March 29, 2023. Issue 9, Spring 2023
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| | News from Moody College'sCenter for Advancing Teaching Excellence
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Four years ago, AI was already making waves with text generation in communication. In the article “Did a Robot Write This? How AI Is Impacting Journalism,” Nicole Martin discusses early adopters of AI writing, such as Bloomberg, that used bots to write articles related to big data financial reports. She observed, “Their program, Cyborg, churned out thousands of articles last year that took financial reports and turned them into news stories like a business reporter.”
Fastforward a few years and we are still trying to consider how to adapt education in the context of enhanced AI text generation chatbots. Regardless of AI developments, effective writing principles remain unchanged with regard to creativity and critical thinking. In this issue of CommuniCATE, we focus on student-centered design of writing tasks that can supercharge emerging professionals in a swiftly evolving technological context.
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| Texas Teach-Up: Ideas that
Sparked our Imagination
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In February, CATE partnered with the Center for Teaching and Learning to offer non-evaluative class visits and teaching discussion opportunities for Moody College faculty. For those who participated, it was a refreshing chance to talk informally about instructional approaches and consider new ideas. Here are some highlights:
In Curran Nault’s Gender and Media Culture course, visual journaling provided a multimodal writing activity leading to a robust, visually enhanced discussion of various witch tropes based on a variety of cultural understandings.
To hone leadership and communication skills while building content expertise, Jenn McClearen’s Feminist Media Studies students used Perusal to annotate course resources in preparation for student-led discussions that demonstrated active engagement with content.
In the Communicating for Development and Philanthropy course, Jennifer Jones Barbour and her TA, Stephanie, seamlessly teamed up to facilitate a student-lead jigsaw activity in small groups that culminated in a whole group debrief with anchor charts to record findings.
In the discussions that followed the class observations, faculty brainstormed ideas on teaching approaches. In one group discussion, faculty worked through ideas related to Gradual Release of Responsibility frameworks.
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If you were not able to participate in the Texas Teach-up event, you can still have the experience! Recruit some of your colleagues and reach out to the CATE team to set up a customized lesson study experience.
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| | Canine Co-writers
Supporting Creative Journalism
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Diana Dawson’s puppy, Buddy Holly, visited her Feature Writing class to provide students the opportunity to observe and write as journalists. Buddy cheerfully interacted with students to build their powers of observation and capturing the action in journalistic style written communication. By bringing her puppy to the class, Dawson introduced a novel experience that increased student engagement with the academic task.
Research backs the practice of introducing novelty in the learning process to increase brain plasticity, the condition of the brain being able to change. By linking the novel event to focused learning pathways to build expertise in a specific writing style, Dawson helped ensure that the learning would have a better chance of sticking with each learner.
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New Drop-in Faculty Collaboration Hours
EXTRA! EXTRA! The CATE team is available for walk-in faculty collaboration hours in our new reception area, CMA 5.102. Please feel free to drop by Monday through Thursday from 12-1 pm. No appointment is necessary! See you soon.
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Teaching ExchangeHeather Walter and Meryl Brodsky will talk about Open Educational Resources (OER) in our next Teaching Exchange Speaker Series on April 14 in DMC 4.212 from 12 pm to 1 pm. Learn about ways you can help reduce the cost of books for your students.
The session involve a 30-minute informal presentation followed by a 30-minute open discussion period. This is Brown Bag format, so feel free to bring your lunch.
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Ungrading Video Series
This video series scratches the surface of shifting from traditional grading to more student-driven assessment practices. If you are ready to consider new approaches to increase student engagement and motivation, check out these brief videos on our ungrading series to spark ideas in your courses. To assist in your transition to alternative scoring concepts, the CATE team is ready, willing, and able to help you design custom ungrading experiences for your students.
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Congratulations to Diana Dawson who will receive this year’s Moody College Teaching Excellence Award.
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Congratulations to Ben Bays who won The Faculty Development Award and will travel to Europe this Summer to visit animation collections and improve his teaching. Way to go!
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We are thrilled to announce that two of our faculty have been named recipients of the annual President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Award for the 2022-2023 academic year. Congrats to Wenhong Chen and Lee Ann Kahlor!
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A huge congratulations to Jared Greer and Kennedy Fisher from Octavio Kano-Galván's Course, Digital Social Media Production. This team won the 2023 American Advertising Awards, Gold for Television Advertising and Student Best of Show Advertising Award for Television Advertising with "Voices."
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| Spotlight on Moody Writing
Support Program
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Diana Dawson created the Moody Writing Support Program (MWSP) to serve the unique writing needs of emerging professionals in the increasingly diverse field of communication.
As an added layer of support for Moody College courses, the MWSP team provides a welcoming environment for all students to access one-on-one coaching for assignments involving literacy knowledge and skills with a communication professional twist. The writing coaches understand the unique language of communication professionals and provide feedback specific to authentic work in the industry.
Check out what the MWSP team has to say about the work they do and reach out to see how you can collaborate to leverage this valuable resource for your students.
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“Nothing makes me happier than seeing the relief on a students’ faces as they leave our writing program cubicle. If we can help remove obstacles to student success in writing assignments and help them lay the foundation for their dream career, we’ve succeeded.”
Diana Dawson, Director
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"Our program provides an extra layer of specialized writing support to support their skills as emerging communication professionals. It’s almost like learning a different language.”
Emily Quigley, Associate Director
READ EMILY'S SPOTLIGHT
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"In my position as a writing coach for four semesters, I have been exposed to a broader range of classes and assignments. I have also experienced that learning becomes 'for real' when I walk someone else through it."
Nickoli Benker, Undergrad Writing Coach
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