Ideas and Projects
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EDLI at 2025 Spring TALKS: Sharing Innovations in Teaching and Learning
The EDLI team participated in 2025 Spring TALKS, presenting a range of projects that reflect our commitment to inclusive, evidence-based, and technology-enhanced teaching. Across two days of presentations, EDLI team members shared tools, research findings, and frameworks that support teaching, ranging from midsemester feedback systems to generative AI for neurodivergent support, and a campus-wide view…
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Reframing AI in Higher Education: From Savior to Advocate
Neurodivergent students are enrolling in higher education at increasing rates internationally. Therefore, it is important to understand how new educational innovations can be used to support neurodivergent learners. Once such innovation is artificial intelligence (AI). AI programs have proliferated across higher education in recent years, especially with the advent of ChatGPT. AI tools can be…
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Navigating the IRB Process for Generative AI Research
Figure: The IRB Process for Generative AI Research. This figure may be shared and used freely with proper attribution to the creator. When I embarked on my research project analyzing student surveys using ChatGPT, I knew I needed to go through the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process. My goal was to explore whether ChatGPT—or any…
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EDLI Receives National Science Foundation Grant to Improve Blended Courses
EDLI has received a National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education grant of $400k to support research aiming to improve student learning outcomes and equity in blended online and in-person courses. Co-PIs Dr. Caitlin Kirby, EDLI’s Associate Director of Research, and Dr. Casey Henley, Director of Online Programs for the Neuroscience Program and Assistant Professor,…
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Promoting Instructor and Student Satisfaction in Hyflex and Blended Courses
Many current educators have developed a strong reaction to the term “hyflex”—most often one of horror, an involuntary recoil as they relive forced emergency instruction and the chaotic semesters that followed the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some instructors and institutions have embraced hyflex and other blended modalities for the flexibility they afford students,…
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New Faculty Teaching Resources/Semester Readiness
Overview: Each semester EDLI team members and collaborators have provided support for new instructors on campus and opportunities for consulting in preparation for the semester. Outcomes: Provided support and resources to assist faculty in course preparation and management which included a cross-disciplinary perspective. This project provides faculty with an opportunity for cross-disciplinary perspectives on their…
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Colleges Online Learning Academy (COLA)
Overview: The Colleges Online Learning Academy is a summer teaching fellowship for graduate students that provides a $1,000 stipend and an opportunity for students across the three EDLI colleges to develop their online teaching skills, network with other graduate students, explore research on a teaching topic of interest, and compile a teaching portfolio. Outcomes: We…
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NSF COVID-19 DEI Challenge
Overview: The EDLI team developed a submission to the NSF DEI COVID-19 challenge, detailing EDLI as a key player in improving DEI across MSU through projects in student success, course evaluations, and institutional policy changes. Outcomes: A submission representing Michigan State University to the NSF DEI COVID-19 challenge for our work with undergraduates. EDLI submitted…