Most of today’s students have never known a world without technology, which significantly impacts their attention spans (“Digital Dementia: How Screens and Digital Devices Impact Memory” 2023). Microsoft found that attention spans in general have decreased from 12 seconds in 2000 to less than 8 seconds in 2013, which unfortunately for us as educators is shorter than that of a goldfish (McSpadden 2015). 

In addition to the limited attention span, technology also impacts the brain’s craving for stimulation, training it to expect high-reward, fast-paced digital experiences. This makes concentrating on real-world tasks, such as paying attention to course content, listening to a lecture, or even completing a homework assignment, almost an unreasonable request (de Barros 2024). Students who are less engaged in their coursework experience lower grades, poor class attendance, lack of participation, difficulty retaining information, and increased dropout risk.  

So how do we adjust what we are doing to capture the attention of our students and continue to instill a sense of academic rigor in our courses? To reach our students’ need for novelty and short bursts of information and meet the course learning objectives we can implement active learning strategies in our courses. Research shows that active learning increases content and information retention by up to 90% and engagement is directly correlated with career preparedness (Bachelor et al., 2012). Active learning also provides students with an opportunity to connect the material to their personal lives, which not only increases retention of information, but increases motivation to learn (Cornell University 2025).  

Practical Steps to Implementing Active Learning Strategies

1. Rethinking the curriculum: Shift from lecture-heavy formats to interactive, application-based learning. Introduce flexible, student-centered approaches like problem-based learning, flipped classrooms, group discussions, etc.  

2. Real-world relevance: Connect course material to industry trends, career pathways, and current events. Invite guest speakers from relevant fields for students to interact with. Encourage hands-on activities, projects or case studies.  

3. Create engaging and easily assessed activities: Use formative assessments like quizzes, peer reviews, reflections and in-class activities. Develop assignments that require problem-solving and critical thinking rather than rote memorization. Consider utilizing interactive tools like polls, discussion boards, or gamified learning.  

4. Keep it fun and interactive: Create a positive learning environment by encouraging student input and foster a space for open dialogue. Use humor, enthusiasm, and energy to create a dynamic classroom atmosphere. And gather regular feedback from students about what’s working for them in the class and adjust if needed.  

Steps to Creating Active Learning Activities

1. Case Studies

• Ensure the case aligns with the content and meets the learning goals for that module.  

• Choose or create a case that is applicable to the student and the real world. Cases should be interesting and thought-provoking to capture the attention of the class.  

• These can be conducted as individual assignments or as collaborative assignments. Collaborative assignments tend to be more engaging and interactive.  

• Create clear guidelines and goals for the case study. 

• Debrief with the class with prepared discussion questions to assess learning.
  
  

2. Gamified Learning

• All efforts at gamifying learning should have a purpose and support learning objectives to ensure students are engaged and retaining information.  

• Utilize points and badges, leaderboards, quests, etc. to encourage some competition and collaboration among students. 

• Use digital tools like or platforms like Kahoot, Quizizz, Baamboozle, or apps like Goose Chase for digital scavenger hunts. 

• Provide immediate feedback to show students how they are performing. 

• Set time limits for certain tasks to add an element of urgency or excitement.
  
  

3. Group Learning Projects

• Set clear expectations by explaining the project’s learning goals and the requirements for success. 

• Structure the project into smaller components and create a timeline for completion. 

• Assign roles or ask for group assignments to roles such as leader, timekeeper, editor, etc. to distribute responsibilities. 

• Monitor progress as the instructor by circulating through the room, observing groups, and providing guidance.
  
  

4. Five-Minute Engagement Boosters

Engage students periodically throughout the class period with five-minute engagement boosters to get them to critically think about the material and encourage peer interactions:

• Think-Pair-Share: Pose a question, have students think individually of their answer, turn to a partner and discuss, then finally share their answers with the group. 

• Turn-and-Talk: Students turn to a classmate and answer a quick question, and then reverse roles. 

• Quick Brainstorming: Students rapidly generate as many ideas as possible regarding a specific topic in a short amount of time to provide discussion content. 

• Polls: Multiple choice questions can be used as a discussion starter, allowing you as the instructor to immediately ask follow up questions providing explanations on the topics. 

• Wordle of the Day: Create your own wordle aligned with your course content that day to engage students the minute they walk in the door. 

• Joke or Riddle of the Day: Include a joke or riddle on your first slides to encourage engagement and discussion at the start of class.
  
  

Not only do these strategies engage students and help them stay focused during class time, it also creates an environment in which faculty are able to connect with students as opposed to the traditional lecture model (Cornell University 2025). It is important to set clear expectations from the onset of your course. To ensure that students will have a positive experience in your active learning classroom, be sure to clearly explain how you will use these activities and the benefit of them. Let students know that there is an expectation of participation and that active learning is designed to maximize their success. Set the tone for the semester with a quick icebreaker to help students become comfortable with each other and the structure of the class and utilize an active learning activity on day one (Cornell University 2025). Enjoy your engaged and active classroom! 

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Brittany Aga, PsyD, is a Psychology Instructor and the Educator of the Year (2025) at Piedmont Technical College in South Carolina. Dr. Aga is known for her active learning strategies, engaging classrooms, and student-focused approach in psychology education.

References

Barros, Eugénia Correia de. 2024. “Understanding the Influence of Digital Technology on Human Cognitive Functions: A Narrative Review.” IBRO Neuroscience Reports 17 (November): 415–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibneur.2024.11.006 

Cornell University. 2025. “Active Learning.” Center for Teaching Innovation. 2025. https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/active-collaborative-learning/active-learning

“Digital Dementia: How Screens and Digital Devices Impact Memory.” 2023. Neurology Center for Epilepsy & Seizures. December 13, 2023. https://www.neurocenternj.com/blog/digital-dementia-how-screens-and-digital-devices-impact-memory/

McSpadden, Kevin. 2015. “You Now Have a Shorter Attention Span than a Goldfish.” TIME. May 14, 2015. https://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/

Large undergraduate classes create particular teaching challenges. A daunting challenge is providing personalized, meaningful learning support at a scale that meets the needs of hundreds of students. In subjects like law that rely heavily on conceptual understanding and applied analytical thinking, this need for support is even more pronounced. Undergraduate business students often enter a law course with little familiarity with legal terminology and disciplined reasoning. 

This past fall, I taught a business law course to all second year students in the Bachelor of Commerce program at Dalhousie University. I had 343 students across three sections of 109 to 120 students in each. The course covers foundational areas of Canadian business law and requires students to apply that law with a structured legal analysis. Even with active learning approaches in class and clear instructional structures, it was apparent that students needed individualized, on-demand support that traditional office hours and T.A. tutorials could not fully satisfy. 

To address this, I created and deployed two custom AI tutors, Harvey and Elle, built as custom GPTs in the ChatGPT platform. The aim was to offer scalable, digital learning companions that aligned directly with course learning outcomes and pedagogical needs. What emerged was an effective model for AI-supported instruction that helped students better understand legal concepts, improve their analytical skills, and engage more confidently with course material. 

Why Build Custom AI Tutors?

Although generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude are widely accessible, they present limitations that can make them inappropriate for academic use by students, especially in law courses. Generic large language models often produce: 

• Full blown “answers” that shortcut students’ learning processes, 

• U.S.-based legal explanations rather than Canadian ones, 

• Oversimplified or incomplete reasoning, and 

• Explanations that do not follow the course’s terminology and required analytical structure 

For these reasons, I needed custom AI tools that were aligned with the Canadian legal framework, the course materials, and the expectations for structured analysis. Just as important, the tools needed to explain and teach, not simply provide students with answers to be used for assessments. At the same time, the AI tutors needed to be freely accessible, easy to use, welcoming, and engaging. 

Two Tutors, Two Roles

A key design decision was to create two separate AI tutors, each with a clear instructional focus. 

Harvey – Your Business Law Tutor  was designed to help students understand legal concepts. He provides: 

• Plain-language explanations of legal rules, 

• Examples to reinforce understanding, 

• Guiding questions that help students reflect on their learning, 

• Clarifications of terminology and principles, and 

• Practical, real-world business implications  

Elle – Your Legal Case Analysis Coach supports students in practicing the three-step legal analysis required for course assessments. She guides students through the process of: (1) identifying the legal issue, (2) setting out the applicable law, and (3) applying the law to the facts of a case. 

Elle asks a student to input a case fact situation (usually from class and course materials) and, importantly, that student’s own attempt at analyzing the case. She does not rewrite the student’s analysis, but provides a constructive critique that helps the student improve their analysis by identifying missing steps, improving organization, and offering reminders about the importance of making connections between facts and relevant law.  

