Career in the Classroom: Lessons Learned from Teaching ALS 114

by Brenna Gomez, Director of Career Integration, Career Development Center

Part of my role as the Director of Career Integration in the Career Development Center is to collaborate with my colleagues in the University Exploratory Studies Program (UESP) and teach ALS 114: Career Decision-Making once a year. Each time I teach the course, I make updates reflecting student need, the evolving role of AI, and more.

If you’re not familiar with Career Decision-Making, it’s a course largely for UESP students to explore majors and career paths that make the most sense for their individual goals. Students engage in lots of personal reflection about their strengths, values, and interests, while participating in career activities.

With Core Education right around the corner, many instructors and faculty are working to integrate career into existing courses or create new career courses. In this article, you’ll find some tips and tricks for thinking about career in the classroom based on my experience with ALS 114.

Share your own career path

I teach ALS: 114 on Ecampus. After my spring 2023 session, I received feedback on student evaluations that it didn’t seem like there was “enough of me as a person” in the course. As a result, I recorded personalized videos with my results from some of our career activities. Focus 2 is an interests and values assessment that gives students ideas for majors and career paths (free to use for OSU students through the Career Development Center). I have students download their results and submit them for a grade. This year, I completed the assessment myself, showed students my results in a video, and talked through the majors and career paths Focus 2 suggested, including what aligned with my personal and professional goals and what did not.  I also did this with a community map assignment, showing students who has had an influence on my life. It can feel vulnerable to share with students, and as instructors we should never share anything we aren’t comfortable with. But doing the assignments we ask them to do, and talking through our own results, can build students’ connection to me and to the course, while clearing up any questions they may have about the assignment itself. That said, these assignments are relatively short and did not take me much time to complete. That wouldn’t be true of every assignment in every course, so this may not be a realistic solution for everyone.

Yes, you do need an AI policy

In spring of 2023, I taught ALS 114 for the first time and naively believed I could avoid an AI policy because the writing assignments my students completed were mostly personal or career reflections. To me, these reflections seemed short and like it would be more work to get AI to answer them. I was reminded that we don’t know the full picture of students’ lives. If they are in a difficult period, or incredibly stressed about their future, AI can be a tempting tool that provides answers without the student having to engage in the mental process of reflection. In fall of 2023, I introduced an AI policy that largely reduced the AI usage I saw in the course. Students were allowed to use AI to help them organize their thoughts but not to draft assignments wholesale. Being transparent and communicating about AI use allows students to stay within assignment guidelines and understand instructor expectations from the start of the term

Define your preferences, especially whether you prefer a “professional tone” or an “authentic voice”

Some students were tempted to still use AI to produce a more “professional tone.” In talking with students about this, they felt a professional tone reflected higher level diction than they would consider using on their own. To them, this diction made the assignment more formal. This resulted in an excellent opportunity to discuss my bigger priority than word choice: authentic voice. I was able to speak to our reflections as informal writing with my emphasis on getting to know each student’s authentic voice. We also discussed professionalism as a skill that can be built over time and does not need to be done all at once in a single assignment by changing specific words. In other courses I teach, I’ve started giving disclaimers about how authentic voice is my priority. My hope is that by discussing authentic voice in informal reflections on the front end, students won’t feel the need to use AI to enhance their word choice.

Each time I teach this class I learn new things about my teaching practice, what I’d like to emphasize for students, and what students need to feel connected. I know I’ll continue to make changes that center students and hopefully encourage them to reflect on their lives and careers in their own authentic voices.

Support Sings with a Strengths-Based & Invitational Focus

by Woodrós Wolford

Music pumped, lights shone, people danced… And I compared the facilitation styles of the lead singers of Dropkick Murphys and Pennywise from the balcony.

At a concert in Portland, Ore. last weekend, I found myself thinking about how nervous systems are impacted by invitational facilitation practices in a Moda Center crowd much like they are in a one-on-one interaction. The lead singer of Dropkick Murphys was exceptionally skilled at inviting the audience to participate and bringing out positive energy. He remained warm and good-humored even when discouraging–or breaking up!–fights.

Watching him, I thought, “Wow, what great classroom management! …I mean, concert management. But wow, so firm and kind and fun, all at once, avoiding power struggles and matching his words with his pitch and stance! And look how clearly and simply he articulated his inclusivity – unlike the really vague statements the Pennywise leader proclaimed grandly a few songs ago. Lots to learn here!”

Two years ago, I believe that I would still have noticed the contrast between the approaches of the two band leaders. (Pennywise’s leader ordered and then nagged the audience to participate rather than offering the encouragement and reinforcement like the lead singer of Dropkick Murphys. The first approach left my friend glaring with her arms crossed, defiant to being told to participate; the second allowed her to choose whether she opted in or not without feeling that resistance and annoyance.)  After all, I was a middle school teacher for years and a facilitator for over a decade! Now, however, I look at the difference between the two with a lens grounded in nervous system awareness and focused on invitational and strengths-based engagement.

