Designed for Learning

For better or worse, much of the talk about AI’s impact on the purposes and processes of an education continues to focus on cheating: Are students outsourcing their work, and their learning, to tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini? Some high-profile stories have gone so far as to suggest cheating is so rampant that the whole college system is basically collapsing around us.
This month, we’re revisiting our most popular episode to date, a conversation with Tricia Bertram Gallant, coauthor of the 2025 book The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI.
Tricia helps us put the cheating claims into context, providing insights into the deeper questions that we should be asking about academic dishonesty and integrity and sharing pedagogical strategies for adapting to AI’s widespread availability. 
Key Topics Discussed:
Why students cheat (spoiler: the reasons aren’t new)
The role of “neutralizing,” or moral justifications, in allowing people to view cheating as bad in the abstract but not in their current situation
Not putting the burden to intuit the purpose of an assignment on students
How AI has changed cheating, but not why students do it
Experimenting with AI tools so you can create guardrails for students—and why doing so doesn’t mean you think less of them as people
Strategies for communicating effectively with students about generative AI
Rethinking when, why, and how writing is assigned, including the benefits of having students complete some of that work in the classroom
The potential of pairing written exams with oral assessments—which it turns out students often appreciate
How Tricia suggests instructors react when suspecting a student has cheated
Guest Bio: Tricia Bertram Gallant is the director of the Academic Integrity Office and Triton Testing Center at the University of California San Diego. President emeritus of the International Center for Academic Integrity, she has more than 20 years of experience as an academic integrity researcher, author, teacher, and practitioner.

Her fifth book, The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI, which she co-authored with David Rettinger, was published in 2025. It is part of the Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving in Higher Ed Series at the University of Oklahoma Press edited by Designed for Learning host Jim Lang and Michelle Miller.
Resources Mentioned:
Book: The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI (University of Oklahoma Press)
Tricia’s Podcast and Contact Info: theoppositeofcheating.com
Notre Dame Learning’s Lab for AI in Teaching and Learning (LAITL)
Related Designed for Learning Episode: Navigating AI’s Evolving Role in Teaching and Learning
Notre Dame’s Undergraduate Academic Code of Honor
Episode Transcript
*Note: This episode was originally released in July 2025.
Designed for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn and subscribe to our newsletter.

It’s something that sounds so basic it’s easy to overlook how daunting it can be:
Learning and remembering student names.
This month, we’re going back to our very first episode (and one of our most popular ones), a conversation with cognitive psychologist and author Michelle D. Miller about why mastering names isn’t simply a memory exercise—it’s a step toward creating a welcoming, inclusive classroom environment.
Key Topics Discussed:
The science behind why names are uniquely difficult to remember
The importance of knowing students’ names for fostering connection and inclusivity
Michelle’s four-step strategy to improve name recall: Attend, Say, Associate, Retrieve
The role of attention and retrieval in reinforcing memory
Practical tips for large and small classes, including the use of name tents and group activities
How learning names enhances engagement and classroom participation
Guest Bio: Michelle D. Miller is a professor of psychological sciences and President’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow at Northern Arizona University. Originally trained in cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, and neuroscience, she now focuses mainly on using the findings of these fields to help faculty choose and use educational technology and design engaging, effective college courses. Her latest book, A Teacher’s Guide to Learning Student Names: Why You Should, Why It’s Hard, How You Can, offers practical, research-backed strategies for educators looking to build a sense of connection with their students.

Resources Mentioned:
Book: A Teacher’s Guide to Learning Student Names: Why You Should, Why It’s Hard, How You Can (University of Oklahoma Press)
Michelle’s R3 Substack Newsletter
Michelle’s LinkedIn
Episode Transcript
*Note: This episode was originally released in January 2025.
Designed for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn and subscribe to our newsletter.