These two roles reflect my course design and pedagogical approach of scaffolding conceptual understanding with analytical application.  In other words, students must understand before they can analyze. Harvey and Elle were built to support both of those phases of learning. 

To ensure consistency with the course materials, Harvey and Elle were “trained” by uploading most of the course materials which included instructor-created content such as slide decks, the syllabus, and YouTube lecture videos.  While uploading the course textbook would have been ideal, it was not possible due to copyright restrictions.  

Humanizing the AI Tutors

Each AI tutor was given a distinct, approachable personality. Both Harvey and Elle were inspired by recognizable lawyer characters in pop culture. Harvey is a gritty, shrewd, Bay Street (the Canadian equivalent of Wall Street) lawyer. Elle is witty and bubbly with a sharp legal mind. The goal was to reduce the intimidation students sometimes feel toward legal subjects and create an environment where they felt more comfortable asking questions. Harvey and Elle needed to be relatable and approachable. 

The personalities served as learning cues. Harvey’s confident, polished, explanation-centered style signaled that he was the right tutor for clarifying confusing concepts. Elle’s supportive, energetic, coaching-like tone made her suited for guiding students through legal reasoning. These personalities helped humanize the AI tools, making interactions welcoming, engaging and, sometimes, humorous.  

Student Use and Perceptions of the AI Tutors

Students were surveyed at the middle of the semester after the midterm exam. Almost a third of all students in the course responded. Their feedback highlighted several patterns in how and why students used the tutors. 

1. Regular and Voluntary Use

Even though the use of the AI tutors was optional, almost all survey respondents (95%) had engaged with one or both tutors. One third used at least one tutor a few times per week. The small minority (5%) who did not use any of the tutors felt they were unnecessary for their learning. 

2. Clear, Understandable Explanations

The most common theme in students’ comments was appreciation of how Harvey and Elle explained legal concepts in ways that were easy to understand. Comments frequently mentioned: 

• Clearer explanations than other resources, 

• Help in making legal concepts more digestible, and  

• Improved understanding of terminology 

3. Support with Legal Analysis

Many students valued Elle’s ability to guide them through the three-step legal analysis, noting that she helped them structure their responses and understand how to apply legal rules to fact patterns. This was especially important for midterm test preparation. 

4. Role of Each Tutor

Survey responses indicate that students used Harvey primarily for understanding legal concepts and Elle primarily for practicing structured legal analysis. This reflects the distinct instructional roles the two tutors were designed to play. 

5. Ease of Use and Accessibility

A number of students valued that the tutors were easy to access, available anytime, and convenient for quick clarification. 

6. Help Through Examples and Practice

Some students noted that they liked how the tutors provided examples or helped them practice course concepts. 

7. Confidence, Motivation, and Engagement

Most students reported feeling ‘very confident’ or ‘somewhat confident’ in the accuracy of Harvey and Elle’s responses. Many also indicated that using the AI tutors increased their motivation and engagement in the course. Many used the tutors when preparing for the midterm, suggesting that having immediate feedback contributed to a greater sense of readiness. 

8. Custom AI vs. General AI Tools

Half of respondents found Harvey and Elle more helpful than non-custom AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude.  Many students liked that Harvey and Elle were custom designed for the course with content consistent with course materials and learning outcomes.  

9. Teaching vs. Answers

Many students appreciated that Harvey and Elle guided them in learning, without simply providing answers. Other, but fewer, students were frustrated that the AI tutors did not provide straightforward answers. Almost all respondents (93%) agreed that the AI tutors helped them to learn more effectively, instead of removing or lessening the need for them to learn.  

Conclusion

Integrating Harvey and Elle into a large business law course significantly enhanced students’ ability to understand and apply legal concepts. The tutors offered accessible, personalized learning experiences that supplemented instruction in ways not feasible at scale with traditional methods. 

For educators exploring AI in their own teaching, purpose-built AI tutors with clear roles, customized content, pedagogical grounding, and approachable personalities can offer a potentially powerful, scalable model for supporting student learning.

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Wayland Chau, BCom, JD, LLM, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and International Business of the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University, where he teaches business law and develops AI-enhanced approaches to teaching and learning. A former practicing lawyer with extensive experience in the financial sector, he now focuses his teaching and consulting on generative AI, active learning, core competency building, law, ethics, and social responsibility. He also shares reflections on teaching and learning through his blog, The Reflective Prof.

Before I began teaching college full time three years ago, I had worked for 15 years as a teacher in both public and private schools, a school leader for 15 years in both public and private schools, and an adjunct professor for six years. I also managed a group home for disabled children and adults for eight years, which greatly influenced my work in education. During my years as a school leader, I believed it was important to continue to teach, so I developed a course where I taught brain-based study skills every day to high school freshmen, relying on 100 years of brain-based research. It was strongly reliant on the book, How We Learn by Benedict Carey, (Carey, 2015), and the YouTube personality, Thomas Frank, who started his YouTube channel about study skills in 2006.   

This also gave me the unique opportunity to form a relationship with every student in the schools where I worked. I am confident that my instructional work as a teacher has supported my work as a professor, keeping me in touch with current trends and with the needs of students at all levels. Developmental concepts and theories are the foundation of any educational program, but if we don’t translate these concepts into practical applications, our future teachers will not be prepared to support their students in the best way they can. My objective in teaching is to give them practical tools and also to demonstrate best practices for instruction in my delivery of them.  

Setting Clear Expectations

I completed my PhD in 2017 in Educational Leadership and Policy, and wanted to immediately put my degree and experience to good use, so I started teaching as an adjunct at my undergraduate alma mater. I first taught Child Development, and then predominantly Adolescent Development 18 times, which was a perfect fit for someone who had taught and worked as a school leader at this level for most of my career. I have always been a teacher, and I believe it’s my strength, no matter what the content or level is. As I complete my third year as a full-time college professor, and evidenced by the feedback I receive from my students, I still believe this to be true. I always set up my courses so the expectations are simple and clear, so students don’t have to use their energy to guess what will be happening or changing. It is my goal to make the content meaningful in our current world, so I constantly look for new ways to do this. 

Building Student Relationships

Forming relationships with students and supporting them has always come very easy to me because I sincerely care about their success and preparing them to teach. I believe that working with students and being supportive, responsive, flexible and kind are not only in my nature, but a style that is supported by educational brain research. I develop every course on the foundational belief that if students feel safe, secure and supported, they will be able to take risks and do their best. I teach this and I try to live this. I believe that my school experiences help me present content in a meaningful and realistic way so that the students are as prepared as possible for their own classrooms.  

My instructional strategies include discussion-based strategies such as the Harkness Method, which allows students to formulate questions and work in groups to prepare and present content. Research shows that students remember approximately 90% of what they teach, and only about 5% of what is “lectured” to them. Other instructional strategies I consistently use include small group discussions and presentations, critical thinking and application, personal reflection, technology via video sharing, chunking, hands on learning, demonstration, discovery learning, simulation and cooperative learning.  

“Spaced Learning”

The most valuable assignments and strategies I use throughout the semester are based on the “chunking” or “spacing out” method which has also been called “distributed learning” especially as applied to their final paper. Brain research shows that the more time students spend on an assignment over time, the more successful they are, but more importantly, the more they absorb the content and make it their own on a deeper level. Benedict Carey uses this example in his book, “I like to think of the spacing effect in terms of lawn care in Los Angeles. … to maintain [a lawn] it’s far more effective to water for thirty minutes three times a week than for an hour and a half once a week…Same goes for distributed learning. You’re not spending any more time. You’re not working any harder. But you remember more for longer.” (Carey, 2015, p. 59). I love that you get more “bang for your buck” and can actually work less because you are working “smarter not harder.” (Carey, 2015). It’s magic! 

This is a concept that originated with Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1913. I actually started using it as a high school student without knowing it was a brain-based method, because I didn’t like the anxiety that last minute work gave me. I’m convinced that if I could get students to use only one strategy to increase success and decrease anxiety, this would be it. As a college professor, you can arrange your assignments so they are required to do it; then they see how great it feels and how successful they are. Many students have developed patterns of procrastination so teaching them this method can be an uphill battle but the outcome is profoundly worth it.  