Academic Coaching, SE, and Me

My understanding of invitational and strengths-based facilitation and awareness of nervous systems have been deepened through my experience as the Academic Coaching Coordinator for the Academic Success Center and also through the intensive Somatic Experiencing training sessions I’ve done over the past year. With that training, I have the dual goal of becoming a somatic experiencing practitioner (after two more years!) and utilizing the nervous-system-grounded lessons I learn there to support the efficacy of Academic Coaching and peer education at OSU more broadly. I’m excited (and nervous) to start sharing some of what I’m learning with you in this “opening act” you’re kindly reading now.

As I understand it, Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a healing modality based on activating the body’s and nervous system’s innate healing capacity. This is done by working with someone in an invitational and tailored way, while also providing tools, menus, and an overall structure. Academic Coaching is appointment-based, invitational, holistic, and person-centered, and these are traits that are shared with SE. Both are also one-on-one sessions (typically, although lessons & skills can be applied to groups!) In my role as coordinator, attending the SE training has allowed me to see why some elements of our long-lived, well-tested peer coaching model are so effective, and we’ve been able to prioritize those strengths to make a great program even better. We believe it’s especially important, post-COVID closures, to increase how welcoming, nervous-system-friendly, and inclusive Academic Coaching is…and I thought that some of my “lessons learned” might help highlight the strengths of others’ models of student support, too!

The thesis here is that we need access to our full brains in order to access our prior knowledge, think creatively, problem solve, etc. When a stress response is active, we have less access to those “higher brain” functions – and that can be because we’re having an off day, because we’re out of practice after being isolated in the pandemic, because of stereotype threat, because of overstimulation, because it’s an unfamiliar space… A plethora of reasons! Asking for help and doing new things is hard and takes a lot of capacity!

Moves We Can Make

So, what are some of the moves we can make?

We can practice curiosity about and make space for the other person’s knowledge to unfurl, using an invitational and strengths-based approach and creating spaces supportive of nervous systems.

To do that, I had to unlearn the way my brain responded to help-seeking. Even though I sought to approach teaching in a student-centered, strengths-based, and accommodating way, I didn’t live up to my goals and values. My mind immediately started looking for solutions to a question and, when I asked questions to help the person find a solution, I automatically generated questions that guided that person towards specific information or solutions. I knew that wasn’t great for critical thinking, but there wasn’t capacity to work on changing it.

Stay Curious & Make Space

However, for coaching and somatic experiencing, changing these habits was central. The other person has a huge dataset of their own lived experiences that I could never hope to understand fully, so the goal is to be truly curious and create space for the other person to notice and work with the data they already have: data from their own nervous system, lived experiences, meaning-making, and more.

Interrupt Automatic Responses

To make room for the others’ thinking and stay curious, we work to check our automatic assumptions and responses in our coaching model, replacing thosewith non-judgment, questions to understand and to prompt thinking, and affirmations and validations of what the student is sharing. While I worked (a lot!) on my implicit biases as a teacher, a large group setting is a difficult one for slowing down, asking questions, reflecting back what you’re hearing, and pointing out the fabulousness of the person’s learning journey. (While the Dropkick Murphys band leader did ask questions of the audience, they had to be close-ended, shorter response questions, not the open-ended ones to stimulate deepen thinking – similarly, he could praise the audience and I could praise middle school students, but not with the specificity possible in a one-on-one conversation organized to explore the other person’s knowledge and strengths.)

Center Their Strengths & Self-Knowledge

Matching the conversation to the rhythm of the person who is seeking to improve or finetune their time management or goal setting and centering that person’s self-knowledge and strengths (even when they might be reluctant initially to recognize those) is helpful for nervous system regulation and deep thinking. (Neither of which is the goal of a concert!) All too commonly, we don’t feel like we have time to connect like this or we get caught in the patterns and “autocomplete” functions of our own minds, so, typically, the coaching model requires building new skills or even – as in my case – unlearning habits for supporting others we already use. Because Academic Coaching is a 45 minute conversation in a quiet place, it’s easier to intentionally rewrite those habits there than in, say, a boisterous middle school classroom or a Moda Center concert.

Consider Options & Vibe in the Space

In Academic Coaching (and in the Academic Success Center’s drop-in space), we seek to be responsive and holistic, as well, offering Zoom as well as in-person appointments, a quieter space for the conversations, fidget toys, plants (biophilic design for the win!), and now have added gentler and more flexible lighting, tea, snacks, and art. We’ve also work on menus of grounding tools for ourselves and to share with those we work with (we’re even making a worksheet!) Academic support is by necessity more cerebral than SE practices intended to restore nervous system capacity, but we’re working to enhance our holistic approach and build out our skills.

The approaches described above all align with the way SE works, which is also based heavily on the person’s strengths and self-knowledge while also (like Academic Coaching) providing tools, practices, and pathways to shift patterns that aren’t working for the person. In SE, too, we are aware of how the physical space’s arrangement can impact someone’s experience and seek to provide options to meet folks’ sensory and psychological safety needs as they engage in growing their tools and capacity.

