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2026 Fall Colloquium

Posted on by Brittany Liu

Theme: Role of the Liberal Arts in Navigating AI

Tuesday, September 8, Hicks Banquet Room

8:30am – Breakfast and gathering
9:00am – Opening remarks and land acknowledgement
9:10am – Lew Ludwig, Denison University, “Beyond the Prompt: Making AI Useful for Your Course”
11:10am – Rachel Wood, Center for Career and Professional Development, “Graduating Into an AI-Shaped World of Work”
11:30am – Babli Sinha, Director of AI and Pedagogy, “Navigating AI and the liberal arts at K”
12:00pm – Lunch (Stone Room)
1:00pm – Advising Practicum: “Tangible Tools and Techniques: New Resources for Advising Conversations”

Keynote: Beyond the Prompt: Making AI Useful for Your Course
Lew Ludwig

Abstract:
Faculty conversations about AI are often framed as a choice between embracing it and resisting it. In practice, most of us are somewhere in the middle: experimenting with AI in some parts of our work while worrying about what it may mean for student learning, assessment, and the work we value.

In this interactive session, we’ll look at what we are learning about how faculty are actually using AI and consider some practical ways to make those uses more purposeful. Then we’ll move from talking to doing. Participants will begin building a reusable course companion—a way to give an AI tool the goals, structure, assignments, and context of a particular course so that it can help with tasks such as creating practice materials, revising assignments, generating alternatives, and checking course materials without starting from scratch every time.

The goal is not to turn every faculty member into an AI enthusiast. It is to leave with a clearer sense of where these tools might genuinely support your teaching—and something concrete you can try.

Lew Ludwig is the Benjamin Barney Chair of Mathematics at Denison University and Co-Director of the GLCA Consortium for Teaching and Learning. From 2020 to 2025 he directed Denison’s Center for Learning and Teaching.

He is co-author, with Todd Zakrajsek, of The Science of Learning Meets AI: A Practical Faculty Guide (Routledge, 2026), and guest editor, with Aubrey H. Wang, of the 2026 Journal on Excellence in College Teaching special issue Reimagining Learning Outcomes Through AI-Enhanced Pedagogy. His work helps faculty and institutions meet generative AI as an opportunity for pedagogical growth, not a technology problem to manage.

He has delivered more than 70 invited keynotes, workshops, and webinars on AI in higher education, regionally, nationally, and internationally. His TEDx talk, AI: Today’s Dumbest Genius, and his There and Back Again column for the Mathematical Association of America offer faculty practical guidance that favors curiosity over fear and agency over passivity. He is a recipient of the POD Innovation Award and the Ohio MAA Distinguished Teaching Award.

Seeing What We’ve Been Trained Not to See: Religious Identity and Belonging at K

Posted on by Brittany Liu

My conversation with Liz Candido pushed me to rethink a familiar assumption: that the most welcoming campus is one where religion stays private and ‘secular’ is treated as neutral.

Liz gently but clearly challenges that idea.

(psst…don’t forget the “Try This” section at the end.)

As College Chaplain and Director of the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (OSRL), she serves as the primary spiritual care provider for our multifaith campus. Chaplaincy in a college setting isn’t about religious instruction; it’s about supporting identity development and walking alongside students in whatever religious worldview they bring — including those who identify as non-religious.

“For many students, religion isn’t separate from identity — it is identity.”

Religion, she reminds us, is a protected class of identity. For many students, it is central to how they understand themselves, their communities, and their values. Even for students who reject religion, that stance is part of a larger worldview.

Photo of Liz Candido

🧭 Building interfaith skills

A significant part of Liz’s role involves coordinating interfaith student leaders.  Interfaith work means people of different religious and worldview backgrounds learning with and from one another — including secular students.

One ground rule: no one represents an entire tradition.  The goal isn’t to debate theology, but to articulate one’s own worldview, stay curious, and explore where things feel complicated — often the place where growth happens.  Through programs like the First-Year Interfaith Dinner Club, students build transferable skills: naming the values shaping their perspectives, distinguishing personal experience from group identity, and navigating difference with curiosity rather than assumption.

🌿Radical hospitality as practice

Photos courtesy of Liz Candido

Liz describes “radical hospitality” not as a slogan, but as daily practice.

