The contemporary faculty workload is both visible and invisible. Visible are the courses, the syllabi, the scheduled advising hours, and the committee meetings. Invisible are the hours of discussion facilitation, emotional labor in student emails, feedback that stretches late into the evening, and the cognitive fragmentation caused by digital availability. In online teaching environments especially, work expands quietly and persistently. There is always another post to read, another draft to refine, another student in need of reassurance. Over time, this expansion erodes boundaries. When boundaries erode, reflective practice gives way to reactive performance. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is often introduced into this environment as a productivity tool – something that can draft announcements, summarize readings, or generate quiz questions. While these uses are valuable, they miss a deeper and more transformative possibility: AI can function as a structured reflective partner, helping faculty visualize, model, and design sustainable workflows. Used intentionally, AI does not accelerate academic labor – it contains it. 

The Expansion Problem in Online Teaching

Online teaching carries unique pressures. Faculty may teach multiple sections with high enrollment caps while also advising students, serving on committees, and maintaining research or professional engagement. Add caregiving or household responsibilities in unison with some semblance of a social life, and the total cognitive load becomes significant. Studies of online faculty workload consistently document expanded time demands and blurred boundaries compared to face-to-face instruction (Van de Vord & Pogue, 2012; Conceição & Lehman, 2011). Despite this heavy lift, faculty rarely see their workload mapped in concrete terms. Instead, responsibilities are experienced as a steady hum of obligation. The result is not necessarily inefficiency but diffusion – attention scattered across roles without structural containment. 

When workload remains unexamined, it expands toward perfectionistic over-functioning – where professional care quietly becomes unsustainable self-demand. Faculty who care deeply about student engagement often over-perform in discussion boards, provide extensive written feedback on assignments, and remain constantly available via inbox. While well-intentioned, these practices are rarely sustainable across a 15-week semester. Sustainability is not a luxury – it is a pedagogical necessity. 

Reframing AI: From Efficiency Tool to Reflective Instrument

Sustainable academic workflow design is not simply a time management strategy but an act of reflective practice. Reflective practice, as Schön (1992) suggests, requires structured opportunities to step back from action in order to examine it. When faculty intentionally structure their cognitive energy, response rhythms, and grading containment strategies, they reclaim agency in environments that often reward constant availability. AI tools, when framed as reflective partners rather than replacement engines, can support this intentionality without eroding professional judgment. 

A different approach begins with a simple practice-oriented exercise. Rather than asking AI to draft materials, faculty can prompt it to model their workload: 

“Develop a sustainable weekly workflow plan for three 3-credit online courses with 40 students each, five advising hours, two committee obligations, and caregiving responsibilities for a busy household of four. Organize by cognitive intensity, include grading containment strategies, and build in burnout prevention checkpoints.” 

The power of this prompt lies not only in the output but in the articulation. To write such a prompt, faculty must quantify their teaching load, name their service commitments, and acknowledge personal responsibilities. In doing so, invisible labor becomes visible. This externalization is metacognitive – it transforms vague overwhelm into structured design grounded in reflective practice. 

When AI returns a proposed workflow, faculty are invited into a second stage of reflection: evaluation. 

• Does this plan assume unlimited energy? 

• Where are boundaries explicit? 

• Are grading tasks batched? 

• Is advising emotionally contained rather than scattered? 

• Are there protected deep-work blocks? 

• Is there a true day off? 

The goal is not to adopt the AI output uncritically. The goal is to use it as a design prototype – a starting point that models reality and invites revision, reiteration, and recalibration. In this way, AI becomes a mirror rather than a manager. 

Designing for Cognitive Intensity

One of the most helpful reframes in workflow modeling is organizing tasks by cognitive intensity rather than simply by time. 

For example: 

• High-intensity work: grading essays, providing individualized feedback, preparing complex instructional materials. 

• Moderate-intensity work: discussion facilitation, advising meetings, committee contributions. 

• Lower-intensity work: email triage, administrative documentation, course announcements. 

When faculty cluster high-intensity tasks into protected blocks earlier in the week, they reduce cognitive fragmentation. Batching grading into two dedicated sessions, rather than grading sporadically every evening, preserves mental clarity. Similarly, containing advising into structured windows prevents emotional spillover into unrelated tasks. AI can help surface these distinctions by suggesting workflow structures based on energy patterns rather than traditional 9-5 assumptions. This design approach honors a simple truth: faculty are not machines. Cognitive endurance has limits. Protecting deep work is not indulgence; it is strategic preservation of teaching quality. 

Reflective Practice and the “Good Enough” Threshold

Reflective practitioners continually ask not only “How can I improve?” but also “What is sustainable?” In many online courses, discussion participation becomes a site of overextension. Faculty may feel compelled to respond to every student. Yet research on instructor presence suggests that strategic facilitation – clarifying early, probing midweek, synthesizing at the end – can be equally effective without constant posting (Martin, Wang, & Sadaf, 2018). 

Similarly, grading in writing-intensive courses can expand infinitely. Without containment strategies such as detailed rubrics, comment banks, audio feedback, or staggered due dates across sections, the feedback process can dominate weekends. 

AI-generated workflow models often include explicit stopping rules: close the laptop at a set time, designate one weekend day fully offline, cap email checks to specific intervals. While these suggestions may appear basic, they function as permission structures. Faculty frequently know these strategies but lack operational reinforcement to enact them. By embedding boundary-setting into the design process, AI supports not productivity culture but sustainability culture. 

Ethical and Critical Considerations

Using AI in this way requires thoughtful boundaries. Faculty should not input identifiable student information or sensitive advising details. Institutional expectations, union contracts, and workload policies must inform any workflow plan. AI outputs may reflect generalized assumptions that require contextual adjustment. Most importantly, AI cannot assess the cultural or emotional nuance of individual departments or institutions. The technology offers scaffolding; the educator retains authority. 

Critical use also means resisting the narrative that AI should help faculty “do more.” If a workflow model suggests filling every available hour, it should be revised. The measure of success is not maximized output but sustained presence. 

Work-Life Balance as Pedagogical Integrity

Work-life balance is often framed as a personal wellness issue. In teaching, it is also a pedagogical one. Faculty who are chronically depleted struggle to offer thoughtful feedback, nuanced facilitation, and emotionally attuned advising (Cruz & Javier, 2023; Slavova & Tarpomanova, 2025). Conversely, instructors who protect cognitive space demonstrate more intentional instructional presence and emotional regulation. 

Sustainable workflows improve clarity. Clarity improves presence. Presence improves learning environments. When faculty design their semester with containment in mind- staggering major assignments, batching grading, structuring advising, protecting weekends – they model for students a form of professional self-regulation that is deeply instructive (Conceição & Lehman, 2011). Adult learners in particular benefit from seeing boundaries enacted rather than preached. AI can support this modeling not by replacing human work but by helping faculty consciously design it. 

Toward Sustainable Academic Labor

The conversation about AI in higher education often oscillates between excitement and alarm. Missing from much of this discourse is a quieter application: using AI to support faculty reflection about their own labor patterns. Prompting AI to generate a workflow plan is not so much a shortcut as an invitation to pause, quantify, and redesign (Sarkar, 2026). It surfaces hidden assumptions about availability, perfectionism, and overperformance. It encourages faculty to treat their time as an ecosystem rather than a resource to be exhausted. 

Mitigating academic labor does not diminish rigor – it protects it. As institutions continue to expand online offerings and faculty responsibilities, designing humane workflows will become increasingly urgent. AI, used critically and reflectively, can serve as a scaffold in this process – not to accelerate work indefinitely, but to contain it within boundaries that preserve intellectual and emotional vitality. 

Sustainable workflow design ultimately yields professional sovereignty. Faculty who approach their work reflectively rather than reactively are better positioned to model balance, ethical decision-making, and intellectual clarity for their students. AI will not solve academic overload. But when used thoughtfully, it can serve as a cognitive companion – helping instructors plan, prioritize, and protect the relational core of teaching. In an era that increasingly rewards speed and availability, the more radical act may be designing work that is humane, deliberate, and bounded. Faculty sustainability is not a personal luxury – it is a structural necessity for meaningful, enduring teaching. 

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Crystal Donlan, MEd, DEd(c), is the Non-Credit Instructional Designer for Penn State World Campus and a faculty member and doctoral candidate in Lifelong Learning and Adult Education. A learning scientist and educator for over 20 years, her scholarship centers on modern literacies, reflective practice, online and distance learning, and the ethical integration of AI in higher education. Crystal’s work in postsecondary teaching and learning has led her to develop several best practice frameworks to support inclusive, multimodal, learner-centered environments. 