Offer Invitations & Choices

In both practices, we are invitational, providing genuine choices to the fabulous fellow humans we’re working with and offering example language and options when that’s helpful. In both practices, we believe that this person who we get to hold space for is Naturally Creative, Resourceful, and Whole. (As the International Coaching Federation says, read more here if you’d like!) Both in Academic Coaching and in somatic modalities, the goal is to help someone help themselves. Both are about helping people connect to their own strengths and wisdom, and to build on that.

Conclusion

The lead singer of Dropkick Murphys brings a level of energy and passion to his concert facilitation that I hope to emulate in my work as an Academic Coach and in my practice of somatic healing modalities. I have found these disciplines to be transformational for myself personally and for folks I have gotten to work with, much like the energy in the Moda Center was transformed when Dropkick Murphys took the stage. If you’re interested in connecting about any of this, I’d be thrilled to hear from you on Teams (email is also fine!) or in the physical or Zoom realms if we cross paths! Of course, if you’re intrigued, you can also tune in for the next “act” in this Somatic Experiencing, Academic Coaching, and Peer Education exploration!

Yours, Mine, and Ours: Facilitating Conversations about Boundaries in the Workplace

by Anna Bentley

In my role in the Office of Academic Support, I supervise the ASC Strategists and work with a team of pro staff to deliver weekly professional development meetings to our Academic Coaches, Strategists, and Outreach Specialists, who are student employees. When I talked to my colleagues and student employees about the areas in which they wanted to grow professionally, many of their ideas essentially involved developing skills to better communicate boundaries with students who use our services, their colleagues, and their supervisor.

I came across an awesome book, Unf*ck Your Boundaries: Build Better Relationships Through Consent, Communication, and Expressing Your Needs by Dr. Faith G. Harper and was immediately inspired to design professional development meetings around the concepts and strategies in this book. Having clear boundaries in the workplace can give everyone a better experience working together by clarifying our responsibilities and scope of our work, increasing self-awareness, helping prevent burnout, cultivating relationships and mutual respect, repairing relationships after rupture, and more.

I designed two meetings for our student staff. The first centered around defining boundaries where we discussed what boundaries are, the types of boundaries, how boundaries are defined, and an invitation to reflect on what we want instead of what we don’t want. The second meeting focused on communicating boundaries, including communication styles, how to express what we want, and communicating through conflict. In both meetings, there were opportunities for individual reflection, small group conversation, and group sharing so participants could learn from each other.

After all of our weekly meetings, we collect evaluation forms to get a sense of what our student employees thought of the topic and activities. When asked “What information and/or strategies from today’s meeting will you use in your role?”, half of the participants said they will use the BIFF method (brief, informative, friendly, and firm) and avoid the 3 A’s (advice, admonishments, apologies) when they are trying to communicate through conflict. Several participants also mentioned how they appreciated example language for communicating clear boundaries. In a separate post-term survey, most participants listed one or both of the meetings about boundaries as one of their top 3 meetings of the term.

If any of this sparks your interest, I’m sharing both agendas with you in case you want to check them out and adapt them for your own teams. Or maybe you are curious and want to look at the prompts for your own personal and professional development. All the concepts and many of the prompts are taken directly from the book I’ve linked above, which also has an accompanying workbook. I hope you enjoy! And if you have any feedback or want to chat more about this topic, I’d love to hear from you at anna.bentley@oregonstate.edu

Fall Student Survey Results – A Sneak Preview

by Clare Creighton

Each fall, our Fall Student Survey team works with campus partners to develop a survey administered to all undergraduate Corvallis-based students. This effort began in April 2020 when we wanted to understand how the remote learning and pandemic conditions were impacting students. Over time, the survey has evolved to help us get a general pulse of the student experience and timely information on a few key topical areas relevant to OSU initiatives and efforts.

For Fall 2023, the survey was opened on October 23, ran for approximately two weeks, and closed on November 9, 2023.

This year we asked questions in a few key blocks:

  • General overview questions that ask students about how they’re doing, their level of concern with different elements of the student experience, and their perception of their success this term.
  • A block of questions about their experience with on-campus and off-campus work/employment (hours, goals, desires)
  • A block of questions about the email communication students receive from OSU was devised in consultation with the Beaver Hub implementation team to gauge the impact of Beaver Hub on how students experience communication from OSU.
  • A block of questions about perceptions of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and its role in students’ academic experiences.
  • Results from the full survey will be presented at an upcoming FYI Friday presentation on March 8, 2024 (via Zoom). Registration for that event is online (OSU Login). Following the presentation, the report will be released in a Box folder to internal OSU audiences.

    The Final Question

    In anticipation of that, however, I wanted to share a bit about my experience coding the final question “What else should we ask about”? Because this is an open-ended question, students can use this space in a number of ways. Here are a few trends, along with some insights those trends offer for future survey construction.

    First, many of the respondents provided example topics on which they’d like us to ask questions. This was valuable data that showed us some of the issues important to students. Additionally, some of the topics were particularly grounded in the timing of the survey (e.g. referencing October safety announcements).  These results provided a useful reminder to ground interpretation within the context of when the survey was run and cues us to keep timing and current context in mind when drafting surveys and evaluating the results.