Steps to Take in a College Course

When I am using this method in a college course, I separate the final paper into sections and spread them out throughout the semester. Students work on them individually and submit drafts, which I provide detailed feedback for. We also workshop these sections in groups, so they can learn from each other. By the time they hand in their final papers at the end of the semester, they are all of such high quality, and I can observe their growth as they learn about development and apply it specifically to the student they are observing in the classroom. In this course specifically, the final paper is a case study where they observe one student for 75 hours over the course of the semester and write about their observations and recommendations.  

Last year I also added a first assignment in all my courses where each student writes a paper where they basically “regurgitate” the main components of the final paper. This sets up their brain and takes the guesswork out as to what the culminating assignment will be. It also frames their observational time in the classroom, because they are constantly aware of the “why” of what they are looking for when they observe their students and why looking at their development is important in assessing how best to meet their needs. They are extremely grateful for this for many reasons. Once their stress is decreased, their brains can function at a higher level and they can do their best work.  

Looking Forward

For future courses, I am also adding a component where they dissect the rubric. Years ago when the NY State Common Core Tests began and I was an English teacher at a public middle school, I did something similar with the NY State rubric and had the students dissect it, present it and then grade other students’ sample papers; the entire faculty ended up using this. In my college classes, I am so heartened to read their final submissions because I see the lightbulbs and connections going off in their observations! I realize that sometimes my grades are on the high side, but I believe that is because I set my students up for success along the way. It’s difficult not to complete this assignment at the highest level unless you don’t submit it. 

Some might think that I am doing too much “handholding” with my students, but I view it as mastery learning and my objective is to help them learn as much as they can on a deeper level and to be able to apply it. I am not trying to trick or stump them, and I know that the more time they spend immersed in meaningful content, the more it becomes a part of them that they will help them support their future students.

Spaced learning improves retention, benefits conceptual learning and encourages recall. Isn’t that what we all want as educators?

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Dr. Mary Louise Stahl is currently an Assistant Professor at Niagara University in New York and also an adjunct professor at the State University of New York at Fredonia. She earned her PhD in Educational Leadership in 2016 from the State University of New York at Buffalo, with her dissertation, “Chinese Students in United States High Schools.” She has worked for over 30 years in education, as a teacher, a school leader, a college professor and a writer. In 2022 Rowman & Littlefield published her book, the Heart of School Leadership. 

References 

Carey, Benedict. How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It  Happens. New York: Random House. 2015. 

Ebbinghaus, H. (1913). Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology (H. A. Ruger & C. E. Bussenius, Trans.). Teachers College, Columbia University. (Original work published 1885). 

Frank, Thomas. “13 Essential, Science- Backed Study Tips.” YouTube video. 12:33. 2019. Frank, T. (YouTube Channel). (2006). Thomas Frank [YouTube channel]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxv9lf5HjZM

There always has been a longstanding debate in education about what skill sets students should learn and how their learning should be assessed. The advent of AI, however, has created an immediate need to reexamine current educational models and methods. Like it or not, AI now is replacing much of educators’ traditional focus on teaching and assessing students, including by generating content, synthesizing ideas into coherent essays, critiquing writing, and even solving complex problems. Now many educators are at a loss about which skill sets should be the focus of their instruction, and about how they should assess students’ attainment of those skills.   

Rethinking Assessment in the Age of AI

Howard’s Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI), which was first published in his 1983 book Frames of Mind¸ was one of the first theories to question traditional methods that focus solely on teaching and assessing basic cognitive abilities. Gardner’s theory proposes that individuals are born with diverse, independent abilities, which include linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, body-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic intelligences. His theory holds significant educational and assessment implications. It departs from traditional notions of intelligence and assessment methods that focus primarily on teaching and evaluating learners on cognitive capabilities that can be neatly and narrowly measured with standardized tests. Instead, Gardner’s theory encourages educators to diversify their teaching goals, approaches, and assessment methods to cater to a variety of student abilities within a classroom. 

At a time when AI is replacing many basic human cognitive capabilities, Gardner’s theory and its implications are more relevant now than ever before. More specifically, there is even more of a need today to focus on equipping students with skill sets that AI cannot (as of yet) replace. These include higher order critical thinking and practical application of creative, reflective, social and ethical skills. The question then becomes: How do we educators equip and assess students on such skill sets and attributes, especially since they cannot be measured in conventional standardized ways?   

According to Desai (2025), one possible solution is to focus instruction and assessment on the process of students’ thinking vs. the end results of what students produce. In other words, if AI can generate essays and solutions, the focus of educators needs to shift from evaluating their final products to equipping and assessing students on critical thinking, self-regulation, and motivational skills. Effective assessment techniques need to provide insight into a learner’s thought processes in real time.   

Structured Think-Alouds as a Research-Backed Solution

Think-aloud protocols, whereby students vocalize their thoughts and actions as they perform a learning task, is one effective way to assess students’ thinking skills. A 2012 study that I conducted with Dr. Linnea Ehri demonstrated that think-alouds can go beyond revealing a learner’s thought processes by being structured in a way to facilitate students’ development of important metacognitive, self-regulation, and critical thinking skills – all of which are essential in in the current landscape of AI. In our study, we randomly assigned 70 college students to a structured think-aloud condition, or a control-group, non-structured, think-aloud condition, and asked both groups to perform an online vocabulary learning task. 

Students in the structured think-aloud methodology were asked to continually think-aloud their learning goal and to evaluate whether their online actions were effective in helping them achieve their learning goal. In the non-structured, control-group condition, students were just asked to think aloud, but not in the same structured way as the other condition. The results showed that students in the structured think-aloud condition showed significantly greater metacognitive and self-regulation skills, and in turn greater overall better task performance, compared to their control group peers (Ebner & Ehri, 2013). Although this study was conducted before the advent of AI, it is especially relevant in today’s AI world, because it suggests the power of structured think-aloud methodologies as a possible means for not only revealing, but also equipping students with the higher-order skill sets that are needed to successfully navigate, and critically evaluate AI generated content.    

Rather than fearing or restricting students’ use of AI programs, educators instead should embrace AI as an educational opportunity to develop students’ higher order critical thinking, and their metacognitive, and self-regulated learning skills. By asking students to think aloud in a structured way that requires them to remember their learning goals, evaluate the effectiveness of their online actions, and critically evaluate AI generated content, educators can more accurately assess students’ development of higher order skills.  

A Practical Way to Assess AI Use in the Classroom

For example, if students are assigned to write a research paper in a history class, evaluating only their final products may be problematic since it is hard to know whether they used generative AI to assist in writing their papers. Instead, it is important to shift the focus on not just assessing the final paper, but also the learning and thought processes that a student utilizes to research and write the paper. Employing a structured-think-aloud method can be useful in this regard. 

In the case of the research paper assignment, a teacher could record, or ask students to record themselves, in real-time, verbalizing their thought processes and actions when using AI tools to research and write the paper. With the think-aloud protocol teachers will have greater insight into how students are using the AI tools, and to what extent they are critically evaluating their relevancy and accuracy. 

In addition, going a step further and requiring students to think aloud in a structured way can facilitate students’ acquisition of self-regulation, metacognitive, and critical thinking skills. For example, instructors can ask students to continually think aloud their research goals and provide them with suggested prompts or criteria to evaluate the validity and relevance of AI generated content.  

In summary, we as educators have an important role to play in ensuring the effective use of AI as an educational tool that can leverage deeper and more complex human abilities that cannot be generated by AI. Ironically, we must prepare students to “out smart” AI by focusing on developing the more difficult to measure abilities that Gardner wrote about in his original theory of MI, such as ethics, interpersonal, and intrapersonal skills. By encouraging students to communicate their thoughts and ideas in real time with structured think-aloud methodologies, we can assess and equip students with the skills they need to stay on task, critically evaluate AI content, and engage in ethical practices.  

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Rachel Ebner, PhD, is an educational psychologist who specializes in student learning, instruction, and assessment. She has a longstanding interest in researching, designing, and assessing multi-faceted ways to advance student learning both in and out of the classroom. Her research has focused on investigating ways to help students self-regulate their online learning. Dr. Ebner currently serves as director of student learning assessment and clinical assistant professor of psychology at Yeshiva University in New York City. She holds an M.A. in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University’s Teachers College and an Ed.M. in Risk & Prevention from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She earned her doctorate in Educational Psychology at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, where she specialized in Learning, Development, and Instruction. 

References 

Ebner, R., & Ehri, L. (2013). Vocabulary learning on the Internet: Using a structured think-aloud procedure. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56 (6), 472-481, republished in Digital Literacies: An IRA Cross-Journal Virtual Issue (International Reading Association) 

Desai, Hrishikesh (2025).  What’s worth measuring? The future of assessment in the AI age. Unesco. Retrieved November 18, 2025 from https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/whats-worth-measuring-future-assessment-ai-age 

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York, NY: Basic Books. 