References 

Conceição, S. C. O., & Lehman, R. M. (2011). Managing online instructor workload: Strategies for finding balance and success. John Wiley & Sons. 

Cruz, A. M., & Javier, R. D. (2023). The role of social support in mitigating academic burnout among university faculty. Journal of Psychological Studies and Education, 7(1), 89–103. 

Martin, F., Wang, C., & Sadaf, A. (2018). Student perception of helpfulness of facilitation strategies that enhance instructor presence, connectedness, engagement, and learning in online courses. The Internet and Higher Education, 37, 52–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2018.01.003 

Sarkar, A. (2026). From AI hype to workflow reality: A strategic framework for integrating generative AI across organizational functions. Organizational Dynamics, 55(1), 101202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2025.101202 

Schön, D.A. (1992). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315237473 

Slavova, V., & Tarpomanova, T. (2025). Stress and coping among university faculty and staff at a medical university in the post-pandemic context: A qualitative analysis. Frontiers in Public Health, 13, 1674290. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1674290 

Van de Vord, R., & Pogue, K. (2012). Teaching time investment: Does online really take more time than face-to-face?. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 13(3), 132–146. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v13i3.1190  

If you’re teaching in STEM, you probably love your discipline. Teachers want others to experience the joy we have experienced as you marvel at the world through our discipline. Unfortunately, this isn’t always what happens. It’s not fun to stare out at a sea of laptops and blank faces and ask yourselves why all your skill and passion are seemingly falling on deaf ears. Student motivation is a vital factor in students achieving learning goals (Taurina, 2015). One major factor hindering student motivation is that STEM professors often fail to situate their class in the context of the larger narratives of science. Students don’t know why they should care. When students see how your class fits into the larger story of their major, it is easier for them to understand why it matters. This can help student motivation, and make it easier for students to apply domain-specific knowledge can be applied after college.  

1. Your Class’s Story

Why should a student care about what you are teaching? This is a fantastic question. Asking why is a responsible question. To answer this question, consider how your students are motivated (Gauthier, 2013). Spend time reflecting on your students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Are they vying for a big tech job, acceptance into a competitive graduate school, or more time with their friends? Think about the reputation of your particular class and where it is situated in the major. Why is this class being offered? We often think that it is obvious to students that our classes are important. But this is rarely true. Show them why these skills are important. One easy way to do this is to review high-profile job postings from companies with students and show them that your learning objectives map onto the skills required by employers your students want to work for.  

After writing out common motivations and the value of your class in the context of the degree, consider how your learning objectives help students achieve their goals. I recommend spending part of the first class casting a vision for the story of your class. Communicate that this class has been arranged to help them meet learning objectives and why those learning objectives are useful in meeting their goals. Every good story has narrative progression, and if your students clearly see that the course schedule, assignments, and policies have been designed to help them meet learning objectives that support their goals, it is easier for them to be motivated. 

Practical Tips:

• Brainstorm common student motivations and communicate why your class is useful in the context of the degree program. 

• Justify why these learning objectives matter by explicitly connecting them to student goals like understanding other major-specific classes, performing graduate school research, or landing and succeeding at their dream job. 

• Present the class schedule as a narrative clearly showing that the course schedule, assignments, and even policies have been designed to help them achieve meaningful objectives. 

2. Each Lecture Should Have a Self-Contained Story

A lot can happen in a week. I can remember sitting in a class five weeks into the semester, and not knowing why we were talking about this material. This is especially hard to avoid when teaching complex topics that require multiple weeks to explain. Missing or misunderstanding one concept can doom students to misunderstand future material unless prompt remedial action is applied. Even if your class is designed with a logical progression and that progression is presented persuasively, students can still lose the plot.  

One way to help students stay on the path is to start and end every class with a short introduction and conclusion. You could think about each lecture as a chapter in a larger story. A chapter is a part of the book, but it is also a cohesive unit. An introduction allows the instructor to showcase the big picture for the day, draw connections between seemingly disparate topics, and review required prerequisite concepts. A conclusion can provide a big picture overview to students and highlight interdisciplinary applications and connections between courses. Introductions and conclusions can be great places to add active learning elements to a content-heavy class, which has been shown to improve long-term retention (Karpicke et al, 2007). Consider asking students to tell you what the big picture of the lecture was during the conclusion. You could use the Socratic method to guide them to the key takeaways and improve student ownership and recall. 

Practical Tips:

• Start class with a short introduction and review to help students see the narrative of the  class develops. 

• End class with a clear conclusion and assessment activity to build student understanding.

• Incorporate activities that require active recall and participation into introduction and conclusion to increase student understanding and recall. 

3. Don’t Shy Away from Complicated Stories

STEM disciplines have complex histories; often, the theory presented in a textbook was once one of many theories explaining a given phenomenon. Sometimes the theories in textbooks have been disproven or partially displaced. Other times, these alternative theories are still being debated in research literature. But it’s rare to discuss these complexities with students. It is surprisingly common for a field or line of inquiry to grow stagnant until a widely accepted theory is displaced. Funding and non-scientific factors can play a role in determining which questions get asked, answered, and accepted. Few undergraduate students are aware of the historical and ongoing complexities of science. STEM educators have an opportunity to present the complexity of science, and we need to do this to prepare our students for the pressures they will face after graduating. Good teachers tell the history of their discipline (Bain, 2004). 

Practical Tips:

• Don’t shy away from examining the many factors that influenced technical development. 

• Expose your students to alternative and opposing views to prepare them to answer objectives they may face in later research or industry settings.

• Present a common opposing position, or so-called best practices that you disagree with, and allow students to interact with that position.  

4. Connect Content to Real Stories from the Research and Industry

Our dream as STEM educators is that our students would leave our classroom equipped to thrive in the real world as they build on the foundations of giants by making discoveries and building awesome things. But merely having technical knowledge and skills isn’t enough. My PhD advisor, Dr. Robert Marks, often describes an engineer’s skills as a tool. As your student progresses through their STEM degree program, they add more tools to their toolbox.

Hopefully, your learning objectives and class story have convinced your students that your class has given them new and valuable tools. But if your students don’t know when to use their tools, they won’t be helpful on the job. Sharing real-world stories or case studies can help students bridge the gap between your class and their next chapter. To do this, you will need to stay current on emerging trends in your discipline. 

Practical Tips:

• Share relevant industry and research case-studies from your professional experience.

• Invite other professors or professionals to present a relevant case study.

• Talk about how cutting-edge research or advances in industry build on this course content. 

5. Invite Students to Write Their Own Story

Have you ever had a professor who made you feel like you had something valuable to contribute? I have, and this motivated me to attempt great things. Each interaction with students is an opportunity to encourage them to aim high and to cast a vision for valuable contributions they can make in the future. The faculty members who taught me at my community college, undergraduate institution, and graduate school have all done a fantastic job going the extra mile to encourage students to aim high both through their class and in personal mentorship. Here are a few of the creative ideas they used to help their students succeed. 

Practical Tips:

• Highlight the achievements of young people. Did you know that Albert Einstein was 26 years old when he published his paper on special relativity (“Albert Einstein, in his own words”, 2015). 

• Incentivize students to attend and participate in the local professional society student chapter (i.e., IEEE-HKN). 

• Invite local industry professionals or recruiters to attend the final project presentations. 

• Give a lecture to an alumnus teaching how the things they learned in your class prepared them for their current work. 

I’m the recipient of many great teachers who slowed down to invite me into the community of scholars. They worked hard to motivate me to apply myself and taught me how to navigate the professional world. I’m sure there were days when I was that blank-faced staring back at my teacher with an open laptop. But they persevered in their teaching and succeeded in motivating me to marvel at the world through my discipline, using many of the storytelling techniques on this list.  

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Jonathan Swindell is a PhD student at Baylor University in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. He researches industrial applications of artificial intelligence and has professional experience working in engineering, spanning from government to big tech. He is passionate about helping students bridge the gap between the classroom and industry. 

References 

Taurina, Z. (2015). Students’ motivation and learning outcomes: Significant factors in internal study quality assurance system. International Journal for Cross-Disciplinary Subjects in Education (IJCDSE), 5(4), 2625-2630. 

Gauthier, L. (2013). How Learning Works: 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 14, 126. https://doi.org/10.14434/josotl.v14i1.4219

Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger, H. L. (2007). Repeated retrieval during learning is the key to long-term retention. Journal of Memory and Language, 57(2), 151–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2006.09.004 

Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

Albert Einstein, in his own words | NSF – U.S. National Science Foundation. (2015, March 20). https://www.nsf.gov/news/albert-einstein-his-own-words 

Multipurpose tools, especially the Swiss Army knife, have sustained their popularity over the years, namely for their size and versatility. Snag a fingernail? Got broccoli in your teeth? Screw came loose? Need to cut off a tag? With one tool, numerous problems can be solved.  