    Second, a number of respondents used the open-ended question to provide answers for the questions they wish we had asked. While it’s challenging to code responses for essentially a “wild-card” question, we gathered insights from a range of topics we might not have thought to ask on a survey of this scale. Quite a few students wanted to give input on programs, services, or other ways they experienced OSU. I appreciate noting for myself that students are interested in opportunities to provide feedback on programs and services and recognized that they may not always be clear on where they have opportunities to do so outside of this survey – an area we can improve on locally within each program and more broadly across the OSU experience.

    Third, some students gave feedback on the survey itself or indicated places of confusion with the available responses. There were a few places where questions or answer choices that make sense to us, did not fit the wide array of choices students need/want. In the next round of the survey, we can take into account student perspective more fully by planning time for student review of the format, options, and wording prior to the survey launch.

    I hope you’ll join us for the FYI Friday session to learn more about how student perspectives are shaping our understanding of the student experience. For questions about the Fall Student Survey effort, contact Maureen Cochran, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives and Assessment, Division of Student Affairs.

What Are OSU Colleagues Reading?

We asked colleagues, “What have you read that has informed your work or resonated for you, and why? This can be reading in any form (e.g., books, articles, videos, podcasts, audiobooks, etc.).” Perhaps you’ll find a spring break read, book club pick, or potential lunch conversation option in what OSU colleagues have shared here.

And, if you would like to contribute to “What Are OSU Colleagues Reading?,” please complete this brief form to submit your entry! We’d love to feature what you’re reading in an upcoming issue.

Laurie Bridges, Instruction and Digital Initiatives Librarian, Oregon State University Libraries and Press

Recently, I listened to the memoir The Worlds I See (Valley Library print) by world-famous computer scientist Dr. Fei-Fei Li. I started the book to learn more about artificial intelligence, but what I enjoyed the most was Dr. Li’s story of immigration from China to the U.S. as a child. In the U.S., her small family lived in financial precariousness while she attended public school in New Jersey, learned English, and embraced a passion for physics.

Amy Frasieur, Director of Health Equity and Wellness, Student Affairs

Finding Our Way Podcast is hosted by teacher, somatics practitioner, and movement facilitator Prentis Hemphill. It is a conversation between Prentis and powerful social justice leaders, artists, and activists – discussing how to realize the world we want through our own healing and transformation. I listened to all 3 seasons as they were released and recently found myself returning to the podcast for a second listen. The conversations are beautiful and powerful and keep me curious about ways I can continue to learn and grow in both my work and community.

Chrysanthemum Hayes, Director of Decision Support, University Information and Technology

I recently finished Patrick Lencioni’s The 6 Types of Working Genius (Valley Library Print), recommended to me by our CIO, Andrea Ballinger. What resonated with me the most is that if you are working outside your “geniuses” (e.g. the energy-giving types of work activities), things will feel hard, draining, and not showcase your best potential for the organization. Finding a great fit in an organization can be helped by thinking about what type of work they are doing relative to a person’s “geniuses” and “frustrations.” I found this framework to be a helpful additional dimension on top of strengths and personality assessment results.

Nicole Hindes, Director of the Basic Needs Center, Student Affairs

Scarcity: the New Science of Having Less and How it Defines our Lives (Valley Library Print) by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Sharif delves into the tunnel vision and limited decision-making bandwidth created by conditions of scarcity. The book suggests designing systems to support those facing scarcity, such as implementing time management workshops for busy students. By optimizing time use, like incorporating workshops into training schedules or class time, educational institutions can enhance students’ decision-making capacity around the use of time, offering them the necessary “bandwidth” to navigate time scarcity more effectively.

A Reflection on the Collaborative Effort for the College of Engineering Mental Health Improvement Project

by Bria Kettenhofen and Bonnie Hemrick

Background and Scope of the Mental Health Improvement Project

Oregon State University’s (OSU) Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) was approached by the College of Engineering (COE) to engage in a collaborative effort to assess and create an action plan to improve the mental health of COE students. Starting in Fall 2022, CAPS has participated in a collaborative project with COE to complete a thorough needs assessment, which informed the creation of an action plan to improve on three focus areas of impact. The collaborative effort to create the Mental Health Improvement Plan concluded as of January 2024, with a recommended implementation and assessment to occur over the following three years.

The scope of the project was to collect and analyze existing and newly collected data to understand the experiences and challenges of students in COE and determine an action plan to guide efforts to improve the mental health of COE students. Risk and protective factors which were associated with mental health challenges in OSU’s COE students were determined based off surveys, facilitated focus groups, and ongoing dialogue and engagement with an Advisory Board (AB).

Advisory Board Makeup, Collaboration, and Guidance

A diverse Advisory Board was formed and consisted of COE students, COE administration, COE faculty, COE academic advisors, and other key OSU stakeholders. The AB was involved at the outset of the COE Mental Health Improvement Project, meeting weekly during the 2022-2023 academic year (AY) and Fall 2023 to collaboratively create needs assessment data collection tools, interpret themes from analysis, and provide perspective on the culture and policies of COE. Five COE students from various majors, lived experiences, and extracurricular involvement served as active members of the AB alongside OSU Faculty and staff, to center the student voice and perspective, and keep the student experience central to the project activities and decision making.