As you read the content of this article, you may wonder why you are yet to implement the strategies outlined here. But the fact is many of us were not taught in doctoral school how to teach or build our teaching effectiveness. We were advised to focus on research to maximize our chances of securing the tenure track position. 

We only learnt from observing senior professors or from our personal teaching experience. Nonetheless, it is never too late to start implementing the following strategies. I am sharing them because they worked for me, and I am confident that they will work for you. My only wish is that someone had shared them with me a long time ago, and perhaps, you might have read this article at an earlier time and so, without taking more of your valuable time, let’s proceed!

Advice #1: Use Your University’s Teaching Center and Their Resources

If you never have, this is the time to visit your university’s teaching center. This is free and open to all faculty. They have trained educators, including professors of education, and they offer teaching training, workshops, programs, and seminars, and multiple resources on teaching pedagogy (Beach et al. 2016; Chism 1998). They also provide counsel on how to manage challenges such as academic incivility, workload and time constraints, technological adaptation etc.  

I visited my university’s teaching center during my first semester as a full-time teaching professor and ever since, my teaching has dramatically improved. This is the best investment in my teaching career, and for the first time, I can truly say that I enjoy teaching. In fact, all the advice I provide in this article stems from this. 

On my first visit, I asked for a class observation from one of the center’s trained educators, and I was given expert insightful feedback on my teaching that I had never received before (Martinez et al. 2016). The main feedback was to transform my lectures to become centered on student engagement. I was determined to implement the feedback and so I subsequently enrolled in the teaching consultation. This was a semester long one-on-one training. I was introduced to diverse books, articles, and online websites on teaching pedagogy and technologies including the Teaching Professor, Faculty Focus, Educational Technology, K. Patricia Cross Academy and The Teacher Toolkit. I was also given a lot of assignments on them. I rebuild my curricula, course design, and teaching style using Fink’s Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses. As a result, I also integrated a lot of varied classroom activities to make my teaching student-centered. Furthermore, I was compelled to reflect on my past teaching experience and to implement effective teaching strategies that utilized my strengths and encouraged student engagement such as the facilitation of discussions and group activities. Finally, I also had a series of teaching demonstrations as part of the training to apply all I had learnt.  

Afterwards, I enrolled for a separate three-part critical teaching behaviors workshop, where I brainstormed with other teaching professors in groups to discuss and share our teaching experiences and strategies. As part of the workshop, we were required to read Critical Teaching Behaviors by Barbeau and Happel and to reflect on it and implement the critical teaching behavior strategies for improving how we evaluate, record, and communicate our teaching effectiveness. Lastly but not least, I enrolled in the student teaching consultation to build, collect, and implement timely student evaluations, which has been proven to increase teaching effectiveness (Cook-Sather 2011’ Cox 2000).  

If your university does not have a teaching centers and/or programs, search for alternatives close to you or accessible remotely such as The Mentorship or Faculty Success Program offered by The National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity.  

Advice #2: Attend Classroom Teachings of Your Fellow Professors

Graduate school is not the only time for teaching apprenticeship. As a teaching professor, continuously seek out knowledge and strategies from fellow teaching professors to improve your teaching. Make it a habit to approach peers that you admire, ask them to share their teaching evaluations and experiences, and what’s more, if they are excellent at teaching, ask to observe their classroom teaching (O’Leary 2020). When you do, make sure to take notes and ask questions about their teaching techniques. Pick up one or two strategies and try to implement them in your teaching. Likewise, invite your peers to observe your classroom teaching and offer their feedback. They will also learn effective strategies or lessons from your teaching. 

Advice #3: Attend Professional Development Workshops and Teaching Conferences

Till today, I don’t believe I have perfected my teaching. Teaching is like being a student, the more you learn, the more you practice, the better you get at it. One more habit to add to your teaching is to actively seek out and attend teaching conferences. I had never heard of or attended any teaching conference until I started teaching full-time. I realized that this is true for many teaching professors. In doctoral school, we are highly encouraged to attend academic research conferences but never teaching conferences. There are annual teaching conferences such as the Teaching Professor Conference held every Summer. 

Also, many academic research conferences offer sections, panels, or sessions specifically for teaching professors and some conduct separate teaching conferences annually, which are less recognized or known. If you are unable to do so, the best place to start from is to attend teaching workshops and programs offered by your university’s teaching center and even university libraries. Sign up for newsletters for teaching conferences and newsletters from your university’s teaching centers so that you can be notified of conferences and workshops designed to help teaching professors.  

Advice #4: Read Academic and Non-Academic Articles About Teaching Pedagogy

Likewise, sign up for newsletters from teaching pedagogy online websites such as the Teaching Professor, Faculty Focus, and Educational Technology and start reading articles on teaching pedagogy. Other Professors and educators share their experiences and expertise on these websites. They teach you how to address teaching challenges and adapt to changes, strategies, and technology for teaching etc. 

Also, make it a habit to read and sign up for scholarly journal articles on teaching such as the Journal of Higher Education and Journal of Teacher Education. You will be updated on new teaching strategies and technologies. You will also learn examples of actual teaching philosophies and strategies adopted by educators and teaching professors that have worked and those that have failed or need reform. Finally, it is important to consider writing about your pedagogy as a teaching professor. By sharing your experience and knowledge on strategies that have worked or failed, you help and inspire fellow teaching professors improve their pedagogy.  

Advice #5: When in Need, Delegate Teaching or Seek Other Outlets

It is important to know that there are resources to help. Most universities have subject librarians and dedicated IT teams that can direct you on how to access and use diverse teaching and learning resources and technologies offered by the university. For instance, when designing courses or assessments, seek their help to find or build syllabus, books, articles, reports, statistics, PowerPoints, rubrics, multimedia etc. as well as interactive, LMS, or AI technologies for course design that you can assign to students for your course or specific assignments. 

Also, if you struggle to dedicate time for research or if in need of a break or you have to miss class for important reasons, solicit your librarian or IT team to help you design educational classroom activities for your students to teach them how to use learning resources and technologies. Likewise, if you have a disability sign up with your university’s center for disability and/or center for wellbeing and health to provide important accommodations to aid in your teaching or help you implement alternative educational activities for your courses.  

Overall, always remember that you are not alone and there are tools and strategies that can be employed to help you throughout your teaching career. Focus on teaching that is centered on students but that also works with or relies on your strengths. Lastly, if you ever implement any of the aforementioned strategies, remember to include them in your teaching portfolio as part of your teaching effectiveness for retention and promotion (Barbeau and Happel 2023). 

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Vivian Ike, PhD, is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Syracuse University in New York where she teaches a range of International Relations courses. She is passionate about teaching pedagogy and sharing her lessons with fellow teaching professors. 

References 

Barbeau, Lauren, and Claudia Cornejo Happel. 2023. Critical Teaching Behaviors: Defining, Documenting, and Discussing Good Teaching. 1st ed. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003443902. 

Beach, Andrea L., Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Ann E. Austin, and Jaclyn Simpson. 2016. Faculty Development in the Age of Evidence: Current Practices, Future Imperatives. Sterling, VA: Stylus. 

Chism, Nancy Van Note. 1998. Preparing Future Faculty Programs: What Have We Learned? Washington, DC: Council of Graduate Schools. 

Cook-Sather, Alison. 2011. “Student Consultants Deepening Classroom and Life Lessons.” Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education 1 (1): 1–5. 

Cox, M. D. 2000. “Student Collaboration in Faculty Development.” To Improve the Academy 18 (1): 97–112. 

Fink, L. Dee. 2013. Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses. Revised and updated ed. Newark, NJ: Wiley. 

Martinez, F., N. Taut, and L. Schaaf. 2016. “Classroom Observation for Evaluating and Improving Teaching.” Teaching and Teacher Education 58: 217–231. 

O’Leary, Matt. 2020. Classroom Observation: A Guide to the Effective Observation of Teaching and Learning. 2nd ed. London: Routledge. 

Sorcinelli, Mary Deane, Ann E. Austin, Pamela L. Eddy, and Andrea L. Beach. 2006. Creating the Future of Faculty Development: Learning from the Past, Understanding the Present. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing. 

Faculty members in higher education must produce peer-reviewed publications in order to retain their jobs and obtain tenure and promotion. Perhaps even more importantly, publishing scholarship is one of the ways faculty members can share their ideas, innovative practices, and research findings with others in the field and beyond. However, writing is typically not the central focus of most faculty members’ days in their academic careers (Mazak, 2022).  

