Community colleges and universities currently grapple with declining enrollments and soaring costs, among other issues. The latest item of concern is the surge of AI in educational settings, which has set off a frenzy of opinion pieces. ATE Central has round up several recent news sources regarding the use of AI in the classroom, in favor or against. 

In favor of a nuanced use of AI for the Atlantic, Ian Bogost writes that "ChatGPT isn’t a step along the path to an artificial general intelligence that understands all human knowledge and texts; it’s merely an instrument for playing with all that knowledge and all those texts... [AI apps] are surely not going to replace college or magazines or middle managers. But they do offer those and other domains a new instrument—that’s really the right word for it—with which to play with an unfathomable quantity of textual material."

An NPR article offers a look at how educators are viewing AI apps in the classroom from essays to homework. Another piece from Mind Matters expresses discontent on how easily technology makes writing work and homework now. 

Finally, the New York Times writes about the impact of AI on campuses. An op-ed from them...

Mark your calendar for the 2023 Women in Aviation International Conference on Feb. 23-25 in Long Beach, California! The conference will include inspiring keynote speakers, professional development seminars, education sessions, exhibit hall, and much more!

The Women in Aviation website states, "There's no better place to be inspired, share your enthusiasm, and connect with others who share your passion for the aviation industry. We look forward to gathering to connect, engage, and inspire with our valued members." 

This conference is aimed towards women in aviation careers, education, and all others interested. Register on the Women in Aviation website. Early registration ends January 17th!

A new report from Best Universities explores how the pandemic has changed college students from four and two year institutions. The report shows a trend that many 18-24 year old students have "began opting for alternative pathways, such as trade programs or the freedom from student loan debt provided by joining the workforce right away." The report also shows community college's impact on traditional and nontraditional students interested in alternative pathways. From the report,

"Community colleges make up the lion’s share of nontraditional student enrollment—which has been the case since at least 2015. And while enrollment since that time has nearly halved, community colleges retain nearly threefold the number of new nontraditional students each year than public four-year institutions."

Read the full report, which uses data from the National Student Clearinghouse Center, on the website for Best Universities. 

The Analytics for Equity Initiative is a new program led by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that is seeking proposals from researchers to use federal data to examine questions of equity, targeted around different agency-specific themes. The goal is for the federal agencies to then use the research to implement equity-focused, evidence-based strategies.

Multiple agencies are participating, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Health and Human Services. Each has identified equity-related themes in their evidence-building plans, known as Learning Agendas, that they want researchers to investigate.

The work has five central themes, including the NSF’s theme of equitable access to STEM research and education opportunities, as well as the environment and equity, health equity under climate change, equity in human services delivery, and workplace equity.

The full solicitation will be posted on Jan. 16, 2023, and will be available for at least 45 days.

To learn more, please review this program summary.

The average college student in 2021-2022 spent between $628 and $1,471 annually on textbooks and supplies. In this new report by Megan Crossfield, Manager, Academic Initiatives and Special Projects; and Diane Ryan, Vice President, Academic Affairs, Yavapai College, the authors adocate for greater acceptance and understanding of Open Education Resources (OER).

The report, from the The NISOD Papers, is titled, Improving Student Success Through the Use of Open Educational Resources. OER are alternatives to commercial textbooks that can lead to an increase in student cost savings, access, and quality of instruction. OER are openly licensed teaching materials that are freely available for an instructor, student, or self-learner. 

The report draws conclusions from a two-year quality initiative study in Fall 2020 through Spring 2022 at Yavapai College (YC). The study aimed to:

• Increase access to course learning materials.
• Increase student cost savings.
• Increase student course retention, completion, and persistence rates.
• Determine if students enrolled in two or more OER courses in one semester are retained the next semester with more credits than students in non-OER courses.
• ...

CAST's Annual Symposium will be a hybrid event in Denver, Monday, July 31 - Tuesday, August 1, 2023.  This year's event invites experts across various fields to explore the ways that Universal Design for Learning can be used as a lens to see teaching and learning. 