Maintaining student participation in the AB was one of the primary goals of the Mental Health Improvement Project. The AB was frequently consulted with relating to the needs assessment content and logistics, and the goal was for efforts to reflect the genuine student perspective and experience in COE.

What We Learned and What We Can Take Forward

The process of including an Advisory Board made up of subject matter experts, COE Faculty and staff, and students with lived experiences proved to be invaluable to the COE Mental Health Improvement Project. This suggests that this process could be duplicated in other colleges and communities which could benefit from informed and intentional intervention and advisement. Upon the culmination of the COE Mental Health Improvement Project, it became evident that the completion and fidelity of this community assessment was only made possible through active stakeholder engagement and involvement at all levels of the institution, from students to college leaders. Foundational to this endeavor was the buy-in from administrators in COE, as the leadership at COE was catalyst for this multi-year needs assessment effort.

Throughout the data collection, analysis, and interpretation phases of the project, COE administrators were provided updates and reports detailing the extensive efforts of the AB. After careful review and evaluation, the AB identified three priority areas for impact:

    • Academic Practices
      • Practices in the classroom, on Canvas, during advising, or relating to an academic obligation of a course. Such practices include group work requirements, universal flexibilities around deadlines, discussion requirements, exams, and assignments.
    • COE Culture & Classroom Climate Practices
      • The current attitudes, behaviors, and standards of faculty, staff, and administrators that influence the culture in COE. The shared beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes of students and teaching faculty in the classroom setting which determine the ways in which students interact and learn.
    • Personal Well-being
      • How to address individual level well-being; how to teach students about mental health and supportive practices for their personal well-being.

    COE administrators continuously demonstrated an openness to shift practices, policies, and embed health education throughout the curriculum and culture in COE, which made the project possible. With an engaging and open partnership between CAPS and COE, the COE Mental Health Improvement Project demonstrates that similar efforts can be undertaken at other colleges and institutions with the support and intentional buy-in from administrators.

    If you have any additional questions about the COE Mental Health Improvement Project, please reach out to Bonnie Hemrick (Bonnie.Hemrick@oregonstate.edu).

Student Voices About the Use of AI – Concerns and New Learning Strategies for Independent Studying

by Dr. Adam Lenz, Coordinator of Supplemental Instruction

As professional staff and faculty around the Oregon State University campus look to elevate conversations about the use and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) programs like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard in course design and student work, another conversation is also taking place on campus among our students. I believe their voices and experiences are necessary for assessing what has, is, and could be attempted regarding changes to OSU’s policies, and view their insights as valuable for faculty when considering what is and is not deemed appropriate use of the technologies in their course.

The use of AI looks differently than it did a few years ago when the pandemic set many educators and students scrambling to find new and innovative solutions for learning challenging content without the same degree of support historically available in pre-COVID times. The development of AI tools is also rapidly advancing in to new iterations at an increasing rate, leaving many to feel under-or-misinformed about what is possible and considered ethical in the use of these technologies. In my own work as Coordinator for the Supplemental Instruction (SI) program within the Office of Academic Support (OAS), I have the privilege of overhearing many such conversations between students and have compiled a few salient takeaways to share below.

AI Use from the Student Perspective – What SI Table Leaders are Hearing 

Our SI Leaders have been hearing accounts of students relying on AI to help them accomplish coursework and study for exams for a few years now, increasing in frequency over the last twelve months. Perhaps not surprisingly, one of the most common examples SI Leaders overhear is that of students discussing how they used AI to help them write lab reports and essays, as well as to solve math equations and science homework that relies on fact-checking. However, the extent to which OSU students are relying on AI as part of their routine work processes seems to be highly variable. For example, one student in the Fall of 2023 told their SI Leader “I like having the AI tools as a backup in case I really can’t figure something out or I’m worried I made a mistake.” Another reported that they only used AI when they felt ‘stuck’ or ‘trapped’ by tight deadlines and limited opportunities to receive other forms of support that felt safe and available in a timely nature.

This kind of ‘safety net’ that AI can offer seems valuable to some, but there is also a growing fear by others that the use of AI leaves students open to potential repercussions without warning. A frustration point for many students right now is that faculty have the authority to decide on an individual basis when AI is allowed to be used for homework and studying, meaning that what is permissible in one course may carry heavy penalties (including risk of being reported for academic misconduct) in another. As an example, an email came to our program in Fall with a request to unregister from a study table as the student (paraphrasing) told us, “I’m dropping this course because the faculty thinks I cheated and I don’t know what else to do.” Another student reported asking AI to generate practice exam questions only for the program to generate actual exam questions from older copies of the exam uploaded elsewhere on the internet. They reported this to their SI Leader who was unsure if the faculty member knew about the leak of their content or whether they would prefer students to use old practice exams as study materials in the first place. Out of fear, the student requested that the SI Leader not disclose this to the faculty directly and instead make an anonymous report.

