higher education - Information Matters

April 8, 2026 Jason R. Baron

Same Class, New Approach: Reimagining Information Students’ Use of Gen AI in Formative Writing Assessments

We began teaching an online class about records scandals in 2023, at the very beginning of what would become the gen AI takeover. In 2024, we found that 67 of our 100 students used gen AI on the first essay assignment despite our express prohibition of its use—in any capacity. So, we had to pivot our teaching approach. By 2025, we actually asked students to use gen AI in their work in order to learn from it. Here, we lay out the changes we made and how we’re using gen AI in our writing instruction to build critical thinking skills and AI literacy.

March 3, 2025 Meghan Dowell

The Cost of Clicks: Cultivating Data-Awareness and Ethical LMS Practices in Higher Education

Many educational institutions use learning management systems (LMSs), which may track and analyze a student’s every click, assignment submission, and even location; this also makes them useful for learning analytics, the collection and analysis of student data in the name of supporting learning and teaching. While students may know that LMSs collect their data, they often don’t understand the extent of just how much data these systems collect! Yet, it’s not hard to imagine what the scope of LMS data collection means for student privacy. This imbalance highlights the urgent need for greater transparency and critical data education in the use of educational technologies.