Beth McMurtrie

AI Has Joined the Faculty More instructors are teaching with it. Is it making their courses better or dragging the profession down?

Every faculty member should read this @bethmcmurtrie.bsky.social story on how faculty are and aren’t using AI www.chronicle.com/article/ai-h...

A Summer Camp Where Professors Are the Focus Each summer Hamilton College hosts a camp for student philosophers. But its real purpose is helping instructors become more innovative teachers.

I had so much fun teaching philosophy at the Hamilton College Summer Program in Philosophy in June-July. It was a unique program, I got to meet the best philosophy students and teachers in the process! Thank you @bethmcmurtrie.bsky.social for your article about the program in the @chronicle.com

These Students Use AI a Lot — but Not to Cheat For some students, the technology can effectively replace collaborative learning with classmates and office hours with professors.

Talk to students about AI use and the narrative is more complex than "they're using it to cheat." Some struggle in poorly taught classes, or work a lot and need an efficient way to get through their readings. And yes, they are aware of the downsides to using AI. www.chronicle.com/special-proj...

SPECIAL | AI in the classroom: Cheating, learning, and the new academic gray zone With AI tools like ChatGPT becoming ubiquitous on college campuses, students and educators alike are navigating a rapidly shifting academic landscape. Beth McMurtrie, a senior writer at The Chronicle ...

I joined @USATODAY’s The Excerpt to talk about AI in higher ed—how students are using it, where the ethical lines blur, and what it means for the future of learning. Listen here: art19.com/shows/5-thin...

Vying for U. of Florida Presidency, Santa Ono Embraced Conservative Positions. It Didn’t Work. The former University of Michigan president’s bid to take over the top job in Gainesville ended in dramatic fashion at a contentious meeting of the State University System of Florida’s Board of Govern...

UPDATED: Ono spent much of the meeting dodging direct answers. When pressed on Covid mandates — with the questioner pointing out that as an immunologist, he must have an opinion — he answered: “I’m a mouse doctor. I’m a test tube kind of guy.” www.chronicle.com/article/stat...

Always good stuff from @bethmcmurtrie.bsky.social. The upshot should not be new. If you want students to be able to do something you have to teach and practice it and assess the meaningful parts of it. That schooling has NOT done this for reading makes things hard, but we are where we are.

Tracking Trump’s Higher-Ed Agenda The federal government is reshaping its relationship with the nation’s colleges. Use our new tracker to keep up with the latest.

The Chronicle is tracking executive orders, statements from Trump, and agency actions that affect higher education, plus legal challenges directed at those measures. The tracker focuses on four areas: civil rights, research, policy, and immigration. www.chronicle.com/article/trac...

Tracking Trump’s Higher-Ed Agenda The federal government is reshaping its relationship with the nation’s colleges. Use our new tracker to keep up with the latest.

the @chronicle.com has launched what is going to be a tremendously useful tool: a tracker of the Trump administration's activities affecting higher ed, particularly in the areas of civil rights, research, policy, and immigration. check it out: www.chronicle.com/article/trac...

Opinion | What Autocrats Want From Academics: Servility In 1931, Italian scholars were made to take loyalty oaths. Will that happen to us?

"On October 8, 1931, a law went into effect requiring every Italian university professor to sign an oath pledging their loyalty to the government of Benito Mussolini. Out of over 1,200 professors in the country, only 12 refused. All of them were immediately fired." www.chronicle.com/article/what...

We Asked Colleges How They Would React to Demands From Trump. They Wouldn’t Say. The possibility became more real on Friday, when Columbia University agreed to make changes in response to a letter from the Trump administration.

We asked colleges how they would react to demands from Trump. They wouldn’t say. chroni.cl/4kMCPa3

College administrators, staff, faculty, and students: How have President Trump's executive actions affected your role and your campus? Connect with us here. chroni.cl/3WWNTHs

Is Higher Ed Prepared for AI’s Impact? It Doesn’t Seem So. In separate surveys, both college leaders and professors express concern.

New surveys shed light on what college leaders and faculty members are doing with generative AI. Some colleges are making AI literacy a learning outcome. But what is AI literacy and who should teach it? If you have thoughts, fill out the form in the link. www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...

College Leaders Are Divided on the Risks and Benefits of Generative AI A new survey highlights how much work is needed to prepare faculty members and students to understand AI tools.

“There are people who are gung ho to move forward and there are people who are terrified," said one of the survey's authors. "That makes it sort of hard to figure out as a broad class of institutions where the future lies.” www.chronicle.com/article/coll...

How Changes in K-12 Schooling Hampered the Preparation of College Students Accountability and test-based reforms, pandemic-era disruptions, and larger social and economic pressures have fostered ineffective habits.