As educators, we are subject to myriad situations in our courses that need a solution. For some, it’s the dreaded silence, where we expect vocal contributions from our students but are met with crickets instead. Or perhaps when students do not develop a sense of community, which makes in-class activities and group projects substantially more challenging. And while maybe not as prevalent, there can be a disconnect between the topic of the day and the current needs of the students.   

Enter the high point – low point activity. Like a multipurpose tool, this activity serves a variety of functions, solving many of our continual problems. This activity has been leveraged by several instructors teaching a first-year seminar, but it is certainly not limited to this context or population.  

The Context

At Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, the first-year seminar meets once a week in the fall term for 50 minutes, with an average class size of 15 students. The goal of this required course is to aid in the transition process, exposing students to the resources and skills they will need to be successful. A formal curriculum is provided, with leeway for the operational curriculum. 

The Implementation

At the beginning of each class, each student is asked to share a high point (i.e., a highlight, something positive) from the past week. There are no requirements or restrictions, other than this part is required. Each student gets to decide what their personal highlight of the week will be, knowing that they will be sharing with the rest of the class. Sometimes it’s simply waking up in time for classes. At other times, it’s more substantive, such as doing well on an exam, getting a design project to work, or visiting with family. As a side note, we have used a variety of names for this activity, including “Roses and Thorns” and “Happies and Crappies.” 

Afterwards, students are given an opportunity to share a low point from the past week. This part is optional, as the goal is not to embarrass students, but rather to normalize the experience and pave the way for open, honest communication. Surprisingly enough, hands shoot in the air when we ask for these examples. Students share experiences that range from showing up to class not realizing they had an exam to having a major project malfunction at the last minute. Again, students get to decide if they share a low point, and if so, which low point.  

While a student is sharing, the expectation is that the other students are listening. When students share their high points, it gives us a chance to share their excitement, reinforce positive behaviors, and encourage them on their journey (when they may or may not be feeling successful). As they share their low points, this gives us a chance to extend empathy toward the situation as well as share strategies that might help in the future. 

The Academic Benefits

The high point – low point activity has proven quite beneficial on several fronts. First, it allows students to practice talking in class. Most students are used to being passive participants, so this changes the dynamic. However, not all students are comfortable with public speaking. As McKeachie and Svinicki (2006) noted, “the safest thing to do is keep quiet” (p. 46) and when asked how to reduce this fear of public speaking, they suggested, “Getting acquainted is one aid. Once students know they are among friends, they can risk expressing themselves” (p. 46). 

This practice then helps students to become more comfortable sharing during lectures. This reduces the dreaded silence for instructors, and spurs “higher levels of effort when they feel connected to others and when they believe others care about them and are there to support them” (Harrington, 2021, p. 35). Many students have even found commonalities with other students in the course, based on what was shared. This allows students to share in a sense of normalcy (e.g., “I failed that test too!”), recognizing they are not alone in their struggles, which has facilitated group activities. 

And finally, instructors get to help students develop as successful college students. In a first-year seminar, this means reinforcing the topics of the course, showing how they complement each other, but this growth can occur regardless of the topics covered. It should be noted that it does take some delicacy to focus on the future without heaping on guilt about the past.  

The Social Benefits

From a student affairs perspective, the high point – low point activity creates space for something students often lack: validation. Many students feel pressure to appear as though they are managing college well at all times, particularly in academically rigorous environments. When there is intentional room to name both successes and struggles, it helps normalize the reality that challenge is a common part of the college experience rather than a personal shortcoming. 

In practice, “Happies and Crappies” allows students to hear that their peers are navigating similar stressors—academic, social, and personal. This shared awareness can reduce isolation and make it easier for students to acknowledge when they are struggling. Over time, these moments reinforce that students belong in the classroom even when things are not going well (Tinto, 1993). 

Because sharing low points is optional, students maintain control over what they disclose. This balance supports psychological safety while still encouraging authentic connections. While instructors are not expected to solve the challenges students raise, these conversations often open the door to empathy, normalization, and, when appropriate, connection to resources. 

Scaling the Activity

Given the nature of the first-year seminar, spending five to ten minutes engaged in the high point – low point activity each week is worthwhile. The lower section enrollment certainly facilitates the activity; however, larger enrollments do not automatically necessitate larger time commitments. In a traditional course structure, where students meet several times a week, this could also be an activity implemented just once a week. With larger class sizes, students could be broken up into smaller groups, with an option to share any particularly salient examples with the entire class. Or instructors could call on a certain number of students each week to share their high point with the whole group. 

Taking the time to interact with students shows that we care about them not only as students but also as individuals. This is one of the hallmarks that Bain (2004) identified: “The best teachers we studied displayed not power but an investment in the students” (p. 139). So, if you desire to cut the dreaded silence and elicit vocal contributions, aspire to build a sense of community and belonging in your course, and hope to connect with students in real time about issues they are facing, try the high point – low point activity. One tool, multiple purposes.

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Sarah A. Forbes, PhD, is the Student Academic Success Director and a first-year seminar instructor at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. In these roles, she helps students learn new strategies for academic success. Sarah also serves as a first-year seminar instructional designer, summer bridge program director, and academic advising program administrator. 

LeAnne Myers is the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and a first-year seminar instructor at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Her professional work and teaching focus on fostering inclusive learning environments that support student engagement, persistence, and overall well-being. 

References  

Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. Harvard University Press. 

Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7. http://www.aahea.org/articles/sevenprinciples1987.htm 

Harrington, C. (2021). Keeping us engaged. Stylus Publishing, LLC. 

Herman, J. H., & Nilson, L. B. (2018). Creating engaging discussions: Strategies for “Avoiding Crickets” in any sized classroom and online. Stylus Publishing, LLC. 

McKeachie, W. J., & Svinicki, M. (2006). McKeachie’s teaching tips. Houghton Mifflin Company.  

Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd ed.).  University of Chicago Press. 

I’m going to be an adjunct for the first time at my graduate alma mater. Talk about pressure, anxiety, and a dash of imposter syndrome. Though all these emotions are normal, they tend to make the job more difficult. Ironically, we usually tend to think about all the negative possibilities when called for a great opportunity, instead of enjoying and wondering about the good this could bring for our growth.  

“I can integrate this”, “I can assign this 1,000-page book”, I can complete this topic in 1-2 sessions, tops.” Sometimes we are acting as our own mentors, professors, and heroes. This is awesome because it affirms that you have the humility to learn from someone else and their experience. Then again, it was their experience. Building your own educational identity, vocation, and voice is what you should affirm, and it’s what your students are expecting from you. Whether it is your first time teaching or you’ve been in this for 40 plus years. Having expectations is good, but if not conscious, we can start our new semester with toxic productivity.  

Therapist and author, Israa Nasir (2024), defines it as an obsessed mindset of “hyper-optimization” that tries to make the most of every hour towards outcomes, achievement, and productivity. Nasir also expands on it as “habits or behaviors that have crossed a threshold of intensity or frequency that makes them unhealthy.” The very thing we do as educators is design outcomes, strive for achievements, and work towards a productive life of teaching, research, and service. This direct definition put the faculty in reflection mode. What can I control? What is out of my control? How can I influence others this term? Who can influence me? What habits are going to be helpful for my achievement? What are possible complications? What is urgent and what is important? Can they learn this today or tomorrow? Asking ourselves how to approach our goals, course and class design, institutional relationships, and student-centered opportunities is going to be key for the development of healthy rhythms of setting, achieving, and changing goals.  

It can become draining when our mission for the semester starts with an uncontrolled sense of urgency. When our goals are switched to thoughts of stress and anxiety, we must make a stop. This can lead to bad practices during the term of your course: changing the syllabus constantly, assigning more work to students, not following the topic sequence, and inconsistency in the topic being taught. McLean and Jones (2025) have researched the importance of educators’ ability to develop emotional regulation skills because of the possible impact this has on students’ learning process. Now, this is not in any way an “order” to not show emotions, but a call to acknowledge are goals as learning experiences; some happen, and some do not.  