We Need Designated Writing Time

In order to support the writing, thinking, and research work that goes into producing a manuscript that can be sent off for peer review and hopefully published, a small group of teacher education faculty members at two universities decided to craft a Restorative Writing Retreat, where we would gather for the sole purpose of working on our academic writing for three days. While some of us schedule regular writing blocks each week to work on scholarship, or even a “writing day” alone or together, the Restorative Writing Retreat was distinctive in the length of time dedicated to academic writing and the intentionality of how we would plan and use that time. This also helped us think of ourselves with a scholarly identity and develop our own academic voice, while we usually juggle many other hats and roles.

We have all been to professional development around writing and scholarship, but in the throes of everyday academic work, sometimes the practices in those trainings are hard to stay grounded in. The place, space, and time together to realistically and intentionally work on academic writing would remind us of the reasons we wanted to share our work in the first place.  

Planning the Retreat: Think of Basic Necessities

We planned the Restorative Writing Retreat on three consecutive days during the workweek at one faculty member’s home. Each faculty member was responsible for clearing their schedule of other meetings and tasks, getting childcare if necessary, and bringing all of their needed supplies. One of our spouses graciously offered to cater the event, meaning they planned, cooked, and cleaned up breakfast, snacks, and lunch all three days. Before the retreat, we organized a large table for working, equipped with power strips and good lighting, separate from the eating space. There were also other areas we could take breaks when needed or step away from our work.

The luxury of not having to think about meals and food preparation proved essential in freeing up the space in our minds to work on deep thinking and make forward progress on several projects for each of us. The food was also intentionally high in protein with lots of fresh produce, but not heavy. This served to keep our energy high while not causing sugar spikes, crashes, or lethargy when we wanted to work for a sustained period of time.  

Setting Intentions for Each Day

Over breakfast each morning, we discussed what we wanted to accomplish that day. One person had a paper that was almost ready to send off to an editor. Another needed to start digging through the literature to set up a review before diving into analyzing data she had been sitting on for years. Another person wanted to spend the first day organizing her files and planning so that the rest of the week could be dedicated to projects that were most important. Just talking about our goals and hearing that, yes, that was a good task to spend time on, was encouraging and motivating.  

Gentleness and Community

Writing in community was powerful. While we weren’t necessarily focusing on co-authored pieces with each other during the Restorative Writing Retreat, the radical act of women academics writing together (Mazak, 2022) propelled us. We mostly worked in silence, occasionally pausing to run an idea by one another or pose a question. We took breaks for snacks, a walk outside, and a hearty yet energizing lunch. At each break, we were nearly bursting at the seams to tell each other what we had worked on or thought up. Returning to work was easier when someone else also wanted to get at least one more writing session in. We each took breaks when we needed and worked at a pace that was best for us. Some days, one of us might need grace to just stop (or not even start!), and this was a space to acknowledge that we all need that sometimes.

At the end of the day, we were accountable to each other through sharing our successes and challenges regarding our writing goals. We are all in different career stages and of various faculty ranks in different fields, and we each felt we learned something by listening to one another’s experiences and sharing tips.   

Valuing Writing as Our Work

Part of what made the Restorative Writing Retreat most powerful was the intentionality behind it. One participant stated that she would never have thought to set aside time like this to work on projects that don’t seem urgent. She was surprised at how good she felt about making progress on a project that, while indeed not urgent, was important work that will contribute to her field. Clearing our schedules was certainly more manageable during the semester break when most of us weren’t teaching, but it was still difficult to remove administrative work, student advisement, service work, and mundane email checking from the front of our minds. These little tasks can distract us from even starting to write sometimes, so it was necessary to dedicate this time to our scholarly work.  

Building Your Own Retreat

There are several recommendations for creating your own Restorative Writing Retreat that we will likely take into consideration for future iterations of this event. Intentionality of time is perhaps the most important consideration, meaning the retreat is dedicated to academic writing time, no matter how it is structured. Thinking about the location and the physical space can support a variety of workspace options, such as comfortable seating, pockets of space for pairs or small groups to break off, and a virtual meeting desk set up in an isolated space in case someone does need to take a meeting. Access to good lighting sources, especially natural light, and tools such as docking stations, power strips, chargers, external monitors, keyboards, and wireless or wired mouses, should be apparent in the workspace(s). Being near an outdoor space or other natural elements can be helpful during breaks to enjoy the weather and fresh air, take a walk, or get some physical activity. Having food and break times thought about in advance minimizes the mental load needed for these logistics during the retreat, whether that is ordering food, pre-making meals, or hiring catering.

We recommend that a writing retreat be scheduled for at least two (consecutive) days, in order to allow space and time to get deeply into projects and find a good rhythm for the writing sessions.  

Clarify Ways of Work

The rapport and respect of the community of academics at the retreat matters. We all knew each other well outside of work, but this is not necessary. Even inviting faculty members who have not met could be successful if time is taken prior to the first session, even during the first meal, to get to know one another. It is essential to be clear with each other about the ways of work expected during the retreat or during each work session. Will the work sessions be silent body-double work time, semi structured, trading drafts for feedback, or something else? There is no wrong way to structure a work session, but all writers need to be clear on the expected conversation, feedback, timing, and noise levels. Writers might choose to do strict lengths of writing sessions with scheduled breaks, completely flexible work and break times, or somewhere in between. Also, each writer at the retreat does not need to follow the exact expectations, but everyone’s ways of work should be compatible with one another for the given session.

Similarly, choose how and when to set and share goals and have periodic check-ins for accountability. This can be extensive as a writers’ workshop, or straightforward as a simple “state of the day” discussion. We also recommend planning an end-of-day wind down activity, such as a walk outside. Finally, be sure to set expectations at the retreat around staying positive and encouraging with feedback towards each other and our self-talk. 

A Retreat on Campus

The Restorative Writing Retreat could be replicated on campus too, instead of in someone’s home. The same recommendations above would apply, with some additional considerations. It would be important to reserve a space that is away from most people’s offices so as to minimize disruptions and distractions. This separate visual and physical environment is essential for creating the mental space to focus on writing projects instead of the other burdens of academia. Logistics of organizing food and location would have to be coordinated by a point person, cost of food could be covered by a dean’s budget, a grant, or individual faculty members each contributing a small amount. For instance, perhaps reserving two conference rooms and an adjacent learning pod in an academic building on campus and ordering catering for two days would create a mini-retreat for faculty in your college. While we organized our Restorative Writing Retreat during a semester break, planning two consecutive days during the academic semester would also be an option. In fact, this places writing even more central to our work because it is boldly proclaiming that academic writing is the work of our careers. 

Hold Yourself and Your Writing in High Esteem

We hope this article can be a practical guide to creating your own Restorative Writing Retreat. Perhaps more importantly, this paper serves to remind you of the importance of writing as academic work. We want to affirm that your writing is essential and you are worthy of the time intentionally spent to share your ideas with the world. Please be encouraged and empowered to dedicate time and planning to your own writing.  

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Laura N. Sarchet, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Special Education at Niagara University in Lewiston, NY. She is an autistic self-advocate and former special education teacher who uses her experiences to raise awareness about autism and disability through research and practice. 

Michelle Ciminelli, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Literacy Education at Niagara University in Lewiston, NY. She teaches courses in foundations of literacy, differentiated reading instruction, early childhood education, and organizing the literacy classroom. 

Sarah E. Sarchet, MSEd, is a Principal Lecturer in the Department of Science and Mathematics at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology. She is pursuing a PhD in Education with a specialization in Teaching, Curriculum and Change at the Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development at the University of Rochester.   

Thomastine Sarchet-Maher, EdD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Deaf Education (DDE) and Assistant Dean for International Education at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology. 

Reference 

Mazak, C. (2022). Making time to write: How to resist the patriarchy and take control of your academic career through writing. Morgan James Publishing. 

Through tools like ChatGPT, AI has become a household buzzword. But its usage continues to lag among educators. There are various reasons for this: lack of awareness, resistance to change, and of course the lack of robust research.  

It makes sense that some educators view AI with skepticism. But giving into this resistance would be a missed opportunity, because AI can help teachers reduce their workload so that they can focus on the moments that matter — the time spent with students.  

To guide educators on how to get the most out of generative AI in this manner, we picked three important aspects of instructional practice: lesson planning, providing explanations, and retrieval practice.  

