Doug Holton

GitHub - opendatalab/MinerU: Transforms complex documents like PDFs into LLM-ready markdown/JSON for your Agentic workflows. Transforms complex documents like PDFs into LLM-ready markdown/JSON for your Agentic workflows. - opendatalab/MinerU

How did the new MinerU 2.5 do github.com/opendatalab/...

Noah D. Finkelstein: A principled way to think about AI in education: guidance for action based on goals, models of human learning, and use of technologies https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01467 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.01467 https://arxiv.org/html/2510.01467

Notes and system instructions and deep research reports on creating a custom GPT or Gemini Gem to tutor calculus: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p2aeeVmstAASRUsgH52NLDmhghrhhsab2pvmyevnuYI/edit?usp=sharing
Hawkulus: AI Calculus Tutor (Custom GPT) […]

So what does actual educational quality look like? For decades, researchers at Indiana University have been measuring something that matters far more than acceptance rates: how engaged students actually are in their learning. Through the National Survey of Student Engagement, they survey hundreds of thousands of freshmen and seniors about how they spend their time, interact with professors and what they think they are gaining from college. While the survey results are not routinely made public, I asked Indiana researchers to compare data across groups of schools sorted into five tiers based on selectivity. Here's what they found: On 18 different engagement measures, the tiers of schools were separated by just a point or two among freshmen — a gap that narrowed even more by senior year. For instance, in a measure of “higher-order learning” — engagement in activities that promote the critical, analytical thinking central to a college education and essential to jobs in an age of A.I — there was “no statistically significant difference” between the most selective schools (under 20 percent acceptance rate) and the next tier down (20 percent to 40 percent). Overall student satisfaction among seniors was separated by only four percentage points between the most selective and least selective schools (those with an 80 percent to 100 percent acceptance rate).

It should be obvious a priori that it's absurd to judge colleges by the number of applicants they manage to avoid admitting. Quality ≠ selectivity! Now there's evidence demonstrating the absence of an empirical relationship between intellectual engagement and a school's selectivity: is.gd/itHRhu

Abstract and results summary

🚨 New preprint 🚨

Across 3 experiments (n = 3,285), we found that interacting with sycophantic (or overly agreeable) AI chatbots entrenched attitudes and led to inflated self-perceptions.

Yet, people preferred sycophantic chatbots and viewed them as unbiased!

osf.io/preprints/ps...

Thread 🧵

Asset-based Approaches to Student Success In past newsletters and workshops, I’ve shared evidence-based teaching strategies that have been shown to improve student learning, success, engagement, and career readiness: Teaching Tips for the …

Asset-based Approaches to Student Success
edtechdev.wordpress.com/2025/10/01/a...
Strategies for moving from deficit thinking (focusing on what students lack) to asset-based approaches (aka strengths-based approaches).
#EdDev #HigherEd #Teaching #EdReform

Teaching Tips: The First Major Exam or Assignment I’ve earlier shared evidence-based teaching tips and resources for the critical first week of a course, including these resources: Establishing Expectations: A Growth Mindset Approach –…

Teaching Tips: The First Major Exam or Assignment
edtechdev.wordpress.com/2025/09/26/f...
Some research-based practices you may find useful for before, during, and after your first major assessment to improve student success and help struggling students turn things around afterward.
#EdDev #Teaching

Go behind the browser with Chrome’s new AI features Google Chrome is getting upgraded with the latest AI to make it safer, smarter and more useful

The homework help button is gone, but starting today, there is an omnipresent Gemini button on the top right of Chrome, and it can do the same stuff. Additionally, it supports Gemini Live mode (voice mode). I tested it and it answered questions in a Canvas quiz for me: blog.google/products/chr...

Looks like the Homework help button doesn't appear anymore. That's what the last comment at the above canvaslms discussion says, too. Unfortunately though, this kind of stuff is only pushing folks to use Honorlock and similar tools even more.

How can we detect or disable Google's new "Homework help" Chrome browser feature during Canvas quizzes? Google has rolled out a new "Homework Help" button in the URL bar of Chrome, and I just tested it out. During a Canvas quiz, if I click that button in the URL bar and select a quiz question in Canvas,...

