Transform Your Teaching Center for Teaching & Learning at Cedarville University

In this episode, Rob and Jared kick off a new series on Competency-Based Education. They discuss the characteristics of CBE and how it compares with traditional educational practice. Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.
In traditional educational models, time is the constant and education is the variable. With Competency-Based Education (CBE) models, time is the variable and education is the constant. In the current educational landscape, CBE is commonly seen in apprenticeships and in trades. Typically, it involves an instructor coming alongside a student to help them achieve mastery of content.
Jared is currently apprehensive about CBE because it turns time into a variable. He still is concerned about the level of understanding that a student can reach in certain academic areas that require higher-level thinking if the primary variable is time. For example, since he comes from a language arts background, he is concerned about the level of synthesis and critical reading that may not be reached using competency-based education.
Competency-based education can already seen in more traditional education settings through some modalities (such as flipped classroom). In this series, Rob and Jared will learn from the experiences of others who have used CBE to shed more light on where it is being used and how faculty can use it to design some or all of their instruction the experiences of others who have used it.
Resources
What is Competency-Based Education? (SNHU)
Join us on Flip to discuss this series!

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with (Ret.) Lt. General Loren Reno, Professor of Management and Senior Advisor to the Office of the President at Cedarville University. Check out the episode to hear how he uses servant teaching to encourage and inspire students.
Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.
General Reno’s goal as an educator is to serve. He seeks to inspire his students instead of attempting to control their involvement in the learning process since educators can intrinsically motivate students through inspiration. With this foundation, General Reno provides several traits of a servant teacher:
Listening – listening to the needs of students both in class and outside of class. General Reno shares his cell phone number with his students to help alleviate potential stress students have over assignments or course contentModeling – modeling the content, modeling affirmation, modeling high standards, modeling leadershipEncouraging/Giving feedback – inspiring students to do better through the feedback you give them in assignments and during class participationAll these principles are based on approaching teaching with humility. General Reno shares that there are several ways that pride can be a barrier for teachers to acting in humility. In order to overcome this obstacle, teachers should give attention to their students, rather than placing attention on themselves.
General Reno challenges educators to know the needs of students, meet those needs, and show students that they care. When students feel that an educator cares, they are more willing to engage with class sessions and the content.
Resources 
We want to hear from our listeners, so we’ve launched a discussion on Flip – a video discussion platform. Join us with all your questions and reflections.   
Join Transform Your Teaching's Flip discussion group: https://flip.com/e5ea081d (if it asks for a join code, use e5ea081d) 
Generative AI Flip discussion: https://flip.com/84387b64 

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Ryan Liming, a member of the Transform Your Teaching team, to discuss some of the work that goes into producing the podcast. Transform Your Teaching is also using a new tool to hold asynchronous video discussions with listeners. Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover.
Resources
We want to hear from our listeners, so we’ve launched a discussion on Flip – a video discussion platform. Join us with all your questions and reflections.
Join Transform Your Teaching's Flip discussion group: https://flip.com/e5ea081d (if it asks for a join code, use e5ea081d)
Generative AI Flip discussion: https://flip.com/84387b64

In this episode, Rob and Jared conclude the series on Generative AI Applied and reflect on the lessons they learned. They also announce the launch of a new tool we are using to hold asynchronous video discussions with listeners. Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover.  

Jared’s takeaways: 
Adapt or die; Generative AI is not going away. GAI should be treated like any other innovation. Users must have time to try it, and it must be seen as reliable and compatible with their work. The difference, though, is that the user must find the reliability and compatibility for themselves because GAI is a complex innovation.  GAI is a standalone tool and also one that can be the backbone of bigger things. The next step for using GAI is to use it to create—treat it like a programming language or a medium through which to present content. Rob’s takeaways: 
Those working with GAI in education need to provide beneficial examples of AI use. Christian education needs a voice through control of its own GAI model. GAI use may erode trust on a larger scale than other tools in history. Resources 
We want to hear from our listeners, so we’ve launched a discussion on Flip – a video discussion platform. Join us with all your questions and reflections.  
Join Transform Your Teaching's Flip discussion group: https://flip.com/e5ea081d (if it asks for a join code, use e5ea081d) 
Generative AI Flip discussion: https://flip.com/84387b64 

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Dr. Jodie Penrod who has a PhD in Educational/Instructional Technology from Ohio University and is the Chief Information Officer at Marshall University. They discuss how Marshall University has approached Generative AI and how other educators can use GAI to enhance teaching and learning. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.

Marshall University has decided to embrace using Generative AI and harness it to fit their goals. Their advice for faculty in using GAI falls into three categories: open use, moderate use, and prohibited. They created these categories to provide a framework to get started. Faculty usage of GAI has varied, much like most technology adoption, but Marshall does want faculty to take the lead in the conversation around GAI.
A major area Dr. Penrod is working on is preparing Marshall’s foundational infrastructure for using GAI. This requires thinking through the challenges of access/equity, especially at a school like Marshall. Students’ access to GAI is also causing her to question the idea of the “traditional student,” and she is looking at how GAI can cater to all students, not just the 18-year-old who is just out of high school.  GAI can help meet students where they are and provide opportunities to get an education by creating access regardless of life circumstances. Dr. Penrod sees GAI's future making an impact on personalized learning and changing the educational landscape. However, she is concerned about information security. How do we educate our students on using their personal information with GAI and the risks involved with that?
Resources
Marshall University’s approach to GAI
Faculty Resources for AI (from Marshall)

In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Dr. Thomas White, president of Cedarville University. They discuss possible applications of Generative AI at Cedarville and in higher education at large.  Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.
Dr. White sees how influential Generative AI will be on higher education and has explored it by using ChatGPT4 and plugins. While using the tools, he has found uses outside of education – recently using Generative AI to help book his family’s vacation. However, Dr. White’s main emphasis for Cedarville faculty is that they need flexibility and freedom to handle how GAI is used in their classes, but they need to set clear expectations for their students. He plans on continuing that stance this coming academic year.
Within higher education, Dr. White sees many possible applications of GAI in various areas. GAI can be leveraged to take care of smaller, lower-level tasks that keep faculty from spending time building relationships with students, researching, and completing other complex tasks. He sees GAI helping faculty with grading, answering common questions, and finishing mundane tasks that keep them from doing more authentic, enriching tasks. Dr. White also wonders how GAI could serve as a research assistant to help faculty with writing and publishing.
Dr. White recommends that both faculty and staff should look for ways to incorporate GAI into their workflow. For faculty, he advises them to think of one activity in the classroom where they can use GAI to expose students to it. From there, faculty can evaluate what GAI can do and if it is useful. For staff, he encourages them to think of a task they hate to do and find a way to use GAI to accomplish it, freeing up their time to do something else.