Generative AI Drives Lesson Plan Efficiency and Effectiveness

Building an effective and engaging lesson plan takes time and effort. For each lesson plan, teachers have to determine how to best deliver content while tailoring the quantity and complexity of materials to students’ pre-existing knowledge. 

In this respect, generative AI tools can do much of the heavy lifting. When carefully prompted, it can present thorough lesson plan recommendations to educators.  

Effective lesson planning leads to durable and lasting learnings. Without an educator or a machine doing this work, lesson designs can become iterative, repetitive, or out-of-date. For this reason, through generative AI, educators are better supported and students get the best out of their learning.  

Here’s a handy microlesson on “Using AI to design lessons aligned with cognitive load theory”.

Generative AI Can Personalize Explanations

Another use case for generative AI is generating explanations. Much like lesson planning, providing explanations for students is ESSENTIAL. Explanations are needed so that students can make sense of new knowledge and process it deeply to connect it with their pre-existing knowledge. Students need quality explanations for semantic processing — this is the kind of processing that allows them to construct meaning of new incoming knowledge.   

Instructors must understand their students’ prior knowledge. They need to develop explanations with appropriate simplicity, oftentimes using stories and analogies to land their explanations effectively. All of this is a complex (and time consuming) process.  

Generative AI tools can tailor its outputs to its audience. By asking generative AI tools to translate complex ideas in simple terms, students are more likely to understand concepts. Instructors can also directly inform the generative AI tool the level of their students’ prior knowledge and the machine can respond accordingly. Generative AI tools can also develop stories and analogies in the form of explanations to suit students’ interests and hence have a better chance of capturing their attention which then leads to deep processing of new knowledge.  

Here’s a handy microlesson on “Using AI for deep processing through explanations”. 

Generative AI Automates the Development of Retrieval Practice Exercises

Retrieval practice is a learning strategy that involves actively recalling information from memory without having it in front of you. It’s a powerful strategy for students because it helps them retain information better. The added challenge of recalling knowledge from memory allows it to be stored better.  

It’s a great formative assessment tool for educators because when students can retrieve knowledge with accuracy and fluency, it gives them an idea of how well the students are learning. And if students are found to be struggling, it provides educators with direction to tweak their instruction.  

The evidence in support of retrieval practice as a learning strategy and as an instructional technique is so robust and has been dated back almost 100 years. A common retrieval practice technique used by instructors is low-stakes or no-stakes quizzes.  

Regular creation of retrieval practice devices such as low-stakes quizzes, multiple choice questions, and polls is an exhausting process. The act of creating quizzes requires creativity, expertise, and a whole lot of time. Educators generating these devices from scratch often require a large amount of time and effort. Time and effort that overworked teachers often do not have.  

The automation of this process with generative AI creates the efficiency necessary to implement retrieval practice on a regular basis. By using generative AI in this manner, teachers would be able to deliver best practices in teaching to their students without having to work beyond their means.  

Here’s a handy microlesson on “Using AI for retrieval practice”.

Conclusion

In this article, we highlighted a few ways teachers can use generative AI to optimize their work. It is always important to remember that generative AI is an assistive tool. Teachers are the experts and they should always take the time to fact check anything generated by AI. Instructors also know their students best. Ultimately, only they can assess whether the content created by AI is suitable or useful for their learners.  

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Dr. Peter Zhang, PharmD, MBA, is a Hospital Pharmacist at Southlake Regional Health Centre, and a PhD student at the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. 

Dr. Nidhi Sachdeva, MA, PhD, is a post-secondary educator, researcher, and teaches in the Teacher Education program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). Nidhi is the co-author of a newsletter called the Science of Learning, which aims to reduce existing gaps between educational research and instructional practice.  

In today’s classrooms, educators are constantly seeking ways to engage students while building critical academic and real-world skills. One powerful approach is digital storytelling, an alternative to the traditional essay that blends narrative, creativity, and technology. By combining text, images, audio, and video, digital stories allow students to communicate ideas in dynamic and personal ways—while still reinforcing the foundational literacy skills at the heart of education. 

What Are Digital Stories?

At its core, digital storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. It has been celebrated for enhancing both 21st-century skills and traditional literacy skills (Robin, 2008; Vu, Warschauer, & Yim, 2019). In the classroom, digital storytelling is more than just a technology-driven activity. It is a student-centered, creative process that develops writing, critical thinking, and communication skills while fostering digital and visual literacy. 

Students not only gain a deeper understanding of key content but also practice crafting narratives that are engaging, concise, and meaningful. For educators, digital stories offer a way to merge academic rigor with creativity, giving students opportunities to showcase knowledge in ways that feel relevant and motivating. 

Why Use Digital Storytelling?

Digital stories are valuable for both teachers and students. 

• For Teachers: Teacher-created digital stories can enrich lessons, clarify abstract concepts, and spark classroom discussions. Research shows that multimedia can boost comprehension and retention, making digital storytelling an effective instructional tool. 

• For Students: When students create their own digital stories, they learn to research, synthesize information, and share perspectives. They also develop communication skills by organizing ideas, asking questions, and presenting narratives to an audience. In addition, publishing their work online allows students to share with peers, receive feedback, and engage in reflection—all of which can strengthen emotional intelligence and collaboration. 

Ultimately, digital storytelling taps into the creativity and curiosity of today’s “digital generation,” making learning more engaging and authentic. 

The Writing Process and Digital Stories

One of the most exciting aspects of digital storytelling is how seamlessly it aligns with the writing process. Just as a writer drafts, revises, and publishes, a student creating a digital story conceptualizes, prepares, produces, and presents. Comparing a film shot to a sentence helps students understand that visual language follows many of the same principles as written language. In this way, digital storytelling doesn’t replace the essay—it reframes it into a medium that feels natural for students growing up in a multimedia world. 

The Elements of a Strong Digital Story

The Center for Digital Storytelling identifies seven elements that define strong digital stories: 

1. Point of View – What’s the main idea and perspective? 

2. A Dramatic Question – What keeps the audience engaged? 

3. Emotional Content – Does the story connect on a personal level? 

4. The Gift of Your Voice – How does the narrator personalize the story? 

5. Soundtrack – Does audio enhance the message? 

6. Economy – Is the story concise and focused? 

7. Pacing – Does the rhythm fit the tone and content? 

When adapted for classrooms, these elements can be expanded to include purposeful content selection, clarity of voice, grammar, and multimedia quality. Taken together, they ensure that student work is both academically rigorous and creatively powerful. 

Steps to Creating a Digital Story

The process of creating a digital story doesn’t have to be complicated—or expensive. Many free tools are available to guide students through each stage, from brainstorming ideas to producing polished multimedia narratives. Generally, the process follows these steps: 

1. Plan: Identify purpose, audience, and message. 

2. Script: Draft a narrative or essay-style script. 

3. Storyboard: Pair visuals and media with text. 

4. Produce: Record narration, add soundtracks, and edit images or video. 

5. Publish: Share the final story with peers or online platforms. 

6. Reflect: Review and critique both one’s own work and that of others. 

By breaking the process down into manageable steps, educators can help students focus on content and creativity, rather than being overwhelmed by technology. 

The Impact of Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling doesn’t diminish the value of traditional essays; rather, it expands the toolkit educators can use to develop essential skills. Students still research, write, and revise, but they also learn to navigate multimedia, collaborate, and think critically about how stories are crafted for diverse audiences. 

In an increasingly digital world, these skills are not just academic—they are practical, transferable, and empowering. By embracing digital stories, educators create opportunities for students to connect learning with creativity, ensuring that assignments are not only educational but also meaningful.

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Michele Poulos has dedicated more than twenty-five years to education, with experience spanning elementary, secondary, and post-secondary settings. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education, a Master’s degree in Psychology, and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in Human and Learning Science. Throughout her career, she has taught and learned in both traditional classrooms and fully online environments, giving her a unique perspective on how students thrive across modalities. Michele currently serves as the Director of Online Education at Pima Medical Institute, where she oversees online programs, faculty development, and strategic initiatives designed to enhance student learning and success. Her professional accomplishments have been recognized nationally, as she was inducted into Marquis Who’s Who in America for four consecutive years (2022–2025). Her passion for education is matched by her commitment to family life. She resides in Naples, Florida, with her husband and their two children—ten-year-old Trenton and eight-year-old Eliana—who continually inspire her dedication to both teaching and lifelong learning.

References 

Lambert, J. (2013). Digital storytelling: Capturing lives, creating community (4th ed.). Routledge. 