Yes, the Homework help button appears on any Canvas or D2L site, as well as others. community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Qu...

Awesome-Nano-Banana🍌-images

They have collected stunning images and prompts generated by Nano-banana in various task scenarios, comprehensively showcasing Google's unlimited possibilities in image generation and editing.

github.com/PicoTrex/Awe...

6 ways to use NotebookLM to master any subject This semester, students can use NotebookLM to instantly generate flashcards, quizzes, professional reports and more.

6 ways to use NotebookLM to master any subject https://blog.google/technology/google-labs/notebooklm-student-features/ (new features) #AI #NotebookLM

Higher education does not teach critical thinking by default Without specific classes, students may leave college still unable to separate science from nonsense, says Natalia Pasternak

Opinion: Without specific classes, students may leave college still unable to separate science from nonsense, says Natalia Pasternak

#AcademicSky #EduSky

If any LLM devs want to skip ahead of the class, check out How People Learn nap.nationalacademies.org/read/9853/ch... or Teach Students How to Learn youtu.be/yGBfd7LeGMM?...
Another Metacognitive AI strategy: confidence self-assessments arxiv.org/abs/2508.152... #LearningSciences

Screenshot of article published in the British Journal of Educational Technology titled: "Leveraging complexity frameworks to refine theories of engagement: Advancing self- regulated learning in the age of artificial intelligence."

Teaching students how to learn changes more than effort—it changes the pattern of their learning. A brief SRL intervention made study habits more regular & organized all semester, boosting grades. bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #PsychSciSky #AcademicSky #EduSky

A Treatise on AI Chatbots Undermining the Enlightenment On chatbot sycophancy, passivity, and the case for more intellectually challenging companions

I've been trying to articulate why the fawning, complimentary responses from AI chatbots feel so insidious to me. I've finally figured out how to explain it.

Wrote a long piece on how current model training and design choices threaten our critical thinking skills: maggieappleton.com/ai-enlighten...

Advancements in astronomy education research: Two decades of progress with undergraduate and adult learners journals.aps.org/prper/abstra...
#Astronomy #PhysicsEd #STEMeducation #DBER #EdDev #ActiveLearning #Teaching

Annie and Lakeesha struggle in school. AI teacher assistants treated them very differently. A Common Sense Media study found that prominent teacher assistants that use AI generated recommendations that appeared to be rooted in racial stereotypes based on students’ names. About a third of teachers report using AI weekly, according to a recent survey.

A Common Sense Media study found that prominent teacher assistants that use AI generated recommendations that appeared to be rooted in racial stereotypes based on students’ names. About a third of teachers report using AI weekly, according to a recent survey.

Grading student writing with AI: What we lose when AI replaces teachers Our students don’t write to impress a rubric--they write to be heard, and using AI to grade student writing misses the mark.

Grading student writing with AI: What we lose when AI replaces teachers
#AIEdu #AIinEdu #EdChat #EdReform #EduSky
www.eschoolnews.com/...

Design Principles for Developing Information Problem Solving Competence in Higher Education: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis - Josien Boetje, Bo Sichterman, Stan Van Ginkel, Matthijs Smakman, Jo... Developing students’ information problemsolving (IPS) competence in higher education is imperative. However, existing theoretical frameworks describe IPS learni...

Meta-analysis on promoting information problem solving competence, which "is commonly defined as the integrated knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable individuals to search for, assess, and use online information to solve problems and construct knowledge." #PsychSciSky #AcademicSky #EduSky

Text Shot: Approximately 40% of students engaged with textbook references when prompted by feedback---significantly higher than traditional reading compliance rates. Survey data revealed high student satisfaction (M=4.1/5), with 82.1% reporting increased confidence on midterm topics they had practiced, and 73.4% indicating they could recall and apply specific concepts from practice sessions. Our findings demonstrate how thoughtfully designed AI-enhanced systems can scale formative assessment while promoting sustainable study practices and self-regulated learning behaviors, suggesting that embedding structured reflection requirements may be more impactful than sophisticated feedback mechanisms.

