Thursday, January 26, 2023

Recommended Resource: 5 Myths About Instructional Design in Higher Education

This week we're sharing an online resource from Dr. Luke Hobson, a Senior Instructional Designer and Program Manager at MIT, an Online Instructor for SNHU, and the Founder of Instructional Design Institute. In our team's newsletter, we've previously discussed what instructional designers do in higher education. In his blog post and video, Dr. Hobson describes some common misconceptions about 5 Myths About Instructional Design in Higher Education. Note that he provides the information in the following three formats:
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Compare and Contrast: Canvas vs. Blackboard Terminology

Contributed by Aubrie Grass, Instructional Designer I (BUS)

While there are a lot of similarities and differences that we will all be experiencing with the Canvas transition in the upcoming months, I want to start by discussing basic terminology. In many ways, the Canvas interface is very user-friendly, and because we all are familiar with Blackboard, it is even more so as they do look very similar. With that being said, some things may look familiar, but are called something different. This can make it confusing at times when you start to practice with the new system. Below I have included commonly used terms from Canvas and their most similar counterpart from Blackboard with explanations of similarities and differences between the two. Hopefully as we begin to navigate Canvas, this can be a resource to use to help clear up some of the confusion!



There are plenty of other aspects in Canvas and Blackboard that are similar and different, but understanding the terminology can be a great first step in making the transition. If you would like a video that shows visuals of these 10 terms and a brief explanation of each, click here. As we move forward, please do not hesitate to come back to this list often and use it as you start to explore the new system.
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AI Tools and Their Effect on Higher Education, Part 3

Contributed by Izaak Diefenbach, Instructional Designer I (COE)

This is the third article in my series on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in higher education. In the first article, I used an AI tool called GPT-3 to write the introduction to the article, then went on to discuss it and other similar AI tools and how their use could affect higher education. In this article, I am going to discuss one specific new tool, ChatGPT.

You may have already heard about ChatGPT. It has been all over the news since its introduction in late November. ChatGPT is a chatbot built on top of GPT-3’s language models. It has since been updated and improved with the release of GPT-3.5. I know this is a lot of technobabble, so what is it really? ChatGPT allows a user to ask questions and receive answers using natural language. Basically, this means that you can type in a question in regular, non-technical language and you will get back a response that reads like something a person would write, not a computer. It is designed to be used in areas such as customer service and technical support, where it is important to be able to provide quick and easy access to information. It can also be used in education for tutoring or research assistance, for example.

However, ChatGPT is capable of a lot more than those kinds of simple interactions. It can write poetry and song lyrics. It can write screenplays and other kinds of stories. It can even write music. It is really amazing to think about what it is capable of. But it can also be used to write essays and answer test questions, and this is why it is making the news.

One of the first questions many people ask is whether or not the answers are actually any good. The answer is yes and no. It frequently depends on what you are asking it to do. Sometimes the responses are very good; other times, they can be really bad. The important thing to note is that it is constantly being improved, and it is getting better at an astonishing rate. In education, the question most have is, “isn’t this cheating?” Maybe or maybe not. That depends on the instructor.

For now, the general reaction seems to be, yes, this is cheating. That is a natural response to new technology. It has always been like this. When I was in high school, that was the reaction from math teachers to scientific and graphing calculators. But the reality is that this technology is not going anywhere, and it will only get better, so we need to embrace it, understand it, and learn how to use it to enhance instruction.

If you are interested in trying out ChatGPT, you can find it here: https://chat.openai.com/. If you are interested in learning more about AI tools in higher education, we will be doing an online presentation during Faculty Development Week on February 6th at 11:00 AM. Be on the lookout for more details soon.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Technology Learning Services Newsletter Archives (2023)

Our team prepares a weekly newsletter that is emailed to faculty and staff every Wednesday night. This page contains links to the Sways of all previously distributed newsletters for 2023. Please use the hyperlinks below to open any of these archives. The previous years' newsletter archives are available on the blog posts, IDT Newsletter Archives (2020), IDT Newsletter Archives (2021), and IDT Newsletter Archives 2022. To subscribe to our weekly newsletter, please email your request to IDT@uhcl.edu.
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