Teaching in Higher Ed

Janice McCabe shares her research on campus loneliness and college friendship networks on episode 627 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.

Quotes from the episode

The previous surgeon general, among others, have declared a loneliness crisis facing the United States, and, in fact, the highest rates are among young adults.

-Janice McCabe

Many people that I interviewed told me how they felt like everyone else either had more friends than them, had better friends than them, was having more fun than them, along those lines.

-Janice McCabe

Something I hear from students a lot is just this appreciation for taking friendship seriously in students’ lives. And so that’s something that professors, teachers, college administrators can do.

-Janice McCabe

Students often say they don’t really like group projects, but then, that was a place that many of the friendships that formed in classes that I saw formed.

-Janice McCabe

Resources

Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends: How Campuses Shape College Students’ Networks by Janice McCabe

Connecting in College: How Friendship Networks Matter for Academic and Social Success by Janice McCabe

Janice McCabe at Dartmouth

What Friendship Network Type Are You? (PDF)

I Study Friendship. Here’s How You Make Lasting Friends by Janice McCabe, The New York Times

The Friendship Advice Experts Swear By by Catherine Pearson, The New York Times

Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community

Community of Inquiry framework

Propinquity (Wikipedia)

Homophily (Wikipedia)

Peter Felten

Network Weaving as an Antidote to Imposter Syndrome

Dear Nina: Conversations About Friendship podcast

Jeanie Tietjen unpacks trauma-informed practices in higher ed and why naming itself is a form of teaching on episode 626 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.

Quotes from the episode

Naming goes so far back in, even just in literary terms, the importance of naming.

-Jeanie Tietjen

There is still a very nascent and as yet relatively unarticulated understanding of how profoundly trauma, adversity, and violence adversely affect teaching and learning.

-Jeanie Tietjen

Many students have experienced traumas that are situated in educational settings, bullying experiences that are identity-based, that profoundly shape how they feel about the educational setting as a place.

-Jeanie Tietjen

Learning is very vulnerable. It involves being wrong, failing, failing in front of other people.

-Jeanie Tietjen

Resources

Naming the Urgency: The Importance of Trauma-Informed Practices in Community Colleges, by Jeanie Tietjen (chapter)

Trauma Informed Pedagogies: A Guide for Responding to Crisis and Inequality in Higher Education, edited by Phyllis Thompson and Janice Carello

The Institute for Trauma, Adversity, and Resilience in Higher Education

Supporting the Whole Student: Mental Health, Substance Use, and Wellbeing in Higher Education (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine)

What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing, by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey

SAMHSA’s 6 Guiding Principles to a Trauma-Informed Approach (infographic)

Mays Imad

Janice Carello

Bryan Dewsbury

Tracie Addy and PAITE (Personal Assessment of Inclusive Teaching for Effectiveness)

Education Northwest — research on trauma and attendance (Shannon Davidson)

Teaching Solidarity: Critical Race Reading, by Malini Johar Schueller

The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks

Episode 357: Sandie Morgan and Warren Doody on Elizabeth Leonard’s interdisciplinary legacy

Bread and War: A Ukrainian Story of Food, Bravery and Hope, by Felicity Spector

Flour Power (Felicity Spector’s Substack)

The Gap (Ira Glass), video by Daniel Sax on Vimeo

The Gap — PKM in Action, by Bonni Stachowiak

Poll Everywhere

Malini Johar Schueller unpacks critical race reading and the role of discomfort in the classroom on episode 625 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.

Quotes from the episode

Racism is a permanent structural feature of American society, and law alone, as now we have it, cannot deal with racism because racism is also part of law.

-Malini Johar Schueller

Critical race reading takes off from that, and it asks, is there a way of reading… that can awaken us to questions of racial privilege and hierarchy, but without us imagining that we have taken over somebody’s place?

-Malini Johar Schueller

Critical empathy, where you feel for others and you feel the injustice of others, but you also feel differently, you know, differently.

-Malini Johar Schueller

Some level of discomfort is fine for learning, because if learning doesn’t produce any kind of discomfort, you haven’t moved outside your zone of what you already know.

-Malini Johar Schueller

Resources

Teaching Solidarity: Critical Race Reading, by Malini Johar Schueller

Malini Johar Schueller’s personal site

Kimberlé Crenshaw

Patricia Williams

Disparate treatment vs. disparate impact

The 1619 Project

Shoshana Felman

Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire

Teaching to Transgress, by bell hooks

Defy: The Power of Saying No in a World That Demands Yes, by Sunita Sah

Jesse Stommel on Episode 320

Journey through infertility (Pudding, March 2026)

Denise Maduli-Williams shares how to engage learners in online courses on episode 624 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.

Quotes from the episode

The very first thing I saw was the online instructor posting this video where she was roller skating in this roller Derby rink and welcoming us online, and that just changed everything for me.

-Denise Maduli-Williams

When we design with accessibility in mind, we support everyone, all students.

-Denise Maduli-Williams

Students who are quieter, whether it’s synchronous on Zoom or synchronous in person, they have the opportunity to participate when they’re ready and to prepare.

-Denise Maduli-Williams

Resources

Denise Maduli-Williams at San Diego Miramar College

Denise Maduli-Williams on LinkedIn

Supporting ADHD Learners, With Karen Costa (Teaching in Higher Ed Episode 384)

Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education, by Thomas J. Tobin and Kirsten T. Behling

The Joyful Online Teacher: Finding Our Fizz in Asynchronous Classes, by Flower Darby

Rutgers Online Learning Conference (RUOnlineCon)

California Community Colleges Online Network of Educators (@ONE)

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines

Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Program

The Correspondent: A Novel, by Virginia Evans

The Passion Planner

Poll Everywhere

Rebecca Fordon unpacks vibe coding and the eight AI teaching tools she built in a single semester on episode 623 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.

Quotes from the episode

Vibe coding, I think of being able to describe the kind of application or website that you want in just words, a narrative, rather than having to code it, knowing coding language.

-Rebecca Fordon

I think the easiest place to start is in ChatGPT, or Gemini, or Claude Code.

-Rebecca Fordon

Many of my students have not used it for anything related to law school. Until they get into my class, and then they see there actually are some good, legitimate uses.

-Rebecca Fordon

If you want to mess with things on your own, you can really just ask AI: How do I do that? Where should I look?

-Rebecca Fordon

Resources

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: One Semester, Eight Vibe-Coded Teaching Tools

AI Law Librarians

TokenExplorer

NPR’s Driveway Moments

David Colarusso

Lovable

Replit

Video: Bonni Shows Jon Ippolito’s Connect Random Things Exercise

Jon Ippolito’s Connect Random Things Exercise

SongLink (Odesli.co)

Wolf Worm, by T. Kingfisher

Snipd

Artificial Intelligence and Human Legal Reasoning, by Bednar, Cleveland, Erbsen, and Schwarcz