How Adding Metacognitive Requirements in Support of AI Feedback in Practice Exams Transforms Student Learning Behaviors | Proceedings of the Twelfth ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3698205.3729542 #AI #education

Exploring Language Models in Scratch with Machine Learning for Kids In this post, I want to share the most recent section I've added to Machine Learning for Kids: support for generating text and an explanation of some of the ideas behind large language models. youtu...

Today was #ScratchConference - a chance to learn from the incredible creativity of the #Scratch community 😍

I was lucky enough to be invited to talk about the work I've been doing this year with schools using Generative AI in Scratch - a short version of my demo from dalelane.co.uk/blog/?p=5538

AI-Based Teaching Evaluations: How Well Do They Reflect Student Perceptions? This study presents an innovative solution for evaluating university-level teaching quality using artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on key aspect…

Strong claim: "AI evaluation removes human bias in teaching assessment" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Ironically, I asked AI to evaluate this claim. Gemini: this is an overstatement docs.google.com/document/d/1...
ChatGPT: misleading drive.google.com/file/d/1p_69...
#AIEd #EdDev #Teaching

“The Ones that Care Make all the Difference”: Perspectives on Student-Faculty Relationships - Innovative Higher Education Student-faculty (S-F) interactions that are conducive to students’ learning can help reduce the retention and graduation gaps in higher education, especially for college students from underrepresented...

“The Ones that Care Make all the Difference”: Perspectives on Student-Faculty Relationships
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
"4 themes for faculty practices: (1) Creating Pedagogical Space, (2) Being Inclusive and Aware, (3) Being Engaged and Engaging Students, (4) Doing More Than Teaching."
#EdDev

Recent #AIEd resources:
* AI & ID research drphilippahardman.substack.com/p/beyond-the...
* 6 apps in a day aieternaut.substack.com/p/claudes-ai...
* AI wrapper w/google forms readysetcompute.com/gptwrapper/
* Course Review GPT onlinelearningconsortium.org/olc-insights...
* onmicro.ai & cogniti.ai

PAIRR public webinar slides Peer & AI Review + Reflection (PAIRR) An invitation to engage with our human-centered, research-based approach July 9, 2025 Supported by the California Education Learning Lab Anna: Hello and welcome t...

If you're exploring critical reflection on AI feedback, we hope you'll take a look at our Peer & AI Review + Reflection (PAIRR) approach. Input welcome! All OER.

Webinar recording: pairr.short.gy/webinar
Slides: pairr.short.gy/slides
Materials packet including prompts: pairr.short.gy/packet

One thing that has helped immensely when planning workshops is keeping a running list of my favorite facilitation techniques. | Tolulope (Tolu) N. One thing that has helped immensely when planning workshops is keeping a running list of my favorite facilitation techniques. My list is in the form of a Google Doc, and it has multiple sections like ...

I created free templates that you can use to collect your favorite facilitation techniques! This can make it easier to plan workshops, as you’ll already have a curated list of strategies to choose from.

www.linkedin.com/posts/tolu-n...

#HigherEd #FacDev #EdDev #AcademicSky #EduSky #Facilitation

Professors at Play PlayBook Visit the post for more.

Professors at Play professorsatplay.org has 3 free #ebooks on incorporating games into your 1) #Teaching professorsatplay.org/playbook/
2) #OnlineTeaching professorsatplay.org/professors-a... and
3) and #AI ideas professorsatplay.org/ai-playbook/
#EdDev #EdTech #AIEd

Lucile Favero, Juan-Antonio P\'erez-Ortiz, Tanja K\"aser, Nuria Oliver: Do AI tutors empower or enslave learners? Toward a critical use of AI in education https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.06878 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.06878 https://arxiv.org/html/2507.06878

The promise of mastery-based testing for promoting student engagement, self-regulated learning, and performance in gateway STEM courses Decades of research show that tests, beyond assessing student knowledge, are powerful tools for promoting learning. However, high-stakes tests can als…

The promise of mastery-based testing for promoting student engagement, self-regulated learning, and performance in STEM courses www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Used OLI platform chemistry course oli.cmu.edu/courses/gene...
Repeating tests linked to increase in use of study resources & grades