Another important aspect of toxic productivity develops out of the individual realm we’ve acknowledged and expands to the institutional realm. If the institution, department, or office faculty work does not have healthy parameters of work, expectations, deliverables, and key performance indicators, faculty will be left with vague expectations. If the institutional context facilitates toxic conditions, it is going to have a negative impact on the development of the teaching-learning experience, the professor’s vocation, and the student’s future. If our learning ecosystems build toxic patterns, learning will not occur. Institutions need to remember that faculty are humans and need flexibility to support and be supported (Samuels-White, 2025). When our job is centralized in one thing and one thing only, we lose perspective and vision of breaks, opportunities, conversations, being someone’s mentor or colleague, attending a family event, or worse, forgetting to have time to just be.  

This is not a drastic claim. It is a call to be aware and reflect that we started to teach to make a change and not to lose ourselves in the process. Our vocation cannot be mediated by expectations that can harm, but must thrive in spaces of grace for us and others. If this is not settled before stepping into a new role, course, department, appointment, or chair, our priorities will become our puppet strings. Instead of being agents of change in a world that (really) needs it, we are going to be addicted to competing instead of collaborating, bossing around instead of leading, overstepping instead of influencing, and becoming numb instead of living. Numb faculty can speak, but I don’t think they can teach.  

Leading productive lives is not a bad thing. Being productive is living as functional, but when our rhythms are not balanced, we are overcome by an intense sense of competition that will blind us from enjoying the process. As the Christian prayer goes, “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”, the evil of toxic productivity can be challenged in our educational process with these steps:  

For Faculty:

1. Remind yourself that goals are open to change.  

2. Students expect a human mentor and not information machines.  

3. Education and Learning are messy, and that is the overall process of wanting to learn and teach.  

4. Planning is good, but not the end of our vocation.  

5. The best productivity activity is to find joy in who you are, what you do, and why you do it.  

For Institutions:

1. Redefine and clarify faculty expectations.  

2. Connect educational and faculty developers for faculty consultation.  

3. Mentor faculty, in every stage, towards vocational management, so they can design their future with joy.  

4. Rethink faculty assessment tools for holistic development and not fragmented achievements.  

5. Recognize their personal and professional effort at the end of the term.  

Let’s have a productive, healthy, calm, and relaxed semester! 

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Dr. Daniel Andrés Rivera Rosado is the Director of the JFU Bible Institute of La Iglesia Cristiana (Discípulos de Cristo) en Puerto Rico. He is also an adjunct faculty member of Christian Education at the Seminario Evangélico de Puerto Rico. He earned a PhD in Education from the University of Arizona Global Campus, researching the behavioral intention of technology integration in theological educators’ teaching practices. Daniel is the author of four books: Misión Activa: El quehacer del liderazgo en la Iglesia local (2022), El ABC de la Educación Cristiana (2023), Influencia Intencional: Liderazgo Educativo para el ministerio (2024), and Quietud: Otra manera de vivir la misión (2025). 

References 

McLean, L. & Jones, N. (March 2025). Using an observational measure of elementary teachers’ emotional expressions during mathematics and English language arts to explore associations with students’ content area emotions and engagement. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2025.102352  

Nasir, Israa. (2024). Toxic Productivity: Reclaim Your Time and Emotional Energy in a World That Always Demands More. Eau Claire: Bridge City Books.  

Samuels-White, Shellon. (October 20, 2025). Supporting the Supporters: Promoting Educators’ Mental Health. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/faculty-development/supporting-the-supporters-promoting-educators-mental-health/  

Writing is the currency of higher education (Mazak, 2024) and is often a heavily weighted factor in the tenure process. And yet, the task of writing for publication is often not a top priority for faculty. Lack of time is the primary impediment, but confidence, affective, and physical barriers all stand in the way of getting started. In truth, writing is relegated to spare time that we never have. If a pocket of time becomes available, we have plenty of unfinished business to catch up on. To be clear, we are self-proclaimed procrastinators when it comes to writing, mostly due to lack of commitment and confidence. Let’s face it, we attend to the things we deem more pressing and achievable while avoiding writing. However, we have experience that we know others would benefit from, and writing is an expectation of our job. Sigh. Consider the following model that helped us get started and work through publication. This analogy of building a home may assist you in initiating and sticking with your writing. 

A good piece of writing isn’t just written, it is constructed. Cue up a mental image of building a house and we will apply it to writing a paper. The supplies we need will be the 6+1 Trait Writing model (Culham, 2003) in order of importance: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. Like building a house, we work from the big picture down to the details. Conceptually, this provides us with the mental space to recognize that a particular writing project will not be done in one single effort. It involves multiple stages that can be addressed one phase at a time as you work towards completion. Below is the comparison of the various stages of building a house along with the corresponding steps for “building” your paper. As a matter of full disclosure, we’ve never built a house! 

Select Your Property Location and Materials

Referring to houses, this is related to choosing the land or location of where you want to live. This may involve visiting various communities. Similarly with writing, you will need to select your “plot.” In other words, pick your topic and your neighbors. What community does that new-build belong in? Will you be sharing work with practitioners or is it a theoretical piece? Read around the area (visit other communities) to determine how your topic fits into existing literature. This is where your “ideas” take shape.  

Get Your Plan Stamped

Consider this the stage where you get Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval if necessary. Does your inquiry involve creating surveys or data collection mechanisms?  Are you conducting a study or writing from collected artifacts?  You may already have the data gathered. You are the architect  but, is your plan well-engineered?  Choose quality designs and methods. You may need resources that help you manage your data to generate your theory.    

Select a Builder or a Team

You are the general contractor or the author of your paper. However, you may want to consider a co-author. Different experts working on the same piece can help get the work done and get your piece published (or moved in) sooner. Consider the experience or perspective a coauthor can add to your knowledge base. They could serve as a consultant or work right along with you. Seek technical assistance if needed. For example, will you need someone to help with data analysis?  

Site Clearance; Excavation

When you are writing, it is important to clear your schedule for the time you wish to devote to your project. This may involve closing your email and finding a distraction free space. Planning and scheduling require attention to the timeline. Set up a devoted period for writing. There are deadlines for journals. Make a decision, mark the calendar and set the timeline.  

Lay the Foundation

Consider how you want to organize the paper. This does not have to be in complete sentences but should include general ideas about how you see the paper developing. This is where you articulate the foundation of your interest. Begin with, “this appears to be the situation; this is what others are saying about the situation; this is what others suggest will make an impact; this is what I am proposing will be a leverage point for shifting thought, action, technique or achievement.” 

Framing

Write an outline. Write the headings of the various sections of your paper. For example, you may not yet know all of the points for the paper, but you can include a heading entitled “Methods.” Add “Results,” “Discussion,” and “Conclusion.” These are the headers, floors, walls, and roof.  Cycle back and fill in the vertical walls. Secure by articulating each of these sections.  

Lock Up Stage

This is the phase in building when the entire outside of the house is completed and wrapped. It can be literally locked up from the outside. For your paper, this involves writing a complete first draft. Unlike building a house, when you are building a paper, this does not have to be perfect! There are still just studs on the inside but you can see its potential.     

Take Regular Breaks

Walk away from your project occasionally! Like building a house, it is unrealistic to think that you will get the project done in one day. Like contractors, you are moving among your other jobs and responsibilities. Walk away, and come back another day. When you return, survey the previous work. You will be surprised at how differently you see things after a moment away. You have a fresh look at your work. 

Interior Finishes

Rough in the electrical, plumbing and HVAC. This is a good time to consider the “voice” and sentence fluency of your paper. Are your connections clear and fluid?  Run the lines and test them to see that they are connected and flow.   

Fitting, Fixtures, and Painting

Look for additional research to support weaker portions of the paper. As you continue reading and researching, you will find nuggets to include throughout the paper. Examples of evidence fit in here.  While attending to these additions, you notice areas where revisions are warranted and finishing touches are needed. You are now cleaning up and finishing the landscaping. During this stage, you cycle through as you notice what needs to be done. This can be short visits at the site or at your desk to check on edits with fresh eyes and run your piece through a final check for conventions and formatting.   

Walk Through

This is when the project is finished. At this point, it may be helpful to get a second opinion and/or show your paper to a peer for feedback. Take constructive feedback and revisit any of the previous stages based on the advice. You’ve made it this far, so now send it off! 

Moving In

The code enforcer will be stopping by and hopefully you get your Certificate of Occupancy. They may find something that you will have to address but finding the  right journal or outlet for publication will increase the likelihood that your workmanship is acceptable even if you have to make some changes. 

The above steps are not always a linear process. Just like with building a house, you may experience setbacks while writing. Accommodating disruptions without abandoning the project helps to keep your writing on course to completion. This is a process that you can step in and out of over the course of time. Consider the comparison of the various stages of building a house along with the correlating steps for “building” a paper. You have a writing project waiting for you to get started. With a strong structure and your fine craftsmanship, you will find your voice.