In orientation sessions, she tells first-year students I’m here for you, no matter your religious connection.  She shows up in spaces like Crystal Queer gatherings to show that OSRL is there for them.  She and her team notice who walks into a room alone. Faculty refer students seeking community.  The Cavern — a space for prayer, reflection, and gathering — is explicitly offered as a resource.

“The way we know we belong in a community,” Liz said, “is to know people see us for who we are.”

That visibility matters. Students wear Stars of David, crosses, hijabs. They are already making parts of their identities visible. A simple acknowledgment — “I notice this; is it important to you?” — can communicate care rather than avoidance.

🛠️Try This

📄 Add a brief religious observance statement to your syllabus. Normalize advance notice and flexibility.

👀 Acknowledge visible markers with curiosity. A simple, respectful question can communicate belonging. 

  • Or as part of class, invite students to reflect on the values shaping their perspectives and where those values come from.  A first-day questionnaire might ask: “Which identities or life experiences are most central to you?” Students may name religion, first-generation status, sexual orientation, race, or other dimensions of identity.

📣 Name resources early. Mention the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and the Cavern (chapel basement) with advisees and students.

If secular has sometimes meant “we don’t talk about religion,” Liz’s work invites a different possibility: that we can build a campus where students bring their whole selves — religious, spiritual, questioning, or secular — and know they are seen.

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Getting Students to Read with Chris Hakala

Posted on by Brittany Liu

I wanted to brag about a recent GLCA workshop I watched — Getting Students to Read with Chris Hakala of Springfield College. I watched the recording and am sharing a summary (with help from CoPilot).

⭐ Overview

In this talk, cognitive psychologist Chris Hakala breaks down what really happens when students read and why so many of them struggle with reading comprehension. He explains that reading isn’t a simple skill students should already have mastered when they come to us; it’s a complex interaction between attention, background knowledge, memory, vocabulary, and motivation. And when any one of those pieces is missing, students quickly become overwhelmed and disengaged.

“As humans we search for the easiest pathways through tasks…But once you get in that habit it’s difficult to change. In higher ed we need to try to inculcate in our students the habits of considering metacognitive awareness of what we’re doing and how to control that. You’re reading something hard? Have a strategy of getting through it. Reading something that doesn’t seem interesting? Look for things that are interesting; when you’re done, reflect on it.”

The first half focuses on why students disengage. They think it takes too long, they don’t see the relevance, they feel disconnected from the material, or they lack the context needed to make sense of what they’re reading (he spends more time on this). His examples show how disorienting academic reading can feel without the right scaffolding.

From there, he turns to what faculty can do—practical, evidence-informed strategies before, during, and after reading that help students build meaning, connect ideas, and develop metacognitive awareness. Hakala outlines specific techniques that support attention, strengthen comprehension, and model the expert thinking we often take for granted. These range from previewing and contextualizing readings, to modeling annotation and self-explanation, to using tools like annotation platforms, to structuring post‑reading concept maps or reflection prompts.

🎒 Ideas for Faculty to Try Right Away

🧭 Model Your Reading Process for Students

In class, show students how you would approach a reading. Where do you start? What do you notice? What do you look for?  Where do you pause?  What background knowledge do you draw on?  What do you do when confused? What do your annotations look like?  What do you annotate?

🗺️ Provide Context Before Students Read

Offer a brief preview: What is the reading about, why are they reading it, what should students look for? A brief “when done I want you to think about…”  This context setting can dramatically improve comprehension.

Another example was “Know-Want-Learn”: Before starting the reading what do you already know about the topic?  What do you want to get out of it?  After the reading what did you learn?

🎙️ Ask Students to Self-Explain

After reading, have them write a short paragraph or record a 1-minute audio note explaining the main ideas in their own words. Or this can be an end of the week reflection. This can reveal misunderstandings and strengthens comprehension and encoding into memory.

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Welcome to the Teaching, Learning, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Blog

Posted on by Brittany Liu

Hi everyone,
starting this blog as part of our new Teaching, Learning, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion website — a space for campus colleagues who teach, advise, mentor, and support students.