CAST is a nonprofit education research and development organization that created the Universal Design for Learning framework and UDL Guidelines, used the world over to make learning more inclusive. The CAST Symposium aims to highlight the promising ways UDL has already made great practices even better and to co-create a vision for making UDL ubiquitous as a lens for collective work of designing learning without limits.

This symposium is for educators working both inside and outside of classrooms, including teachers, professors, administrators, curriculum designers, technology leaders, specialists, advocacy groups, workforce trainers, activists, researchers, parents, students, and more.

All proposals are due by Friday, January 20, 2023, at 11:59 pm PST. 

Find out more about CAST and submit your proposal via CAST's website. 

Do you have an innovative practice or cutting-edge research you want to share with your colleagues from around the world? The Call for Presentations for the 2023 NISOD International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence is open. Community college staff and faculty are invited to submit a presentation proposal that focuses on best and promising practices that increase student success at community and technical colleges. 

Preconference Seminar proposals are due December 16, 2022 and Breakout Session/Roundtable Discussion proposals are due February 10, 2023. 

The conference covers the following themes: 

• Emerging Issues and Trends at Community and Technical Colleges
• Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Justice
• Online, Face-to-Face, and Hybrid Teaching and Learning   
• Student Services, Support, and Success
• Using Technology to Improve Student and Organizational Outcomes
• Workforce Preparation and Development

To present at the NISOD’s annual conference, you must be employed by a community college, technical college, or not-for-profit organization or university, or represent a conference sponsor.

More information can be found on the NISOD website.

A new effort to increase the number of community college students transferring to some of America’s most elite colleges and universities was launched today, focused in particular on increasing enrollment by students from lower-income backgrounds and communities of color.

The Transfer Scholars Network (TSN), supported by the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, brings together community colleges and four-year colleges in an attempt to open a new pipeline for transfer students. Over the course of the past 18-month pilot, the TSN has shown great results.  The preliminary results show: 

• More than a third of the 372 TSN students applied to the four-year institutions in the network.
• After the admissions cycle in Spring 2022, at least 20 percent of TSN students who applied to four-year partner colleges received offers of admission, greater than the average admission rate of 15.6 percent at these schools.
• At least two-thirds of students receiving offers of admission enrolled at one of the partner colleges.
• Dozens of additional TSN students have enrolled at other high-graduation-rate colleges across the country.

This initiative shows a...

American Association from the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is looking for submissions for the 2023 year as part of their  AAAS-Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Initiative. The call is open for blog authors and workshop presenters, and the deadline is December 1st. 

The AAAS-Improving Undergraduate STEM Education initiative supports faculty, students, and the greater undergraduate STEM education community by disseminating research and knowledge about STEM teaching, learning, equity and institutional transformation.

The 2023 AAAS-IUSE blog is dedicated to promoting research on inclusive STEM ecosystems for faculty, students, and the greater undergraduate community. Authors should focus on the implications of their work, how studies, strategies, and examples can serve as a model for others, and identifying opportunities, barriers, and questions surrounding these strategies.

The AAAS-IUSE workshops serve as a space to learn, meet, and collaborate with faculty, researchers, and professionals working to improve undergraduate STEM education. Furthermore, these workshops aim to encourage and empower participants to take action toward improving undergraduate STEM education....

The American Association of Community Colleges is now accepting abstract submissions for consideration for inclusion on the agenda for 2023 AACC Annual. The deadline to submit abstracts is November 15, by 4:59 p.m. Eastern.

AACC Annual is the premier event for community college leaders. The meeting offers professional development as well as the opportunity to network, share, and learn from professionals in the fields of education, business and industry, and the government sector. 

Read the guidelines under the "Abstract Details" tab to learn more about the types of abstracts the AACC is looking for: 

• Must be employed by an educational associate, corporate partner, or institutional member of AACC
• No more than three presenters on each session
• Keep a copy of the submission for your records (AACC is unable to provide copies of abstracts once submitted)

Read more and submit an abstract through the AACC's website! More information on the conference can be found on the AACC Annual website.