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Data Disappearing Acts: Navigating Government Misinformation and Finding Reliable Alternatives
- PCC Librarians Roberta Richards and Veronica Vichit-Vadakan discuss the removal and alteration of federal government data in public health and climate science. They introduce PCC Library resources—including Statista and specialized guides—to help faculty and students locate verified statistics, archived records, and trustworthy alternative data. Posted January 30, 2026
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Beyond Bias: What Every Student Needs to Know About Al
- In this presentation, CIS Department Chair Marc Goodman examines how AI engineering, tokenization, and engagement-driven architectures shape model accuracy. Moving beyond basic data bias, he breaks down hallucinations, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and reinforcement learning. Goodman reveals why chatbots prioritize persuasion over objective truth and shares practical strategies to teach critical AI fact-checking skills. Posted January 30, 2026
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Will Al Elevate Student Achievement and Equity or Will Poorly Executed Al Drive Poorer Outcomes and Wider Academic Gaps?
- In an interactive roundtable, Portland Community College presenters explore how AI impacts student achievement, equity, and practice. Treating AI as a socio-technical issue, PCC rejects automated proctoring and plagiarism detection to avoid algorithmic bias. The session emphasizes "backstage learning"—valuing process over final products—alongside compassionate human care teams, data privacy, and ethical institutional governance. Posted January 30, 2026
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Al and Copyright: Legal Realities and Ethical Questions
- Cascade Faculty Librarian Rachel Bridgewater examines the intersection of copyright law and generative AI across four key questions, including output eligibility and training fair use. Highlighting case law, she explains why copyright law often falls short of addressing ethical concerns and why real solutions depend on licensing, labor regulations, and ethical standards. Posted January 30, 2026
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Higher (order) Education: The Role of Colleges in Teaching the Cyborg Student
- As AI evolves into reasoning agents, higher education must reframe technology from an external threat to an extension of student cognition. While AI simplifies synthesis, it risks superficial "informational collages." Consequently, colleges must shift focus toward teaching epistemic hygiene, metacognition, source validation, and complex project design rather than policing tool usage. Posted January 30, 2026
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CTLE Programming for AY26-27
- The Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence fosters collaboration, innovation, and community among PCC faculty. Through conferences, workshops, institutes, and […] Posted September 15, 2025
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Trauma Informed Approaches (TIA) in Higher Education
- Trauma-Informed Approaches (TIA) equip higher education professionals to support student well-being and academic success through a "Regulate, