussion of the issues at hand.  Episode Resources ·       Michelle Beavers’ faculty page ·       Leo Lo’s LinkedIn page ·       Sara McClellan’s website ·       Essay 1: “Are You Ready for the AI University?”, Scott Latham, April 4, 2025 ·       Essay 2: “AI Risks Undermining the Heart of Higher Education,” Zahid Naz, April 21, 2025 ·       Essay 3: “Urgent Need for AI Literacy,” Ray Schroeder, April 30, 2025 ·       Essay 4: “Sometimes We Resist AI for Good Reasons,” Kevin Gannon, September 24, 2025 ·       Essay 5: “On AI, We Reap What We Sow,” Chad Hanson, September 10, 2025 Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

On the show today I talk with Leslie Cramblet Alvarez and Chris Hakala, authors of the new book Understanding Educational Developers: Tales from the Center from Routledge Press. The book blends scholarship and personal narratives to explore the career trajectories of the professionals who work at CTLs. How do academics move into these careers? And what can these careers look like over time?  Leslie Cramblet Alvarez is assistant vice provost and director of the Office of Teaching and Learning at the University of Denver. Chris Hakala is director for the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship and professor of psychology at Springfield College.  I wanted to talk with Chris and Leslie about what they discovered while writing their book. I also wanted to know what advice they had for navigating educational development careers here in the U.S. in 2025, with higher education under attack from the federal government, a looming demographic cliff affecting enrollment and tuition, and a budget situation that for more institutions is not rosy. Leslie and Chris offer advice for faculty considering a move into a faculty development role, as well as for those of us current working at CTLs trying to plan our careers. Episode Resources Leslie Cramblet Alvarez (staff page, LinkedIn) Chris Hakala (faculty page, LinkedIn) Understanding Educational Developers: Tales from the Center, Leslie Cramblet Alvarez & Chris Hakala, Routledge, 2025. “An Indirect Journey to Indirect Impact,” Derek Bruff, #alt-academy, April 10, 2015.  “Teaching Centers Need to Step Up,” Chris Hakala, Inside Higher Ed, July 12, 2022.   Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

Today on the podcast, we learn about one initiative that offers a path forward for AI and writing instruction. It’s called the PAIRR Project, where PAIRR stands for peer and AI review and reflection. This approach takes the well-established peer review pedagogy used in writing instruction and adds a layer of AI-generated feedback on student writing. PAIRR has been developed and tested by dozens of faculty at public colleges and universities in California, and I’m excited to have two of those faculty on the podcast today to tell us about it. Marit MacArthur is a continuing lecturer in writing at the University of California at Davis and one of the principal investigators on the PAIRR Project. Anna Mills teaches writing at College of Marin, a community college, and brings her experience with open educational resources to the project. Marit and Anna and I talk about student voice, AI literacy, metacognition, the importance of prompt testing, linguistic justice, and more.  Episode Resources The PAIRR Packet, https://pairr.short.gy/packet The PAIRR Project, https://writing.ucdavis.edu/pairr Marit MacArthur’s faculty page Anna Mills’ website “Peer and AI Review + Reflection (PAIRR): A Human-Centered Approach to Formative Assessments,” Lisa Sperber, Marit MacArthur, Sophia Minnillo, Nicholas Stillman, and Carl Whithaus, Computers and Composition, June 2025 “Comparing the Quality of Human and ChatGPT Feedback of Students’ Writing,” Jacob Steiss et al, Learning and Instruction, June 2024 “What Past Education Technology Failures Can Teach Us about the Future of AI in Schools,” Justin Reich, The Conversation, October 2025 Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

Here in the US, the political environment is more heated than I’ve ever known it in my lifetime, and some of that heat is coming directly at higher ed and its faculty. This episode is all about managing those “hot moments” in our classes when just about any topic can be “hot.”  My guests are Bethany Morrison, assistant director at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan, and Rick Moore, associate director for faculty programming at the Center for Teaching and Learning at Washington University in St. Louis. We talk about the reasons a class discussion can get "hot," the difference between a hot moment and a high-stakes discussion, the stakes these discussions can have for us and for our students, and strategies for preparing for and managing these challenging discussions. Episode Resources “Managing Hot Moments in the Classroom,” Lee Warren, 2000 “Faculty, Advocacy Groups Fear Texas A&M Firing Threatens Academic Freedom,” Alex Nguyen, Texas Tribune, September 15, 2025 “Teaching in an Election Year with Bethany Morrison,” Intentional Teaching ep. 50, September 24, 2024 Promoting Democracy Teaching Series, University of Michigan. See, especially, the instructor resources. “Academe Has a Lot to Learn about How Inclusive Teaching Affects Instructors,” Chavella Pittman and Thomas Tobin, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 7, 2022 “Teaching in Turbulent Times,” Rick Moore, UVA Teaching Hub “Teaching for Democratic Engagement and Civic Learning,” Bethany Morrison, UVA Teaching Hub Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

In this episode, we explore why digital accessibility can be so important to the student experience. My guest is Amy Lomellini, director of accessibility at Anthology, the company that makes the learning management system Blackboard. Amy teaches educational technology as an adjunct at Boise State University, and she facilitates courses on digital accessibility for the Online Learning Consortium. In our conversation, we talk about the importance of digital accessibility to students, moving away from the traditional disclosure-accommodation paradigm, AI as an assistive technology, and lots more.  Episode Resources Amy Lomellini on Linked In, https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-lomellini/ Nothing Without Us with Amy Lomellini, ThinkUDL podcast, https://thinkudl.org/episodes/nothing-without-us-with-amy-lomellini Blackboard Ally, https://ally.ac/  Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

The online education wings of most colleges and universities have changed a lot since 2020, with online units moving in from the periphery to the center of operations at most institutions. On the podcast today, we’re going to take a look at the state of online education in the United States, and to do that, we’ll make use of data from the 2025 Benchmarking Online Enterprise Survey (BOnES) conducted by UPCEA, the online and professional education association.  On the show today, I talk with Bruce Etter, senior director of research and consulting at UPCEA, and Julie Uranis, senior vice president of online and strategic initiatives at UPCEA. Although BOnES surveyed chief online learning officers, there’s a lot in the report of interest to faculty and instructional designers and educational developers, and Bruce and Julie do a great job walking us through some key takeaways. Episode Resources Benchmarking Online Enterprise Survey (BOnES), https://upcea.edu/bones25 Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

Today on the podcast, I'm excited to try out a new format. I'm calling it "Study Hall" since we're gathered together to discuss some interesting teaching and learning studies, with this edition's studies exploring the intersection of generative AI and education. The panelists for this edition of study hall are Lance Eaton, senior associate director of AI in teaching and learning at Northeastern University; Michelle D. Miller, professor of psychological sciences at Northern Arizona University; and David Nelson, associate director at the Center for Instructional Excellence at Purdue University. Episode Resources Grinschgl, S., & Neubauer, A. C. (2022). Supporting cognition with modern technology: Distributed cognition today and in an AI-enhanced future. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 5(July), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2022.908261 Sun, Y., & Wang, T. (2025). Be friendly, not friends: How llm sycophancy shapes user trust. arXiv preprint https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.10844  Darvishi, A., Khosravi, H., Sadiq, S., Gašević, D., & Siemens, G. (2024). Impact of AI assistance on student agency. Computers & Education, 210, 104967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2023.104967 Lance Eaton’s blog, AI + Education = Simplified, https://aiedusimplified.substack.com/  Michelle Miller’s newsletter, R3, https://michellemillerphd.substack.com/ Dave Nelson’s LinkedIn page, https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-nelson-8698b94a/   Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

Today on the podcast, we’ll get a window into how AI is affecting the teaching and learning landscape at one university, the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. My guest today is Alex Ambrose, professor of the practice and director of the Lab for AI in Teaching and Learning at the Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence at Notre Dame. Alex discusses Notre Dame’s recent decision to adopt Google Gemini campuswide, surveys of Notre Dame students and faculty about their changing views of generative AI, and the need for higher ed to do a better job teaching AI literacy than we did teaching digital literacy a decade ago. Plus, we hear about a really interesting project in the Notre Dame physics department using AI to provide feedback on handwritten student work on physics problems. Episode Resources Alex Ambrose’s website “Navigating AI’s Evolving Role in Teaching and Learning” with Jim Lang and Alex Ambrose, Designed for Learning podcast “What Is AI Literacy? Competencies and Design Considerations,” Duri Long & Brian Magerko, Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems “Assessing and Developing Generative AI Literacy in Instructors,” Alex Ambrose, Si Chen, & Xiuxui Tang, University of Central Florida 2025 Teaching & Learning with AI Conference “Student Perspectives on Generative AI: Usage, Ethics, and Institutional Support in the Humanities,” Xiuxui Tang et al., 2025 Midwest Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference “Leveraging AI for Rubric Scoring and Feedback: Evaluating Generative AI’s Role in Academic Assessment,” Xuixui Tang et al., University of Central Florida 2025 Teaching & Learning with AI Conference Anthropic’s AI Fluency course, https://www.anthropic.com/ai-fluency  “Validity of peer grading using Calibrated Peer Review in a guided-inquiry, conceptual physics course,” Price, Goldberg, Robinson, & McKean, Physics Review Physics Education Research, 2016   Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

On two recent episodes of this podcast, we talked about an essay titled "Higher Ed Is Adrift" by Kevin McClure. In the essay, Kevin outlines some of the many attacks the current U.S. presidential administration is leveraging against higher ed, and he notes that many faculty and staff are finding their institutional leaders' responses lacking.  Today on the show, I talk with Kevin McClure, who is a professor of higher education and chair of educational leadership at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, about his essay and the responses it has generated. Kevin comes to this conversation as a faculty member and as a former student affairs staffer and as someone who studies higher education. He’s the author of a new book, The Caring University: Reimagining the Higher Education Workplace After the Great Resignation, published this year by Johns Hopkins University Press. In our conversation, we talk about individual and collective action in the current moment, higher ed’s “communication battle,” and his advice for academic leaders. Episode Resources Kevin McClure’s website The Caring University: Reimagining the Higher Education Workplace After the Great Resignation, Kevin McClure, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025 “Higher Ed Is Adrift,” Kevin McClure, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 25, 2025 “Five Steps to Defend Higher Ed,” Kevin McClure, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 3, 2025 Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

I have now read a few books on the intersection of higher education teaching and generative AI, and Teaching Effectively with ChatGPT is by far my favorite. There’s no hyperbole here, just practical advice on making the most of generative AI with dozens of concrete examples from the authors and from other instructors in their network. The book was written by Dan Levy, senior lecturer in public policy at Harvard Kennedy School, and Angela Pérez Albertos, who was first a student in Dan’s class, then a teaching assistant working with Dan, and is now the head of U.S. strategy at Innovamat, a global educational organization focusing on math learning.  Today I get to share my conversation with Dan and Angela about Teaching Effectively with ChatGPT, and I think you’ll find it interesting, whether you’re eagerly embracing AI in your teaching, actively resisting it, or somewhere in between. Episode Resources: Teaching Effectively with ChatGPT website Dan Levy’s faculty page Angela Pérez Albertos on LinkedIn A short ChatGPT prompt to learn about anything “Talking to Colleagues about Generative AI” by me “AI-Enhanced Live Polling” by me Support the show Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Subscribe to Intentional Teaching bonus episodes: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/supporters/new Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteaching Find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky. See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.