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Michelle Ciminelli, PhD, is an associate professor of literacy education at Niagara University in Lewiston, New York.  

Paula Adams is an assistant professor of literacy education at Niagara University in Lewiston, New York. 

References

Mazak, C. (2022). Making time to write: How to resist the patriarchy and take control of your academic career through writing. Morgan James Publishing.  

Culham, R. (2003). 6+1 traits of writing: The complete guide, grades 3 and up. New York: Scholastic Professional Books. 

In the era of digital education, faculty teaching online courses may find it difficult to establish meaningful connections with their students. As a faculty member who teaches primarily in-person undergraduate students, I spend lots of time curating my classes to encourage connections among my students. I encourage them to work collaboratively on projects and provide feedback to one another regularly. Students seem to respond well to these interactions and most enjoy collaborating and discussing topics in class. Students tend to leave class having forged partnerships with other peers and choose to take classes together as they move through our program to continue that collaboration.   

I’ve recently taken on an asynchronous graduate-level class and had concerns as to how I would be able to provide similar interactions among my online students in a space where students are not engaged simultaneously. I had concerns because I knew collaboration to be an important component of the learning environment and wanted to build a solid learning community for my students. In the past I have not felt that my online classes were as collaborative and engaging as they should be and I was searching for better methods of instruction.  

Collaboration, Connection, and Social and Emotional Learning

Creating a cooperative atmosphere where students feel connected enhances students’ social and emotional development. The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning or CASEL (www.casel.org) introduces five competencies of social and emotional skills or SEL within the learning environment. They are: self-awareness, social awareness, responsible decision making, relationship skills, and self-management. By infusing these competencies into course experiences, students and adults can participate in collaborative workspaces that foster community and collaboration while coming to understand and accept others’ different viewpoints. These experiences enhance college students’ social and emotional growth and play a part in their professional growth as well. According to CASEL (2026), students need to be surrounded by trusting relationships and strong environments where they feel motivated, engaged, safe, and feel a sense of belonging within that space. I have long fostered this type of environment in my “in-person” class, but had some concerns as to how I could achieve that same level of connectedness in an online class.   

Fostering Online Collaboration and Interactions

I wanted to create a course experience in which my students could forge professional peer groups and gain insightful feedback within the group. While my in-person classes naturally foster trust and camaraderie through high levels of interactivity, I found it challenging to create that same collaborative workspace in an online graduate course. I took a deeper look at what I was doing with my students in my in-person classes and reimagined what those activities, assignments, and interactions could look like in an online space. I spoke to colleagues, examined other online delivery methods, and discovered a few ways that I could build a community of learners in my online classroom. Here are a few ideas:  

1. Canva Slide Introductions

Instructors share a Canva slide introducing themselves within the first week of classes online. This allows students to gain familiarity with their instructor and perceive them as an approachable human. Students are then assigned to create their own Canva slide to do the same. The slides are then compiled in one slideshow or posted on a discussion board and peers in the class are encouraged to provide positive feedback or make connections. This activity fosters social awareness and relationship skills as part of social and emotional learning in that the students are learning about one another and forging connections to the instructor and to other peers in the class.   

2. Check-In Discussion Boards or Emails

Instructors send an email to all students checking in with them and asking them if they have any questions at this time. For larger classes, an instructor may choose to post this question in a discussion board. This type of check-in is typically sent out within the first quarter of the semester and as needed after that time. This email exchange or discussion board check-in offers students the opportunity to share any concerns or questions they may have. Students may feel supported and encouraged to reach out for help if they perceive their instructor is willing to check in on them and ask if they need any help at that time. This builds rapport between the student and instructor and offers an opportunity for collaboration as well as fosters a students own self-awareness in that students can take an introspective look at anything that they may have questions about within the class at that time.  .   

3. Innovation Labs

Instructors create “innovation labs”, or “group huddles” to foster an online collaborative work space. This is a space within the learning management system or LMS that fosters discussion among students. It could include a quick topic post that encourages students to share their ideas or prompt them to begin a discussion chain with the class to freely brainstorm about an upcoming assignment. It becomes a “safe space” for students to provide feedback to one another without a grade or point value. Instructors create and position these “labs” or “huddles” at certain points throughout their online class as the students move through new topics in the semester. In these spaces it is not as important for the instructor to provide feedback, but to mostly monitor the discussion as the students engage in conversation with one another. This exercise fosters both self-management and social awareness and could be a great tool for collaboration among the students enrolled in the class.   

4. Padlet

Padlet is a very useful app that instructors can utilize to create an online interactive bulletin board. Instructors create a post and students respond to that post. In addition, students can create a post and peers can comment on their post as well. Instructors can create a “sandbox” in Padlet and include a variety of links, images, and space to share topics with students and students can create their own “sandbox” to share as well. Instructors use Padlet to post articles and pose questions about the articles to engage students in conversation. Padlet can also be used to generate ideas about an upcoming project for a class. Padlet provides a great way to build connections among students while they are learning and sharing through their lens. Activities such as these in Padlet can increase  students’ social awareness of others in their learning environment and allow them to gain empathy and understanding of various viewpoints.   

Collaboration in Any Space Encourages SEL

Online classrooms can be just as interactive as in-person classrooms if the instructor plans ahead to create a student-centered space. Building a collaborative workspace for your students encourages community and fosters social and emotional learning. According to Hosseinioun, Neffke, Youn, and Letian (2025), the glue that keeps current talent productive includes social skills such as communication, empathy, conflict resolution, and the ability to coordinate diverse expertise. Social and emotional learning and building a community of collaborators in any learning space is necessary for growth and success in our world today. Students need experiences and interactions with one another to gain multiple perspectives and see the world through various lenses thus enhancing their social and emotional skillset. Whether teaching graduates or undergraduates, in-person or online, we must encourage and foster ways in which students are encouraged to collaborate and learn from one another so they can become community-builders in their profession welcoming others and their ideas within their shared work spaces.

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Dr. Stefanie R. Sorbet is an associate professor in the department of Elementary, Literacy, and Special Education at the University of Central Arkansas. She currently serves the department as interim department chair. She has over 25 years of experience in both elementary and higher education combined. Dr. Sorbet instructs positive classroom management courses and supervises interns in their field placement. Her research agenda consists of mentoring novice and preservice teachers in classroom management, social and emotional learning, and building community in classroom settings across all disciplines and grade levels. 

References

CASEL (2026). How does SEL support educational equity and excellence? https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/

Hosseinioun, M., Neffke, F., Youn, H., & Zhang, L. T. (2025, August 26). Managing uncertainty: Soft skills matter now more than ever, according to new research. 

Harvard Business Review. hbr.org. (August 26) http//hbr.org/2025/08/soft-skills-matter-now-more-than-ever-according-to-new-research 

Graduate and professional students who aspire to academic careers often tell mentors that they are eager to teach but unsure how to gain experience or show it on a CV or dossier. Because TA opportunities vary across programs and budget cycles, departments and teaching centers can create equitable on-ramps by structuring small, credible experiences that convert directly into evidence. With a few coordinated practices, students can produce citable artifacts and gain developmental teaching experiences that translate cleanly into CV entries, teaching-statement lines, and portfolios or dossiers.  

Start With TAships When Possible

When TA roles are available, they are the strongest scaffold for teaching readiness. Where a TA is the instructor of record, help the student document full-course responsibilities and align outcomes, activities, and assessments. In more limited TA roles, encourage assignments that include planning a discrete lesson, leading a discussion section, refining a grading rubric, and collecting a brief measure of learning. Ask students to secure at least one formal evaluation each term, whether that is a short student feedback form, a faculty observation, or a peer review, and to write a brief reflection on what they learned and what they will change next time. Even a single TA term can yield a syllabus example, lesson plan, a rubric, a summary of feedback, and a concise teaching-statement paragraph. At the same time, acknowledge that TA slots are finite. Students who cannot secure one in a given semester should not be left waiting. Parallel pathways such as guest lecturing, and micro-credentials from teaching centers for example, can allow them to build meaningful evidence while they continue to seek TA roles in a future term. 

Guest Lecture With Intention

When TA options are limited, a focused guest lecture is a practical and credible alternative. Help advisees secure a 30 to 40-minute slot in a course that aligns with their expertise. Ask the student to prepare and deliver a simple lesson plan and presentation, and if time allows, an active learning exercise. At the end of the session, have them collect constructive feedback on an idea or concept from the lesson that went well, and what if anything could be improved. Those pieces become evidence: the plan and presentation show intentional design, and a short summary of student feedback demonstrates attention to student learning. Faculty mentors can make this routine by keeping a short list of upcoming guest-lecture opportunities and sharing a brief observation note focused on clarity and engagement. If part of their typical practices already, departments and teaching centers can maintain a shared list where instructors post upcoming guest-lecture needs and dates.  