The @chronicle.com has been publishing some excellent articles about college students and their reading and writing skills and habits. Worth reading! A new one by @becksup.bsky.social. www.chronicle.com/article/some...
And from @bethmcmurtrie.bsky.social in May: www.chronicle.com/article/is-t...

College Feels Transactional to Many Students. Who — or What — Is to Blame? Students increasingly see themselves as customers and college as a means to an end. Faculty members are wrestling with the consequences.

My story on cheating seems to have gotten a new round of readers, so I'll share another one with you all. This gets deeper into the issue of why students might cheat in the first place: because college increasingly feels transactional.
www.chronicle.com/article/cust...

Advice for a New Instructor Readers share ideas for instructors who might be struggling with how to balance the requirements of teaching with students’ need for help.

#Teaching advice for new #highered #faculty via @chronicle.com @bethmcmurtrie.bsky.social Teaching Newsletter (also on CHE website). Thanks for citing me! www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...

AI Assistants Keep Joining Meetings. Administrators Say It’s Out of Control. The trend marks the latest example of tech development outpacing governance.

www.chronicle.com/article/ai-a...

College Feels Transactional to Many Students. Who — or What — Is to Blame? Students increasingly see themselves as customers and college as a means to an end. Faculty members are wrestling with the consequences.

Funny you should ask. I wrote a story about that, too.

www.chronicle.com/article/cust...

What Professors Actually Earn To better understand the economic realities of the professoriate, The Chronicle embarked on a project to examine faculty members’ pay, and how purchasing power is affected by the cost of living, accor...

Faculty pay is a perennial topic of interest @chronicle.com. This year, we decided to look at it through the lens of cost of living, using county-by-data. Explore the results here. #HigherEd #AcademicSky

www.chronicle.com/package/cost...

Cheating Has Become Normal Faculty members are overwhelmed, and the solutions aren’t clear.

Why is cheating so common on college campuses? Students don't see value in the work. They need the A. They know others are cheating so they do it, too, etc. Meanwhile, profs wonder how to convince them of the importance of academic integrity and authentic learning.
www.chronicle.com/article/chea...

How Some Professors Are Using AI for Role-Playing Chatbots can help students prepare for interviews and handle conflict, among other things.

My latest: some profs have found generative AI useful to help students practice interview and conversational skills. Also, how learning, friction and fun fit together. www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...

College Matters from The Chronicle Listen to The Chronicle of Higher Education's College Matters from The Chronicle podcast on Apple Podcasts.

Sign up for our new podcast! It's a fresh take on the topics you read about in the Chronicle. I had the opportunity to talk to Jack Stripling, our host, about my story, Is This the End of Reading?

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

Is This the End of Reading? Students are less able and less willing to read. Professors are stymied. What needs to change?

@janetdonavan.bsky.social I wrote a story on that, too! www.chronicle.com/article/is-t...

College Feels Transactional to Many Students. Who — or What — Is to Blame? Students increasingly see themselves as customers and college as a means to an end. Faculty members are wrestling with the consequences.

Students seem increasingly cynical about the value of college, transactional in their approach to learning, and frustrated by their coursework. Faculty members are experiencing the downstream effects. www.chronicle.com/article/cust...

Is This the End of Reading? Students are less able and less willing to read. Professors are stymied. What needs to change?

Is This the End of Reading? Academics across the country have been talking about the problems they are seeing among their students. Reading endurance, reading comprehension and other critical literacy skills seem to be on the decline. www.chronicle.com/article/is-t...

Is This the End of Reading? Students are less able and less willing to read. Professors are stymied. What needs to change?

@bethmcmurtrie.bsky.social expertly navigated the complex reading convo. This insight strikes me as one of the most valuable: "Students will read... If they know why they are doing it and time is taken to help them begin to develop an approach that is effective.” www.chronicle.com/article/is-t...

‘You Hand Them a Knife’: After Claudine Gay’s Ouster, Historians Worry About Weaponization of ... At their annual conference, the scholars pondered a new reality in which citations and footnotes become new fronts in the culture wars.

I went to the American Historical Association conference after Claudine Gay stepped down from the Harvard presidency, and asked historians how they were feeling about citations and footnotes being the new fronts in the culture wars (not thrilled) www.chronicle.com/article/you-...

ChatGPT Has Changed Teaching. Our Readers Tell Us How. One year after its launch, this new tech has professors rethinking assignments and students experimenting in the classroom.

I’m quoted in this great piece by @bethmcmurtrie.bsky.social and @becksup.bsky.social saying that “I have not once this semester suspected a student of passing off AI-generated material as their own work.” Here are some things that may have helped: www.chronicle.com/article/chat...

Toxic Emails, Unrealistic Expectations, and Classroom Disruptions Do faculty members need help resetting boundaries?

My latest story looks at how professors are navigating classroom challenges, including unrelenting demands for flexibility and students not understanding the social norms of college. What's causing these behaviors? And is drawing clearer boundaries the right answer?