What you’ll find here

Whether you’re looking for:

  • Guidance on teaching policies,
  • Ideas for inclusive course design or classroom practice, or
  • Inspiration for fostering belonging and connections,

this site is a place to start. We’ll keep adding resources and using this blog to share updates as the site grows.

Why this blog

Periodically, I’ll post a short spotlight on something happening on campus — programs that help students meet basic needs, inclusive teaching efforts, student-led initiatives, and more.

The goal is to make visible the thoughtful, everyday work our colleagues are already doing to build a more equitable and inclusive campus. These stories can remind us what’s possible and perhaps spark ideas for others.

How you can take part

I’d love to hear from you:

  • What kinds of resources would make this website more useful in your work?
  • Are there DEI efforts, programs, or people you’d like to see featured?

You can share your thoughts or nominate an initiative through our quick form: DEI Spotlight Submission Form

Thanks for taking a few minutes to explore the site — and for being part of the ongoing work to make this a more equitable and inclusive place for everyone.

Take care,
Brittany Liu
Associate Provost for Teaching, Learning, Equity & Inclusion

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See details about your classroom online

Posted on by Rick Barth

The College’s room reservation platform (EMS) is loaded with helpful information about your classroom.

A step-by-step example

I see at HornetHQ (I needed my short form username and password) that I’m teaching in Olds Upton Hall, Room 207 this term. Click here for a post with more details about how to find details about your class.

I go to Hornet Hive and then select “Facilities Calendar” from the left side menu. I’m prompted to sign in again with my short form username and password (this is a separate service, so needs a separate login)

Once there I choose “Locations” from the left side menu

Now I’ll click on Add/Remove Locations and select Olds Upton Science Hall from the resulting popup window

I select the room I want from the resulting list and I see lots of information that will help me plan my class, including images of the space:

Use the new Bookings app to schedule advising meetings

Posted on by Rick Barth

Dearest Advisors, 

If you already use MS Outlook to manage your calendar, there’s a new app called Bookings available in our MS Office suite. Bookings allows students to sign up for meeting times based on your availability at Outlook. Here’s an 8-minute video screencast that shows the steps I used to set up my advising schedule. If you don’t have 8 minutes, scroll down for a few notes, obstacle warnings, and instructions from Josh Moon.  You can also take a look at his own Bookings calendar! 

Josh’s Notes:   

  • Bookings works best if you use Outlook and/or Teams to keep track of your calendar.  Bookings will sync and “talk” to those Microsoft Campus systems.  You can use it independently, but you’ll want a plan for managing your availability.  
  • Bookings and its language is optimized for organizations and groups with multiple staff members, but an individual can also use it to let people book time on their calendar.  There are faculty and staff already using it successfully in this manner.   
  • If you select the default Availability setting, appointments will be available whenever you are free on your calendar. You can further limit this by introducing “Custom hours” in the General Availability settings.   You can also set a different availability over a particular date range, for example during Advising Week.   
  • “Services” can be 1-on-1 or Group.  However, “Group” means that multiple separate individuals can access the same time slot, as in for a webinar or training.  If you want only one person or even one group to access a single time, choose 1-on-1.   Once you have a “Group” service, you cannot change it to 1-on-1!  
  • If you want the cost information to be omitted from your page all together, select “Price not set” instead of “Free.”   
  • The default scheduling page will ask for the person’s name, email, address, and phone number. You can remove and add fields as you like.  For example, you might create an option to pick between a Teams and in-person meeting.    

 
Bookings Steps for Advising Week Meetings:  

  1. Log in to Office.com  
  1. Select Bookings from the Apps.  
  1. Create a Bookings calendar. 
  1. Add a “Service” for your advising schedule 
  1. Fill out the settings for your “Service”.    
  • Choose how long a default appointment should last and whether you want a buffer time.  
  • Example: Meetings of 25 minutes + a five-minute buffer after, and your available appointments will look like:   
  • 2:00 – 2:25pm 
  • 2:30 – 2:55pm 
  • 3:00 – 3:25pm, etc.   
  • Availability options  
  • For the general availability, choose “Not Bookable.” It’ll be okay!  
  • Then, “Set a different availability for a date range” and choose your window of dates.   
  • If you don’t want Bookings to allow appointments any time you are available, set more custom hours.   
  1. “Save changes”, then copy the link to the new service and share it with your advisees!