That’s based on an analysis of the “engaged time” readers spend on our articles, a measure we started using last year for our annual analysis. Engaged time is a more-holistic gauge of audience engagement than clicks; you can learn more about it here.
While AI claimed the top spot for the second year in a row, it didn’t dominate your interest the way it did last year.
The 10 most popular issues covered:
- What instructors should do when AI is everywhere.
- What’s going on with Gen Z students
- Advice on helping students to read effectively
- Using course design to connect with Gen Z students
- What students think about active learning
- Getting your students to engage with one another
- Is it possible to get rid of bias in course evaluations?
- Supporting over-extended students
- Helping students who lack critical reading skills
- Should you teach “studenting” skills?
These topics dovetail with a lot of the more in-depth reporting Beth and I conducted for our stories in The Chronicle. Those feature stories, by the way, proved popular among the paper’s broader readership. According to an analysis by our colleagues, three of Beth’s stories and one of mine made the paper’s top 20 for the year. Beth’s story on the end of college reading was in second spot over all!
It’s great to see our coverage resonating, of course. Though, as Beth commented when we read through the results, it also underscores that our readers sure are drawn to bad news.
What do you think of these lists? What topics would you like to see rise to the top in the coming year? As ever, we love hearing from you. Share your observations and suggestions with me at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.
Who knows? Maybe next year something else will take the top spot from AI.
How readers end their courses
Last week, I shared some reflective exercises instructors use to close out the semester and invited readers to share how they wrap up their courses. Here are some of their approaches:
- Martha E. Arterberry, a professor of psychology at Colby College, wrote in to share two ways she ends “Seminar and Collaborative Research in Cognitive Development,” a small-enrollment course that has a civic-engagement/service-learning component. In the first approach, she wrote, “we start with a wrap-up activity of discussing an article about adults’ perceptions of children’s memory with a guiding question of whether the adults’ perceptions are accurate. This activity allows them to reflect on and bring to the day’s topic what they had learned.” In the second, “I ask the students to nominate awards for the articles we read, similar in spirit to journal editors selecting the paper of the year. I have three or four categories and students submit their nominations before class. Then in class they discuss all of the nominations and take a vote.” Either way, Anterberry closes with three questions: What did you learn about children? [The students volunteered at early-education centers.] What did you learn about Waterville [the community]? What did you learn about yourself?
- Keith Tookey, an associate professor of computer-information systems at Vermont State University’s Randolph campus, shared: “I often (under the guise of exam review) ask students what we learned this semester, and how it will (or won’t) be useful in the future. I also ask exam questions that encourage review. One of my favorites is: “You are applying for a job. Explain how your knowledge from this course makes you a valued employee.” Students like this approach, Tookey added: “It warms my heart when a student says to me, ‘I actually learned something by taking your exam.’”
- Timothy F. McGinn, a professor of composition and literature at Northwest Arkansas Community College, has long asked students to complete a self-assessment, including of the way they participated in class. “I find this particular part of their Self-Assessments the most useful,” McGinn wrote. “They have been in three or four groups by the end of the semester, usually a different group with each assignment, and have gotten a variety of feedback from their different peers, so they start to learn who to learn from besides me and how they can use that feedback to help their writing. I think learning how to use the opinions of others to help them revise and clarify — to truly gain a sense of a real audience and not just a grading teacher — is one of the most important skills they can learn in my class.”
I received lots of great examples from readers about how they finish up their courses. So now you’ve got me wondering: What are your go-to moves for starting a course well? Have you found ways to make the beginning of the term reflective and motivating for students? Share your approach with me at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com and it may be featured in a future issue of the newsletter.
Thanks for reading Teaching. If you have suggestions or ideas, please feel free to email us at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com or beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.
—Beckie
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