(Not 1968. But still.)
Friday, December 19, 2025
The Dangers of Data on Teaching in Higher Education [ DailyNous.com ]
The flava:
“The dirtiest secret in higher education is that there is no good data on the quality of teaching and teachers on college campuses.”
So begins an interesting essay, “Teaching Quality,” by Hollis Robbins at her newsletter, Anecdotal Value.
Robbins laments the lack of data on instructional quality in higher education. Widely used student evaluations of teaching aren’t helpful, she says, owing to them “being designed to measure [student] satisfaction, not [teacher] quality.” Furthermore, their results are largely unavailable to those outside of the institutions in which they’re administered. What Robbins is looking for is data from which those inside and outside institutions can come to know how good the teachers are at them.
In the absence of such data, she estimates, based on her observations over 30 years in academia as a professor and dean, “that except for very elite private institutions… well over half of university instruction across the US is fair to poor. Perhaps 25% is good and 5% is excellent.” Your own estimates may vary. . . .
The article:
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Thursday, December 4, 2025
Monday, December 1, 2025
A note submitted by Southern Bubba, Ph.D.
Mom died more than four years ago. I got drunk every day after that for probably at least a couple of years. I still feel stunned by the whole thing. She was so kind. She and I had ostensibly different theologies. But she always always always treated me with respect and fairness. I'm not sure how other people survive without that unconditional love. I wish I could bring her back. Her body is a few miles from here under the ground in a cemetery. She understood dignity before #MeToo, and before she could get a credit card without her husband, and before so many other things. I want to say, "Mom, I love you. I hope that you know that and always knew that. I did the best I could. I hope you know that."
I have shared about her many times, and I don't doubt that other people have their own stories about the parents they loved.
What does this have to do with higher education? I guess it's that we're all on the same pale blue dot, that most of us in this business wish to do the right thing and to help our students and our colleagues. Perhaps too many of us faculty go overboard with pursuing integrity and truth. And it's just hard. I think we try to give students options and always respect them and never abuse their trust. And it also is about not humiliating subordinates when we are the department chair or other administrator.
I wish I had some wisdom to share, but I've been drinking.
My god, life is really not easy, is it?
Zooze, thank you for keeping the blog going, for acknowledging Cal's birthday every year, for all you do.
I'm sorry this is inelegant. Cupcake toothpaste posthaste. . . .
College Students Flock to a New Major: A.I. [ NYTimes ]
The flava:
Artificial intelligence is the hot new college major.
This semester, more than 3,000 students enrolled in a new college of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
At the University of California, San Diego, 150 first-year students signed up for a new A.I. major. And the State University of New York at Buffalo created a stand-alone “department of A.I. and society,” which is offering new interdisciplinary degrees in fields like “A.I. and policy analysis.”
The fast popularization of products like ChatGPT, along with skyrocketing valuations of tech giants like the chip maker Nvidia, is helping to drive the campus A.I. boom. . . .
The article:
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