Micro-Credentials Through the Teaching Center

Teaching centers already run short, high-value workshops on topics like active learning, inclusive assessment, and AI-informed teaching. Encourage students to register for and complete a teaching center offering and to apply what they learned. Have them write a short reflection that names one practice they will try, where it would fit in a real course or lab context, and how they will check whether it worked. Badges or certificates paired with these reflections become credible evidence of readiness, as they show familiarity with current pedagogy and the ability to translate ideas into implementation.  

Departmental Teaching Groups and Material Redesign

When teaching centers are at capacity with their own programming, departments can create a standing teaching group that advances curriculum and pedagogy while giving students visible, dossier-worthy experiences. Led by one or two faculty members and composed primarily of graduate students, the group can refresh core course syllabi, prompts, rubrics, and LMS shells so they align with outcomes and reflect current policy language on attendance, late work, makeup exams, academic integrity, and responsible AI use. The group can pilot short instructional activities or modules, then demonstrate them at a department brown-bag, including how to make documents more accessible and consistent with UDL principles. Typical outputs can include a revised syllabus packet with transparent rubrics, an accessibility checklist applied to a set of course materials, and a one-page “implementation note” that explains the change, the rationale, and how to assess impact. These artifacts can be included in one’s dossier and can lead to invitations to guest lecture, co-teach a session, or step into a future TA role because faculty will have now seen the students design, align, and present improvements to the program’s materials. If a department is not yet able to convene such a group, individual faculty mentors can facilitate these activities with their advisees. 

Online or Hybrid Teaching Assists

Invite a graduate or professional student to lead a part of an online or hybrid course, such as moderating a weekly discussion thread or contributing to part of a module that includes a short reading set, a short lecture video, or a quick check for understanding. Ask them to plan how they will facilitate authentic engagement with learners in the online environment, and how they would give timely, supportive feedback. After the week, have them write a brief summary of what participation looked like, and what they would adjust in the next cycle. These short assists generate a set of artifacts that demonstrate design, facilitation, and assessment in digital environments. As part of the same effort, departments can invite students to help refresh LMS shells by updating modules, assessments, and rubrics. Teaching centers can provide a starter kit with a captioning “how-to guide,” as well as examples of effective prompts. Taken together, these assists help students show readiness for the kinds of blended and online teaching responsibilities that are now becoming more commonplace across institutions. 

Bringing it Together in the Teaching Statement

Teaching experiences that graduate and professional students can speak to are only part of what makes a statement persuasive. Strong statements also name the theories, philosophies, and evidence-based practices that guide decisions. For example, a student might reference Universal Design for Learning for accessibility, inclusive pedagogy to widen participation, or the Community of Inquiry model to foster presence online. Naming a few of these and then pairing them with a brief example from one’s own course or guest lecture, helps a statement read as scholarly and reflective while staying concrete about what students will experience.  

Make it Routine, Not Ad Hoc

Set a simple timeline with advisees before the term begins. Identify dates/times for likely guest-lecture opportunities, TAships to consider and apply for, and teaching center offerings to register for (such as active learning or inclusive assessment). Schedule several check-ins with advisees (beginning, middle, and end-of-term) for reviewing/revising artifacts that could bolster one’s teaching portfolio, including updates and revisions to syllabi, lesson plans, rubrics, etc. Encourage one formal observation each term, whether from a faculty mentor, a peer, or a brief student feedback form, and help advisees translate results into one or two sentences for their teaching statement. Taken together, these practices create a clear and equitable path to teaching readiness. 

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Marcus L. Johnson, PhD, is a Professor of Educational Psychology in the School of Education at Virginia Tech and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 15). His research focuses on motivation in education, and he contributes to graduate and faculty development, interdisciplinary research, and supports initiatives that advance teaching readiness and educational outreach across disciplines. His work on approach and avoidance goals and conceptual change has been cited in APA’s “Top 20 Principles for Teaching and Learning.” He also serves in mentoring and leadership roles with APA and AERA programs that support early-career scholars and evidence-based teaching. 

Future-ready skills refer to personal, social, and cognitive abilities that enable students to interact effectively with others and navigate real-world situations. Unlike academic or technical knowledge, these skills focus on how students communicate, collaborate, solve problems, and manage their emotions. 

For students, developing these skills is an important part of becoming independent and responsible individuals. They help learner’s express ideas confidently, build meaningful relationships, manage time effectively, and adapt to new learning environments. These abilities play a key role in shaping a student’s personality and preparing them for lifelong success. 

Key Future-Ready Skills Every Student Should Develop

1. Collaboration and Teamwork

Teamwork is an essential ability that students develop through group activities, classroom discussions, sports, and collaborative projects. Working with others teaches students how to listen to different viewpoints, respect diverse opinions, and share responsibilities. 

When students learn to collaborate effectively, they also develop patience, empathy, and mutual respect. These experiences prepare them to work successfully in team environments throughout their academic and professional lives. 

2. Problem-Solving Skills

The ability to analyse situations and find practical solutions is a valuable skill for students. Problem-solving encourages learners to think creatively, evaluate different possibilities, and make thoughtful decisions. 

Students who develop this skill become more confident when facing challenges. Instead of avoiding problems, they learn to approach them with curiosity and determination, turning obstacles into opportunities for learning. 

3. Leadership and Responsibility

Leadership is not only about guiding others—it also involves responsibility, empathy, and effective communication. When students are given opportunities to lead, such as organising events, participating in student councils, or leading group activities, they learn how to inspire and support their peers. 

Developing leadership skills helps students build confidence, make informed decisions, and take initiative in different situations. 

4. Emotional Awareness and Empathy

Understanding emotions—both one’s own and those of others—is an important aspect of personal development. Students who develop emotional awareness are better able to manage stress, remain calm during challenges, and build strong relationships. 

Empathy helps students understand different perspectives and respond to situations with kindness and respect. These qualities contribute to a positive and supportive school environment. 

5. Adaptability and Resilience

In today’s dynamic world, change is constant. Students often encounter new subjects, teachers, technologies, and learning environments. Being adaptable allows them to adjust quickly and remain open to new experiences. 

Resilient students learn from mistakes, accept feedback, and continue striving for improvement. These qualities help them remain confident even when faced with difficulties. 

6. Critical Thinking

Critical thinking encourages students to go beyond memorising information. It involves analysing ideas, questioning assumptions, and evaluating evidence before making decisions. 

When students develop critical thinking skills, they gain a deeper understanding of concepts and become more effective learners. This ability also helps them approach academic tasks and real-life situations with clarity and logic. 

7. Creativity and Innovation

Creativity encourages students to explore ideas, experiment with solutions, and think beyond traditional boundaries. It plays an important role in fields such as science, technology, arts, and entrepreneurship. 

Students who think creatively are often able to approach challenges with fresh perspectives. This skill encourages curiosity, imagination, and innovation, which are essential for future success. 

8. Time Management and Organization

Balancing academic work, extracurricular activities, and personal interests can be challenging for students. Effective time management helps them prioritise tasks, stay organised, and complete responsibilities efficiently. 

Learning to manage time encourages discipline, responsibility, and productivity. It also reduces stress and allows students to maintain a healthy balance between studies and other activities. 

How My School, British International School (BIS), Jaipur, Develops Future-Ready Skills

The development of future-ready skills is integrated into everyday learning. The school believes that education should prepare students not only for examinations but also for life beyond the classroom. Through a balanced approach that combines academics, co-curricular activities, and experiential learning, BIS ensures that students develop confidence, leadership, and strong interpersonal abilities. 

Activity-Based and Experiential Learning

BIS encourages interactive learning methods that go beyond traditional classroom teaching. Through group projects, classroom discussions, presentations, and problem-solving activities, students learn to collaborate, think critically, and express their ideas confidently. These experiences help students develop communication and teamwork skills while making learning more engaging and meaningful. 

Sports and Physical Development

Sports play an important role in developing discipline, teamwork, and resilience among students. At BIS, students actively participate in sports activities that promote physical fitness and encourage healthy competition. Through sports, students learn the values of perseverance, leadership, and cooperation. 

Cultural and Creative Opportunities

The school provides a wide range of cultural activities such as music, dance, art, drama, and literary events. These platforms allow students to explore their creativity, build confidence, and express their talents. Participation in cultural programmes also enhances communication skills and stage confidence. 