Robin, B. R. (2008). Digital storytelling: A powerful technology tool for the 21st century classroom. Theory Into Practice, 47(3), 220–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405840802153916 

Sadik, A. (2008). Digital storytelling: A meaningful technology-integrated approach for engaged student learning. Educational Technology Research and Development, 56(4), 487–506. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-008-9091-8 

Vu, V., Warschauer, M., & Yim, S. (2019). Digital Storytelling: A District Initiative for Academic Literacy Improvement. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 63(3), 257–267. https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jaal.962?utm_source=researchgate.net&utm_medium=article 

Yang, Y. T. C., & Wu, W. C. I. (2012). Digital storytelling for enhancing student academic achievement, critical thinking, and learning motivation: A year-long experimental study. Computers & Education, 59(2), 339–352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.12.012

I will never forget the expression of bewilderment and abject fear on my undergraduate researcher’s face when I said “Can you create a mathematical model of worms messing up age layering?” I am sure he was thinking “She’s nuts. What rational geological mind can think superposition is a myth?” But what he said was “Ok.” 

A week later, he came back with “I don’t know what to do.” I replied, “Draw a picture to visualize the process.” A few days went by, then he asked “How deep can worms go anyway?” I replied with only facts “Worms can theoretically go down 20 cm into the sediment, but it’s more like 5 cm realistically.” With that he went silent, for a couple of weeks. Then, he asked for a one-on-one meeting. I lamented “He is going to tell me he is quitting my lab. He doesn’t feel he is learning.” 

Instead, he showed up with a mischievous grin, beaming with confidence, fired up his laptop, and started talking fast: “I assigned an age to each layer. First, I did a 3-point running average…” and he went on explaining the sophisticated mathematical model he created for a process that is notoriously difficult to quantify, even for professional environmental scientists: bioturbation. He discovered for himself that he can solve seemingly intractable problems because he trusted that I wouldn’t give him a problem he couldn’t solve.  

For decades the prevailing wisdom in academia is that embedding teamwork in all of our classes is the best way for students to learn. However, there is no amount of teamwork that will compete with how much my student learned from being forced to think on his own; nor will the support of any team boost his self-confidence with the same depth. 

Ultimately, that is how both sense of belonging on campus and life-long self-confidence are built – through personal academic success.  

Why Teamwork Holds Such Appeal

But teamwork is all the rage in modern higher education pedagogy literature building on the idea that requiring students to work in teams prepares them for the workforce while providing them scaffolding and support from their peers. Also, teamwork is a method to socialize the learner, get them out of their pandemic funk, and make them talk to others to articulate their ideas better. In the real world, teams require the collaboration of members with distinct expertise – and sometimes individuals on a team are not physically together or may not even know each other. The work is done through digital communication where everyone submits “their part” of the task and the team leader collates the work. This “divide and conquer” approach provides greater efficiency and productivity. And there are also times when one team member is slated to repeat the work of another for repeatability and measuring uncertainty.  

This is undoubtably true and, truth be told these ideas have a modicum of merit. 

However, with over a quarter century of college teaching under my belt, I see teamwork in the classroom as similar to AI – it has its value, but it cannot replace solitary learning and has drawbacks that are difficult to repair. Confidence and personal capacity grow only through guided struggle and trial and error; not through working with cohorts.  

When Efficiency Overshadows Learning

When the goal is learning and not efficiency, “divide and conquer” becomes an impediment. Even when students are told each member of a team must submit their own completed assignment, they gravitate toward delegating parts of the assignment among various team members, and then copying from each other to complete the assignment. Students finish their work faster, but such division of labor diminishes the learning for each team member and, despite all the best attempts to thwart such behavior and warnings from faculty, all team members suffer when exam time arrives and they cannot demonstrate mastery of the underlying content.  

The Limits of Collaboration for Learning and Well-Being

Decades-worth of psychology literature reveals that brainstorming as a group is counter-productive unless first the participants are allowed to isolate and think for themselves. Forcing teamwork dulls skill-building efforts and individuals become reliant on “the competent other” rather than on “self.”  

Students carry personal traits that most faculty are untrained to address like social anxiety, depression, autism, neurodivergent tendencies, or generalized anxiety. Teamwork can inadvertently exacerbate underlying mental illnesses or neurodivergent needs which detracts from the learning of all students on the team.  

Moreover, teamwork either promotes groupthink or, more commonly, causes complacency in weaker members of the team – they learn little by over-relying on other team members. This leads to loss of accountability among team members as well. Also, teamwork tends to promote the irresponsible and overuse of the internet and AI. While asking each team member to evaluate every other member, including AI, is a safeguard against many of these drawbacks, it isn’t foolproof and doesn’t reduce frustration among team members.  

Centering Independence as a Learning Goal

Lastly, faculty are highly specialized academic professionals bringing years of both disciplinary and educational expertise into the classroom. Asking them to guide teams instead of teaching individuals is often interpreted as insulting, violating academic freedom, and may provoke responses like “I’m not a ‘cruise director’ guiding group adventures which return little learning bang for the teamwork buck.” 

I’ll finish with a quote from George Carlin: “Somewhere along the way, someone is going to tell you, ‘There is no “I” in team.’ What you should tell them is, ‘Maybe not. But there is an “I” in independence, individuality, and integrity.” 

Author’s Note: No AI was used in the writing of this piece. Every word is the author’s and hers alone. 

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An academic for over a quarter of a century, Figen Mekik is the founder and lead PI of the Mekik Climatology Lab. She is a professor of Geology, a climate scientist, and micropaleontologist. Figen has been teaching at the college level for three decades. Also, she chaired the Geology Department for 6 years, served as Chair to the University Academic Senate for two terms, and served as President of her section at the American Geophysical Union for two terms (Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology). 

References

“Bioturbation”, Wikipedia, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioturbation

Tomas Chamorro-Premusic, “Why Group Brainstorming is a Waste of Time”, Harvard Business Review, 2015. https://hbr.org/2015/03/why-group-brainstorming-is-a-waste-of-time

“Groupthink.” ScienceDirect, 2012. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/groupthink.

Amanda Gangler Horrigan, “Understanding How AI Affects Team Performance: Challenges and Insights for Successful Integration”, Columbia Business School, 2023. https://business.columbia.edu/insights/business-society/understanding-how-ai-affects-team-performance-challenges-and-insights

It’s Sunday night. You’re prepping for three different courses tomorrow, you have 50 discussion posts waiting for feedback, and you just remembered you need to send that midterm reminder. The to-do list feels endless, and you’re exhausted. 

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. However, here’s what might transform your week: a groundbreaking 2025 poll revealed that educators who integrate AI tools into their weekly practice are reclaiming nearly six hours each week—precious time they’re reinvesting directly into student support, rather than just catching up on lost sleep (Walton Family Foundation and Gallup, 2025). 

Let’s be clear: we’re not discussing replacing your teaching expertise or your unique voice in the classroom. Instead, we’re talking about fundamentally reshaping your workflow to strategically offload repetitive cognitive labor. This approach reclaims both your mental bandwidth and your time, allowing you to redirect your energy toward what likely drew you to education in the first place: building genuine connections with students, sparking intellectual curiosity, and being fully present for those magical moments when learning truly happens. 

The reality is that generative AI tools like ChatGPT are already present in our educational ecosystems. Our students are actively using them, often without clear guidance. As Gamby and colleagues (2025) powerfully argue in “The AI Tsunami Is Here,” this technological shift demands nothing less than a thoughtful reinvention of our educational practices. The critical question has evolved from whether AI belongs in education to how we can harness it responsibly to alleviate administrative burdens while preserving the essential human touch that gives teaching its profound meaning. 

1. Jump-Start Lesson Planning

Staring at a blank document late at night is mentally draining and inefficient. Rather than beginning from zero, use AI as your collaborative brainstorming partner. For instance, when I needed to add a new syllabus requirement explaining “regular and effective contact” for my online courses, I turned to ChatGPT with this specific prompt: “Draft a unique paragraph for a syllabus that explains how ‘regular and substantive contact’ will be met in an asynchronous online course, focusing specifically on instructor-led discussions and personalized feedback mechanisms.” 

Within seconds, I had a professional, compliant draft that addressed all the necessary administrative points. This allowed me to spend a productive 15 minutes adapting the text with specific course details and injecting my personal teaching philosophy, rather than wasting a full hour struggling with initial composition. The key is recognizing that AI generates raw material, but you provide the pedagogical expertise and personal touch that makes it effective. 

Crucial reminder: Treat the AI’s output as your initial draftsperson. Your role remains that of the expert editor and subject specialist who ensures the final product reflects your standards and addresses your students’ specific needs. 