For better or worse, the educational theory that seems to have permeated American education more than any other has been the notion of learning styles. Although the definition can vary, the most popular version of the idea argues that people can be categorized as visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learners.
From its earliest origins, though, critics have underscored the very thin and tangled research line that supported the learning styles framework, and in recent years cognitive psychologists have tried to toll the death knell of this approach—without much success. Something about the broader idea of learning styles seems so appealing or persuasive that it continues to shape the thinking of many classroom teachers and parents as well as our own self-descriptions.
Thomas Fallace of William Paterson University has written a book titled You Are Not a Kinesthetic Learner: The Troubled History of the Learning Style Idea, tracing the theory from its early origins through a half-century of teaching and thinking about education.
He talks with us about whether learning styles actually exist, whether the concept has helped or harmed students, and—if learning styles don’t exist—whether we should just abandon the idea once and for all.
Key Topics Discussed:
Cold War psychologist Herman Witkin’s experiments to test whether people could tell they were seated upright in a tilted room and the unlikely link between those studies and the idea of learning styles
The problematic application of the learning styles idea over time, often emerging out of the efforts of well-intentioned people trying to improve educational outcomes—and in fact succeeding in some cases
The vagaries of the “kinesthetic learner” label and how it’s been applied disproportionately to Black and Hispanic students, those with special needs, and English-language learners
Why the idea of learning styles has been so popular and persistent
Why the danger comes from labelling students as one kind of learner or another, not from varying the modalities in which they engage with course content
Drawing on the history of research on learning styles as we think about the role of AI-assisted learning
Guest Bio: Thomas Fallace is a professor of education and director of the master’s in secondary education program at William Paterson University. His research focuses largely on curriculum history and the history of ideas in schools, and he is the author of five books, most recently You Are Not a Kinesthetic Learner: The Troubled History of the Learning Style Idea.
Resources Mentioned:
Thomas’s Book: You Are Not a Kinesthetic Learner: The Troubled History of the Learning Style Idea (The University of Chicago Press)
Episode Transcript
Designed for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn and subscribe to our newsletter.

Faculty who teach online know that it comes with distinct benefits, with the ability to reach learners who might not otherwise have access to your course prominent among them.
But as meaningful as that is, the logistical challenges online teaching can present means we don’t necessarily think of it as a “joyful” exercise, particularly in those courses with limited live interaction between instructor and students.
An author and longtime advocate for online teaching, Flower Darby has written a new book titled The Joyful Online Teacher: Finding Our Fizz in Asynchronous Classes. It has much to offer anyone teaching in the online modality, whether your course is entirely on-demand or features regular live sessions.
Key Topics Discussed:
The turning point with a student that reshaped Flower’s approach to online teaching
Drawing on positive psychology’s PERMA theory of well-being to create a better online learning environment
Why being a “joyful” teacher entails something different than surface-level happiness
The importance of introducing energy to and generating energy in online classrooms
The impact instructors can have on students by doing simple things like knowing their names and genuinely responding to what they’ve said
Why Flower believes instructors bringing their full selves into their asynchronous classes is the most effective way to counter unethical uses of AI
Finding creative ways to connect with students and lean into what gives you joy as a teacher to improve their experience and your own
Guest Bio: Flower Darby is an associate director of the Teaching for Learning Center at the University of Missouri, an author, and a keynote speaker. She’s taught in higher ed for more than 30 years in subjects ranging from psychology to jazz dance. Her latest book is The Joyful Online Teacher: Finding Our Fizz in Asynchronous Classes, which is part of the Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving in Higher Ed Series at the University of Oklahoma Press edited by Designed for Learning host Jim Lang and Michelle Miller.
Resources Mentioned:
Flower’s New Book: The Joyful Online Teacher: Finding Our Fizz in Asynchronous Classes (University of Oklahoma Press)
PERMA Theory of Well-Being
Sarah Rose Cavanagh’s Book: The Spark of Learning (West Virginia University Press)
Flower’s Website
Flower’s LinkedIn
Episode Transcript
Designed for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn and subscribe to our newsletter.

American higher education has always stood out for its strong commitment to general education courses, or gen ed, the premise being that undergraduates should not necessarily jump directly into a major but instead have the room to learn and explore a variety of fields before choosing a particular path.
With that principled purpose comes a practical teaching challenge: Most students enroll in a gen ed course to fulfill a curricular requirement, not because they actively chose to take that class.
So how do teachers make the best possible case for a required course? And how do they make it a good experience for the students who may never return to the subject when the semester ends?
A professor at Boston College and regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine, Carlo Rotella has written a book that follows 33 students through his own general education course and explores answers to questions like these.
Key Topics Discussed:
A description of the required literature course Carlo teaches at Boston College and why he chose to write about it
How he uses the first day of class to attempt to overcome students’ skepticism
Leading with the utility of the course, even when you as the instructor believe in the subject’s inherent beauty
The distinct value to students of coming together to participate in a classroom with peers and an instructor and why that value only continues to grow as technology advances
Strategies for getting students to participate, including working with those who aren’t as comfortable speaking during class
Carlo’s approach to managing the flow of discussions, why he doesn’t fear silence, and thinking of what goes on in the classroom as “the main event”
Guest Bio: Carlo Rotella is a professor of English, journalism, and American studies at Boston College. He writes regularly for The New York Times Magazine, and his work has appeared in a number of other outlets, including The New Yorker, Harper’s, and The Best American Essays. He has written books about cities, boxing, blues, and literature and film, among other subjects; his latest, What Can I Get Out of This? Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics, was named a Forbes Best Higher Education Book of 2025.
Resources Mentioned:
Carlo’s New Book: What Can I Get Out of This? Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics (University of California Press)
Episode Transcript
Designed for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn and subscribe to our newsletter.