Leadership and Responsibility

BIS encourages students to take initiative and develop leadership qualities through opportunities such as student councils, house activities, and collaborative projects. These experiences help students understand responsibility, teamwork, and decision-making. 

Values and Character Development

Along with academic learning, BIS places strong emphasis on values such as respect, integrity, empathy, responsibility, and global citizenship. By nurturing these values, the school aims to develop socially responsible individuals who contribute positively to society. 

Final Thoughts

Future-ready skills are essential for shaping confident, capable, and compassionate individuals. While academic knowledge forms the foundation of education, these skills enable students to communicate effectively, solve problems, work collaboratively, and adapt to changing environments. 

Schools that focus on both academic excellence and personal development help students build a strong foundation for lifelong success. By nurturing these skills, institutions like British International School, Jaipur ensure that learners grow into well-rounded individuals ready to contribute positively to society and thrive in the future. 

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Divya Bhargava is an education professional currently working as an Admission Counsellor at the British International School Jaipur. In their role, they guide prospective families through the admissions process, helping them understand curriculum pathways, school values, and academic expectations. They work closely with parents and students to ensure informed decision-making and a smooth transition into the school community. Their focus is on building strong relationships, supporting student aspirations, and promoting a welcoming, student-centered international learning environment.  

Most people have their own idea about what distance education is. Usually, people understand it to be a way of teaching that is characterized by using technology and the separation of the teacher from the learner. This separation poses specific challenges that are often absent in face-to-face learning environments. Adair and Diaz (2014, 12) point out that “Because learner support provides a foundation for student success, a quality educational experience includes processes and resources that are customized to the needs of the online learner.” Along these lines, we seek to anticipate problems prior to the start of class, design curriculum and activities to encourage active participation, and find ways to establish community and a sense of rapport with each other in the online environment. 

Tailoring the online experience is largely about applying experience and understandings about student performance and anticipating student needs as we prepare to teach and facilitate student success. I’d like to share strategies and practices that I’ve found to be effective with students in the online learning environment, that you may also choose to apply. These can be modified to fit your instructional situation. 

Prior to the Course Beginning

Be proactive. As soon as you see that the course “shell” is loaded by your institution, prepare it for class. Nothing is scarier than the unknown. The more students know in advance, the greater their comfort level. As soon as the class roster is available, send the students a pre-course, welcome email. Include the following in the email or as an attachment: 

• Book information – After introducing yourself and providing contact information, include information about the books needed for the course. Add a link to the college bookstore. Be clear that it is the student’s responsibility to have a textbook prior to the start of class.  

• Course Syllabus – The earlier students get this, the better. The more they know up-front, the smoother the course will go for them, and you. 

• Policy letter – This letter should outline the expectations (e.g., the course entails extensive reading and independent work, academic rigor will be applied, assignments are to be submitted prior to the deadline date). Provide the protocol for requesting permission to submit a late assignment. Outline penalties for submitting unauthorized late work. Include important grading policies.  

• Assignment Matrix – Originally developed to keep me on track – I quickly found the Assignment Matrix to be a great tool for students. Provide the basic information about assignments and their due dates in a one-page, Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Having the assignments listed with their due dates weeks before a course starts, allows students an opportunity to digest exactly what the workload entails. This in turn allows students time to process and plan, lessening anxiety. Some students even get a head start on their assignments!  

During the Course

Garrison et al. (2000, 96) write about teacher presence. The practices associated with teacher presence typically fall to the course instructor. The instructor designs the educational experience by analyzing, judging, and selecting course content, organizing those materials, and presenting them in the form of content delivery, activities, and assessments. The second function, facilitation, may be shared with another instructor or with students. After having taught a course, we know what tasks and assignments students find difficult, what the skill-deficit areas are (e.g., APA formatting), and what supporting resources are needed. This allows for a proactive stance to compensate for those deficit areas by providing students with resources, advance warnings, and other items to assist them. These are delivered via the LMS (leaning management system). This delivery mode may be referred to as “News” or “Announcements” or some other term, depending on the LMS used. They can also be sent on an individual basis, based on student needs.

Listed below are some of the supplemental resources and practices that you may want to incorporate:  

Video Tutorials

Prepare short video tutorials that show students exactly how to accomplish a specific task. I use a user-friendly program, ScreenPal, for this. Two videos I commonly post are on the topics of writing in-text citations and locating quality primary journal articles. 

Templates and Answer Documents

The reasons for creating templates and answer documents are two-fold. For one, you can guide the students as they write papers and complete assignments. I’ve found that usually, providing templates results in higher scores. Secondly, the template is a way to standardize the assessment. This in turn makes scoring student work more objective in nature. Answer documents make it easy for students to record their answers and make it easier for you to score them. Always a plus! 

Examples

I’ve heard teachers debate the pros and cons of providing students with examples my entire professional life. Personally, I like examples. Professionally, I’ve witnessed the clarity and confidence that having examples affords students. Examples provide a concrete model for students to learn from and emulate. I provide examples of what quality discussion posts look like, as well as what poor quality response posts look like. If you’ve noticed that students have struggled with a past assignment, you may want to provide an example of how to complete that assignment. 

Weekly Announcements

At the onset of each academic week, post an announcement for that specific week. Include any additional helpful information and attach templates, rubrics, or other resources as needed, as well as the portion of the Assignment Matrix that pertains to that week.  

Advance Notice

If your experience indicates that a specific assignment is hard for students to understand or complete, post an item in the news forum, well in advance of the assignment due date. Mine start with the subject line “Looking Ahead.” For instance, a week or so prior to the end of a course, send an email reiterating what the last day of the course is. Encourage students to not wait until the final hours of the class to submit their final assignment. Point out that when that is done, there is no time for correcting an assignment or re-submitting the assignment if the student has accidentally submitted the wrong thing. This practice has prevented several of my students from going wrong at the end of the course and obtaining a letter-grade reduction in their final grade. 

Resources

Providing students with pertinent resources provides them with the tools they need. It is important to streamline the resources. Experienced teaches know in general what resources students need. As we work with students in a class, we learn what individual needs are. All posts should be short and concise, but complete. Extraneous posts and information should not be posted because students will often skip an announcement that is too lengthy, repetitive, or unnecessary.   

Fast and Detailed Feedback

We know from Vygotsky’s (1978) work, that to be effective, feedback must be timely and specific. During the first two weeks of class, instead of waiting for all assignments to be completed at the end of the academic week, score student work as it is submitted, and send the feedback to students immediately. Don’t just point out what is incorrect. Be specific about exactly what the error is, show the student the correction, and provide the exact page(s) in the APA manual (if applicable) that discuss it. This practice encourages students to immediately start applying the feedback to subsequent assignments.  

Frequent, Meaningful Communication

Communicate frequently and have high availability. I let students know from that initial email that I am already available and that they can email me. Anything that can be clarified prior to the start of the course is beneficial for everyone. At the first hint of an issue or problem, email a student. I’ve found that most all problems in the online teaching environment can be mitigated or eliminated entirely by good communication. One practice that has proven beneficial is to send all students an email at the end of the second academic week, inquiring about their comfort level and whether they need more clarification or resources. Some instructors find email to be impersonal, though it is my preferred mode of communication. For one, it is easier, faster, and more reliable than phone calls. For another, an email provides an electronic record of communication. This is very helpful when you need to go back and refresh your memory about something. Also, if there is a dispute or issue, you have evidence of your communications with a student. Emails aid and protect the student as well as the instructor. 

Provide Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Pre-Formatted References

I provide six to nine peer-reviewed, recent journal articles that I’ve located on each week’s academic topic(s). I attach these as links in the weekly announcements and paste the pre-formatted references for the articles in the body of the announcement. This practice provides examples of what scholarly, primary source material looks like. Because the references are pre-formatted, it allows the students to focus on the assignment, proper paraphrasing and quoting conventions, and creating correct APA in-text citations. I store all of this on my device and simply retrieve and use it each time I teach the course.  

After the Course

As a student, I’ve had instructors that seemingly just disappeared the minute the class was over! That doesn’t convey caring or connection to the student. In addition to the farewell post sent to the entire class in the course announcements, send each student an individual email and personalize it. Point out something complementary, such as an area that the student has displayed growth or improvement. If their skills are already exemplarily, complement them on their work ethic or submitting assignments on time. There is always something that every student does well or has shown improvement in. Even though they can see it in the LMS, it’s a nice touch to share the student’s final course GPA and letter grade. Comment on something that the student shared in the “Coffee House” forum, such as “Good luck with the new teaching position!” You may want to share your positive feelings about teaching the class or your wish to see the student in future classes. The final email is not just a nicety or matter of professionalism but serves as a bridge to continue the rapport built with a student, in the event you have them in future classes. 