Student confusion about the issue of AI use is understandable given the relatively recent introduction of this challenging but opportunity-rich new technology to the wider landscape of Higher Education. The University of Oregon recently updated their guidelines and resources for faculty on their Teaching Support and Innovation website while the University of Michigan just completed an internal campus-wide review on the affects of AI on students, faculty, and staff. The executive summary of the report stated that AI would have a ‘significant’ impact on UM’s campus in Fall 2023 and ‘can not be ignored.’ The United States Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology released a report in May 2023 urging educators to consider more than plagiarism, but student privacy as well as transparency in their use of AI when designing new activities, warning that many students do not fully understand how AI algorithms actually compose responses, resulting in a need for urgent support for students in simply learning how to use these tools in the first place as a key part of future learning outcomes and workforce preparedness.

Oregon State University is also addressing the challenges that AI tools present for educators hoping to support students’ developing their own critical thinking and reasoning skills. An advisory group designated by the Office of the Provost has brought together representatives from student support services, ASOSU’s Office of Advocacy, members of the Faculty Senate, and student members of ASOSU to create guiding principles for using AI-assisted learning strategies. A second coordinating team has also been assembled to look for possible opportunities for OSU to invest in or collaborate with other AI-related programs and services, both on OSU’s campus and abroad. An OSU ‘AI Day’ is planned for later in Spring of 2024, with opportunities for campus innovators to share the unique work they have been developing related to AI and allow students and faculty to ask questions related to AI use in studying and learning.

Students’ Creative Uses of AI – Ideas and Strategies to Suggest 

While longer term campus-wide policies take careful thought and time to develop, there are unique and relatively safe ways students can use AI that we as educators might be able to offer as we work to help them come to terms with this ubiquitous new tool. Faculty and learning support staff in particular may benefit from some examples we’ve collected of students using AI in ways that did NOT break the rules of their instructors and which we saw as particularly effective or innovative. These included asking AI tools to:

  1. Suggest other online learning resources about a topic, such as government websites, journal articles, and virtual lab activities.
  2. Explain why they missed a particular question on graded assignments.
  3. Summarize a list of important topics about a subject to build the outline of a study guide they then fill in using course materials.
  4. Recommend different ways to study for exams, including asking for a schedule to follow in terms of hours spent and when to begin studying.
  5. Describe a concept in multiple ways so that students can check where they may hold misconceptions or missed ideas.
  6. Prompting the AI to ask students questions about a given topic that they then attempted to answer using course materials as a form of practice.

As always, if you are going to provide suggestions about the use of AI to a student, please urge them to check their course syllabus or contact their instructor before engaging in AI-assisted study. Oregon State University has launched a new website that includes thoughtful suggestions and resources for faculty, including ways to connect on research or course design, and can be a great resource to share with students who have questions as well. At the end of the day, what is most important is that we help our students make sense of and succeed in the future careers available to them and show them that asking questions and looking for support is its own vital learning skill to practice as well. If you have questions or concerns about how AI might be used by students in your course, I encourage you to please contact the Center for Teaching and Learning at CTL@oregonstate.edu, as their offices can provide suggestions through email or set you up with a one-on-one consultation discussion to help you strategize effective ways to incorporate language and strategies regarding AI into your syllabus and curriculum.

Postcards from Student Leaders Reflecting on the Inaugural Peer Education Conference

by Woodrós Wolford

On November 4th, a team of peer educators hosted OSU’s inaugural Peer Education Conference “For Peer Educators, By Peer Educators” in Austin Hall, courtesy of the College of Business. There were 60-70 students in attendance from more than 26 different peer educator roles across campus: many attendees met peer educator colleagues for the first time through the conference! A Welcome and Panel Session started the schedule for the day, followed by two rounds of workshops with lunch in between, and we closed our day with activities and assessment at 2 pm.

What follows are “postcard” length self-reflections from some of the approximately 30 student leaders, most undergraduates, who helped to plan and put on the event. These are the second in a series that began in the last issue of The Success Kitchen. Some postcard writers facilitated workshops, such as the specially-featured Program Specialists from CEL (Community Engagement and Leadership), who facilitated story circles as a tool for active listening with peers (supported by Delfine DeFrank.) Some were on the core Peer Educator Conference Leadership team. All helped make the conference possible (and awesome!) through their planning, leadership, and participation in the peer ed community on November 4th. Their reflections are presented alphabetically by first name.

Addie

Hi Addie,

At the Peer Ed Conference we reflected on the importance of active listening and representation in education. I think these are both really important subjects for all students but especially those of us who do peer education on campus. My main takeaway from the event was really just the importance of compassion and respect in relational leadership.

XOXO,
Addie

Addie Schneider | Spring 2026, Bachelors in Electrical & Computer Engineering
Co-Facilitator at Peer Ed Conference
Community Engagement & Leadership (CEL) Program Specialist

Ella

Dear Ella, 

Wow! Remember the Peer Educator Conference? That was so cool and awesome. I am so proud of you for trying something new and walking into the fog so to speak alongside so many inspiring leaders like Wren, Woodrós, and Olivia. Yes, it was a little bit hectic and at times you felt very scattered, but it was the very first time you or anyone on your team had done something like that. You connected with others over personal experiences, you felt confident in yourself and your teaching skills, and proud of your teammates because you couldn’t have done it without their encouragement and support. Keep giving back to your community, keep learning, and keep walking into the unknown.