Time saved: 30–45 minutes per lesson plan. 
Impact: Preserves creative energy for more complex instructional design challenges. 

2. Turn Students into Critical Thinkers

One of the most powerful classroom applications involves transforming AI from an answer-generator into a catalyst for critical analysis. Try this simple, effective exercise: project an AI-generated explanation of a complex concept your class is studying—perhaps Freud’s dream theory or Keynesian economics—then facilitate a collaborative “AI autopsy.” Guide students through essential evaluative questions: 

• What key elements did the explanation capture accurately? 

• What nuances, exceptions, or cultural contexts did it overlook or oversimplify? 

• What potential biases might be embedded in this particular response? 

• How would we verify this information using authoritative scholarly sources? 

This ten-minute activity fundamentally reframes AI as a tool for collaborative inquiry rather than passive consumption. As Ruth Holbeck (2025) astutely observes, the skill of effective prompting is itself a sophisticated critical thinking exercise. She reframes this competency not as merely extracting good answers from technology, but as “teaching students to interrogate the AI’s thought process.” When students identify gaps, biases, or oversimplifications in the AI’s response, they’re practicing exactly these essential critical evaluation skills. 

Key strategy: Position this activity as a shared investigation where you and your students are detective partners, not as a “gotcha” exercise meant to prove AI’s inadequacy. The goal is building durable critical thinking habits. 

Time investment: 10–15 minutes of class time. 
Impact: Develops essential digital literacy and critical evaluation skills that extend far beyond the classroom. 

3. Streamline Feedback and Assessment

Providing meaningful, individualized feedback remains one of the most valuable yet time-intensive aspects of teaching. We’re certainly not suggesting outsourcing final grading or nuanced evaluation to AI. However, these tools can dramatically accelerate the drafting process for formative comments that you then review, personalize, and deliver. 

Consider this common scenario: a student submits a paragraph that shows genuine effort but suffers from unclear phrasing and an inappropriate casual tone. Instead of spending ten minutes crafting feedback from scratch, paste the text into an AI tool with this directive: “Provide constructive, supportive feedback on this student paragraph, focusing specifically on improving clarity and academic tone.” The AI might suggest three specific, actionable improvements. You then add a sentence of personal encouragement that reflects your relationship with that student—“You’re clearly engaging with the core concepts here, Sarah—let’s work together to sharpen how we articulate these complex ideas”—and send it off. 

The entire process takes two minutes instead of ten but preserves your pedagogical judgment and personal connection. You maintain final editorial control, ensuring all feedback is accurate, encouraging, and tailored to the individual learner’s needs. 

Essential practice: Never deliver AI-generated feedback verbatim. Your unique voice, awareness of each student’s journey, and specific encouragement are what make feedback transformative rather than merely corrective. 

Time saved: 3–8 minutes per student response. 
Impact: Enables consistent and timely intervention across larger classes. 

4. Model Ethical and Responsible AI Use

Many students are already actively using AI tools to maintain academic motivation and manage their learning, as Lucas Orfanides (2025) describes in his personal account of ChatGPT serving as a study companion. Rather than ignoring this reality, we can proactively guide students toward ethical, effective use. 

Initiate transparent conversations about academic integrity by demonstrating practical methods for verifying AI-generated information against reputable sources. Share concrete examples of AI hallucinations or biases and establish clear protocols requiring students to acknowledge when they’ve used AI for brainstorming or preliminary research. 

The California Community Colleges’ HUMANS Framework (2025) offers an excellent structure for these discussions. You can teach students to apply its principles directly to their work: 

• H (Human-Centered): Use AI to generate initial drafts, but you must provide the final critical analysis and unique voice. 

• U (Unbiased): Actively prompt the AI for “multiple perspectives on [your topic]” to reveal and counter its inherent training biases. 

• M (Measured): Critically evaluate every AI output; never accept its first response as factual without verification. 

• A (Accountable): You bear ultimate responsibility for any work you submit, regardless of AI assistance in its creation. 

• N (Networked): Treat AI as one research tool among many, complementing—not replacing—library databases and expert sources. 

• S (Secure): Protect privacy by never inputting sensitive, personal, or student-identifiable information. 

Best practice: Don’t simply lecture about these principles—actively model them during class sessions by live-editing an AI-generated paragraph or comparing outputs from different AI tools on the same prompt. 

Time investment: 5–10 minutes introduced once or twice per semester. 
Impact: Significant. Builds lasting foundations for academic integrity and digital citizenship. 

5. Reduce Routine Communication Tasks

Repetitive administrative communication—while necessary—consumes disproportionate mental energy. Weekly reminders, course announcements, encouragement emails, and assignment clarifications can be efficiently drafted with AI assistance while preserving your authentic voice. 

For example, when I needed to send a midterm reminder last semester, I prompted ChatGPT: “Draft a friendly, supportive email reminding students about upcoming midterms that encourages those who are struggling to visit office hours for extra help.” Within thirty seconds, I had a complete, professionally worded draft. I added a specific reference to our recent class discussion about imposter syndrome, adjusted a few phrases to sound more like me, and sent it to all my students. 

The entire task took three minutes instead of fifteen. Other perfect applications include welcome messages, weekly module introductions, assignment clarification emails, and office hours reminders. 

Critical adjustment: AI drafts often sound generic. Always customize with personal anecdotes, specific class references, or encouraging comments that reflect your genuine relationship with students. Avoid the “one-size-fits-all” trap. 

Time saved: 10–20 minutes weekly. 
Impact: Frees significant mental space for more meaningful, substantive student interactions. 

Keeping the Human at the Center

When used strategically, AI excels at automating routine tasks like lesson drafting and feedback formulation. This automation naturally raises a concern: could it lead to intellectual laziness? The answer lies in redefining our role. Used as a draftsperson—not a decision-maker—AI doesn’t replace your judgment; it depends on it. Your expertise is what transforms its raw output into meaningful teaching. 

This is not about doing less thinking but about doing more of the kind of thinking that matters. The true “AI dividend” is professional elevation. The time reclaimed from administrative work is reinvested into the highest-impact intellectual work: designing complex assessments, facilitating rich Socratic dialogues, and providing nuanced feedback. In this way, AI doesn’t replace the educator; it elevates our role from content manager to learning mentor, allowing us to focus on the uniquely human aspects of teaching: mentoring, connection, and intellectual inspiration. 

Start Small, Start Now

Ready to claim your time? Your first step is simple. This week, use AI as your assistant on one small task—that nagging weekly email or a standard feedback template. Draft, refine with your unique touch, and deploy. 

The minutes you save are more than just time; they are the building blocks of a more fulfilling practice. They are the potential for a breakthrough with a struggling student, the seed of an innovative lesson, or simply the creative energy you bring back to your classroom. This is your personal AI dividend. Don’t just count the hours—make the hours count. Start small, start now, and redirect your expertise to where it shines brightest. 

Authors’ Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of AI tools, including ChatGPT, Claude, and DeepSeek, and was substantially revised and edited by the authors.

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David E. Balch, PhD, teaches at Rio Hondo College, where he specializes in integrating technology and evidence-based practices in community college instruction. 

Robert Blanck, MA, is a faculty member in the Department of Education at the University of California, Riverside Extension, specializing in innovative teaching strategies and educational technology. 

References 

California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. 2025. Generative AI and the Future of Learning. Accessed October 24, 2025. https://www.cccco.edu/About-Us/GenAI-and-the-future-of-learning

Gamby, Tyler, David Kil, Riel Koblic, Paul LeBlanc, Marina Moldoveanu, and George Siemens. 2025. “The AI Tsunami Is Here: Reinventing Education for the Age of AI.” EDUCAUSE Review, September 18, 2025. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2025/9/the-ai-tsunami-is-here-reinventing-education-for-the-age-of-ai

Holbeck, Ruth. 2025. “Helping Students Develop AI Prompting Skills for Critical Thinking.” Faculty Focus, June 27, 2025. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/helping-students-develop-ai-prompting-skills-for-critical-thinking

Orfanides, Lucas. 2025. “As a College Student, Studying Can Be Difficult and Lonely. ChatGPT Has Become My Go-to Study Buddy.” Insider, October 18, 2025. https://www.insider.com/chatgpt-study-buddy-college-student-2025-10

Walton Family Foundation and Gallup. 2025. Teaching for Tomorrow: Unlocking Six Weeks a Year with AI. Retrieved October 24, 2025. https://news.gallup.com/poll/691967/three-teachers-weekly-saving-six-weeks-year.aspx