Adair and Diaz (2014, 13) point out that “Quality online teaching requires processes to develop and support faculty skills and abilities to manage the online classroom and provide effective online instruction.” By preparing to teach, and through planning and preparation, we can implement procedures and practices that build and strengthen online relationships and facilitate student success. 

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Dr. Belinda J. Lowman is a retired public-school teacher and online, adjunct instructor for the School of Education at Greenville University.  

References 

Adair, Deborah, and Diaz, Sebastian. “Stakeholders of Quality Assurance in Online Education: Inputs and Outputs.” In Assuring quality in online education: Practices and processes at the teaching, resource, and program levels, edited by Kay Shattuck, 3-17. New York: Stylus Publishing, 2023. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003443124 

Garrison, Randy D., Anderson, Terry, and Archer, Walter. 2000. “Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education.” The Internet and Higher Education, 2 (2-3): 87-105. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1096-7516(00)00016-6 

Vygotsky, Lev. Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological processes. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1978. 

Colleges and universities across the country are moving quickly to embrace artificial intelligence. According to an analysis of sixty-five R1 institutions, 63 percent of them actively encourage the use of generative AI, with many publishing detailed guidance for its classroom integration (McDonald et al., 2025). The implicit promise is that AI will sharpen student thinking, personalize learning, and better prepare graduates for a technology-saturated workforce. 

But a growing body of research tells a more complicated story—one that faculty, instructional designers, and academic leaders should not ignore. 

The Evidence Problem

The assumption driving AI adoption is that it improves learning. Yet the evidence, at best, is inconsistent—and in many cases, points in the opposite direction. 

A Swiss study found a negative correlation between frequent AI tool use and critical thinking: the more students offloaded cognitive work to AI, the weaker their critical thinking became (Gerlich, 2025). Wharton researchers went further. Across multiple experiments, participants accepted AI-generated outputs with little or no scrutiny—a phenomenon they termed “cognitive surrender.” Unlike deliberate cognitive offloading, cognitive surrender involves a wholesale transfer of agency to the machine (Shaw & Nave, 2026). These findings are not isolated: a 2025 meta-analysis of eighteen generative AI studies confirmed that over-reliance on AI tools undermines higher-order thinking skills, including critical analysis and problem-solving (Qu et al., 2025). 

The concern extends beyond AI specifically. Since K–12 schools began adopting laptops and tablets en masse in the early 2000s, IQ scores have fallen in ways that have no historical precedent. International assessments—PISA, TIMSS, and PIRLS—show declining performance correlated with heavier technology use (Horvath, 2026; Rogelberg, 2026). 

Perhaps most striking is a 2025 randomized controlled trial—the gold standard of educational research—in which students who used ChatGPT as a study aid retained significantly less knowledge 45 days after instruction than students who studied without it (Barcaui, 2025). Short-term performance gains masked long-term learning deficits. 

Why AI Shortcuts the Learning Process

Durable learning requires deep cognitive engagement, productive struggle, and repetition. When students use AI to summarize a reading, draft an essay, or guide them through a problem, they may produce polished outputs—but they are not building lasting knowledge or skill. The shortcut bypasses the very processes that create learning. 

Consider a teacher education course. Is it more valuable to ask students to analyze an AI-generated lesson plan, or to write one themselves? The latter demands that students wrestle with real questions: How do I write a clear learning objective? How do I structure this activity for diverse learners? That productive struggle—brainstorming, drafting, revising, justifying—is the learning. AI-generated scaffolding, however well-intentioned, can short-circuit it entirely. As one analogy goes: it’s like taking steroids instead of training at the gym. The whole point is the effort. 

This does not mean AI has no legitimate role in higher education. It means that role must be defined carefully, with student learning—not engagement, efficiency, or career readiness—as the primary criterion. 

A Learning-First Default

Given what the research tells us, faculty should adopt a default of “offline pedagogy”—designing instruction around the conditions known to produce durable learning—and integrate AI only when it can be shown to genuinely support, rather than substitute for, those conditions. Those conditions include: 

1. Building and reinforcing a strong content knowledge base; 

2. Opportunities for deep processing and productive struggle; 

3. Independent and critical thinking; and 

4. Meaningful human interaction. 

The following four questions translate these conditions into a practical decision-making framework. Before integrating AI into any lecture, activity, or assignment, faculty should work through each one. 

Four Questions for Deciding Whether to Use AI

Question 1: Will this AI tool help students use, recall, and demonstrate understanding of core disciplinary content? 

Higher-order thinking is built on a foundation of domain knowledge. Students cannot analyze a lesson plan without understanding what learning objectives and assessments are. They cannot evaluate a scientific argument without knowing the relevant concepts. If an AI tool actively engages students with foundational content—through retrieval practice, targeted feedback, or elaborative questioning—it may be worth integrating. If it simply allows students to bypass that content, it is almost certainly counterproductive. 

Question 2: Will this AI tool require students to apply their learning to a new context? 

Transfer—applying knowledge to a novel situation—is one of the most reliable indicators of genuine understanding. When a student applies principles of lesson design to a new grade level or subject, they are moving information from temporary working memory into more stable long-term knowledge. If an AI tool scaffolds that transfer while preserving cognitive effort, it can be valuable. If it performs the transfer for the student, learning is short-circuited. 

Question 3: Will this AI tool support—not replace—independent, evidence-based reasoning? 

Critical thinking requires students to make judgments and defend them. A student writing a lesson plan must decide how to open the lesson, how to group students, and how to assess understanding—and then justify those decisions with pedagogical reasoning. Any AI integration that substitutes the AI’s judgment for the student’s own undermines this process. The test is simple: after completing the task, can the student articulate—in their own words—why they made the decisions they made? 

Question 4: Will this AI integration preserve meaningful human interaction? 

Peer feedback, collaborative problem-solving, and instructor-to-student (and student-to-student) dialogue do more than support academic learning—they develop the social and intellectual habits that define educated citizens. Human interaction sparks curiosity, broadens perspective, builds trust, and provides the kind of accountability that AI cannot replicate. Before integrating any AI tool, ask whether it complements or competes with these interactions. An AI-enhanced discussion board that replaces peer response with algorithmic feedback may sacrifice more than it gains. 

Proceed with Caution

AI is not going away, and blanket resistance is neither realistic nor necessarily wise. There are genuine use cases where AI can support learning without undermining it. But the pace of adoption in higher education is far outrunning the pace of evidence. Faculty are often caught in the middle—pressured to integrate tools their institutions endorse and their students already use, without clear guidance on whether doing so will help or harm the people they are trying to educate. 

It is also worth remembering that AI developers have profit motives that have nothing to do with improving student learning. The enthusiasm of technology companies should not be mistaken for evidence of pedagogical effectiveness. 

The four questions above will not resolve every instructional dilemma, but they provide a principled starting point. If an AI tool cannot clearly support content knowledge, productive struggle, independent reasoning, and human interaction—the conditions we know produce learning—the default should be to leave it out. The burden of proof belongs to the technology, not to the faculty member who questions it.

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Norman Eng, EdD, is a lecturer at the School of Education, Brooklyn College (CUNY) and founder of EducationXDesign, Inc., which provides instructional training and workshops to higher education faculty. Find out more at NormanEng.org.  

References 

Barcaui, A. (2025). ChatGPT as a cognitive crutch: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial on knowledge retention. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 12, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.102287 

Gerlich, M. (2025). AI tools in society: Impacts on cognitive offloading and the future of critical thinking. Societies, 15(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15010006 

Horvath, J. C. (in press). The digital delusion: How classroom technology harms our kids’ learning—and how to help them thrive again. Penguin Random House. 

McDonald, N., Johri, A., Ali, A., & Hingle Collier, A. (2025). Generative artificial intelligence in higher education: Evidence from an analysis of institutional policies and guidelines. Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans, 3, 100121. 

Qu, X., Sherwood, J., Liu, P., & Aleisa, N. (2025). Generative AI tools in higher education: A meta-analysis of cognitive impact. In Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’25), Yokohama, Japan. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706599.3719841 

Rogelberg, S. (2026, February 21). The U.S. spends $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents. Fortune. https://fortune.com/2026/02/21/laptops-tablets-schools-gen-z-less-cognitively-capable-parents-first-time-cellphone-bans-standardized-test-scores/ 

Shaw, S. D., & Nave, G. (2026). Thinking fast, slow, and artificial: How AI is reshaping human reasoning and the rise of cognitive surrender. Working paper, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6097646