Love, 
Ella

Ella Johansen | Spring 2025, Bachelors in English & in Education
Peer Educator Conference Leader and Discussion Leader 
Beaver Connect Mentor (EOP), Resident Assistant (UHDS), and Waste Watchers Sustainability Club Officer

Faisal

I really appreciated attending the peer education and learning how I can do better in my role as a program specialist at CEL. I specifically enjoyed attending Naya Jakile’s [Andi Kinaya Putri Kesuma’s] workshop on how to support international students on our campus. There were many things I was unaware of in the obstacles that international students face on our campus, such as finding job placements, navigating life in another country, dealing with restrictions that other students on our campus face, and many more. It encouraged me to think about how I can better support international students in our role, and how dialogical programming can also provide a platform for international students to share their experiences to the larger community.  

-Faisal

Faisal Osman | Spring 2024, Bachelors in Public Policy
Co-Facilitator at Peer Ed Conference
Community Engagement & Leadership (CEL) Program Specialist, President of OSU NAACP Chapter

Ismael

Dear Ismael, 

It has been a couple of weeks since you went to the Peer Ed Conference. It was an incredible experience celebrating the power of education and collaboration with peers has left me inspired and energized. The diverse sessions shared different topics and different things on how to be a better person/leader. As I reflect on the Peer Ed Conference, I carry forward the importance of inclusivity, innovation, active listening, and more. By taking advantage of this opportunity, I learned new skills that I will be using in the future. I will also remember to keep attending these events not only for the experience and learning opportunity but for the food they provide!

-Ismael

Ismael Rodriguez Cardoso | Summer 2026, Bachelors in Business Administration
Co-Facilitator at Peer Ed Conference
Community Engagement & Leadership (CEL) Program Specialist, College of Business Mentor, Fundraising Chair for Association of Latin American Students (ALAS)

Jocelyn

Dear Jocelynn,

Remember the Peer Ed conference? If you don’t, let me tell you about what I’ve learned. Starting off with the dialogue our office facilitated on active listening, it was a great opportunity to reflect on active listening not only as a peer educator but in my own personal life. Recognizing the impact of intentional active listening on my personal relationships and how it has strengthened connections allows me to see how active listening as a peer educator is important to build trust and connection with those I work with and those I do work for. In the second workshop, I learned about representation in education. I learned how big of a difference it makes for students to be able to see themselves mirrored in their learning experiences, to be able to see themselves in positions of higher learning and that they belong there.

-Jocelynn

Jocelynn Saelee | Spring 2024, Bachelors in BioHealth Sciences (Pre-Pharmacy)
Co-Facilitator at Peer Ed Conference
Community Engagement & Leadership (CEL) Program Specialist

Julia

Dear Julia,

Hey girl! Greetings from the Peer Ed Conference! What an inspiring journey it has been. The active listening workshop was a game-changer, offering valuable insights into effective communication and connecting with others while fostering empathy and understanding. There’s nothing quite like celebrating the power of attentiveness and thoughtful, intentional responses! The workshop about the value of representation within the educational setting opened my eyes to its profound significance. It’s not just about being heard but truly understood, appreciating the diverse perspectives that make our community vibrant. It is so moving to imagine children being inspired to achieve greatness when they see people who look like them in positions of power or influence. The shared stories and experiences were a celebration of unity in diversity. I’ve learned that our voices matter, and so does every unique narrative. This conference has fueled my commitment to fostering inclusive spaces. I feel grateful for these lessons and the chance to connect with passionate peers. Until next time, PEC!

Warm regards,
Julia

Julia Gilsoul | Spring 2024, Bachelors in Environmental Science
Co-Facilitator at Peer Ed Conference
Community Engagement & Leadership (CEL) Program Specialist

Kayla

Hello me!

Look at where we are now! We freaking MC at a major event, which is crazy but AMAZING! Who would’ve thought that you would be a part of a team to create this event, it was amazing and smooth, you did it – pat yourself on the back. I must say my favorite part is being able to see all different peer educators teaching and learning from each other. That will always have a safe spot in my heart, let’s continue this journey of growing and learning from everyone else so that we can be prepared for the real world!

Sincerely,
Kayla (Your proud self)

Kayla Washington | Spring 2025, Bachelors in Business Administration Systems
Peer Educator Conference Leader and Emcee
Academic Success Center (ASC) Strategist

Seneca

Hi, me!

I learned that peer educators are disconnected on campus, however we do tend to clump depending on what programs we have in collaboration with each other. Not to mention who are friends and/or roommates between the student services. It’s not a bad thing, and the conference was extremely helpful to formally meet others in peer education. Much like the SEE luncheon during training right before Fall term is intended to meet other students who work under SEE, the Peer Ed Conference was a lovely way to connect.

Another aspect of the conference in the effort to understand what other orgs & offices do is that we may use the same words and have different intentions. To work better in collaborative situations, being on the same page of language, effort, and organization is a key point in executing successful projects and/or events.

-Seneca

Seneca Moback | Winter 2024, Bachelors in Public Health
Co-Facilitator at Peer Ed Conference
Community Engagement & Leadership (CEL) Program Specialist

Tiffany

🎀✨heeeeeey slay star🎀✨💅💅💅

My takeaways from the Peer Ed Conference were the impact we were able to make on the students who came. The presentations themselves portrayed passion and dedication about the topics, and it was definitely a learning opportunity for me since I have never done something like this before. The PECL team were super accommodating towards my needs and were very warm and positive during the day-of. One difficulty I encountered was the time aspect of presentations, and it was particularly challenging to implement a community dialogue format within a limited amount of time. However, I learned that there can always be different dialogical strategies that can be implemented that might best suit the timeframe given.

-Tiffany

Tiffany Li | Spring 2025, Bachelors in BioHealth Sciences (Pre-Optometry)
Lead Workshop Co-Facilitator at Peer Ed Conference
Community Engagement & Leadership (CEL) Program Specialist

William

Dear William of the Past,

These past few months I got the benefit of attending and helping to run the peer education conference at Oregon State University. There I was able to attend two separate workshops, one regarding AI usage in school and the other regarding how to support transfer students. Within the AI workshop I learned a lot about its positive usages for schoolwork and how it can help students skip over some busy work without fully doing a job for them. Alongside this I learned about supporting transfer students, which was very helpful in understanding the special challenges associated with being a transfer student. Overall, the peer education conference was very helpful and informative, and I am more than happy that I got to go.

Sincerely,
A slightly more futuristic William

William Lusby | Spring 2025, Natural Resources Major
Provider of Panel & Other Support (day of and in the weeks ahead) for Peer Ed Conference
Academic Success Center (ASC) Strategist

Wren

Dearest Wren,

Hi hi! Can you believe it’s been two months since the first EVER Peer-Ed Conference??? Kind of wild, right? Looking back, there are a lot of things that I—that you—cherish from this experience and a lot that I would want us to do differently, too!

For starters, communicate more with each other from the get-go!! We’re doing this as a team, so we need to work as a team, and it’s so much harder to reach out when you don’t know who you’re working with. Establish a place to communicate from the beginning and stick to it! Next, marketing! So much effort and love went into this conference; don’t forget to share it with others. (It’s for peer educators across campus, after all!) Lastly, trust in the team and that everything will be okay. Hijinks ensue (they always will), but everyone and everything will end up fine, I promise. You’ve got this!!

Always yours,
Wren

Wren P. Nguyễn | Spring 2025, Bachelors in Psychology
Peer Educator Conference Leader and Logistics Lead
Academic Coach (ASC) and MESS Lab Assistant

Prompts for Meeting 1:1 with Student Employees

by Clare Creighton

One-on-one meetings (or 1:1s) is the shortcut term our department uses for meeting individually with someone, most often with a direct report or supervisor. Student employees meet with their supervisor in 1:1s at various frequencies throughout the year, and professional staff meet with their reporting line supervisor in 1:1s on a regular basis as well. I love thinking about how the questions we ask open up possibilities for different conversations. I asked the team what kind of prompts they use in their 1:1s with student employees and there were a lot of thematic similarities.

In these conversations, the question below is just a starting point, from there we can ask follow-up questions and unpack responses in detail. Some supervisors give their questions to the team member in advance, and not all questions make it into every conversation. Here’s a collection:

  1. How has this past [week, month, term] been?
  2. Tell me about a highlight from this past [week, month, term]. Or What do you feel like you’re doing particularly well?
  3. What challenges have you experienced/faced? Or What’s been challenging about your work?
  4. What is on your radar as you look ahead? What’s coming up?
  5. What skills do you want to further develop this term? What types of projects do you want to take on? What areas of development do you have in mind?
  6. In general, or specific to the projects and skills above, what kind of support would you like from me? What would be helpful this [week, month, term]?
  7. Here’s an upcoming project, change, or workflow ____. What role do you want to play in that project? What do you think your strengths or contributions might be?

These prompts strike me as useful in a range of conversations – in your own 1:1s or similar conversations. I’ll add one of my favorite prompts to the list as well, which is to ask folks, “what would you like me to ask you about/check in on when we meet next?”

Absolutely Amateur: A Conversation between Anna & Sarah

by Anna Bentley & Sarah Norek

In this conversation, you’ll hear Anna and Sarah discuss what it’s been like to be in learning environments for topics and skills unrelated to their OAS and ASC work, and teasing out how the experience and what they’ve been noticing about themselves in these spaces and this learning undeniably informs their work OAS and ASC work.  

We (Anna and Sarah) decided to try recording our conversation, rather than writing about it. If you prefer to read the transcript, that’s available too, or if you want to speed it all up, you should be able to change your playback settings. In this conversation, we didn’t get into how our learning experiences feel different from something like professional development, but it’s something we started talking about afterwards too (spoiler: we think it’s related to the fact that we’re in low-stakes, ungraded environments and we’re not responsible to bring the learning back or apply it to our roles, it just ends up that we do and we can, still).

Let us know what you think of this format or any questions/things you’re thinking about related to this topic! And thanks for listening 😊.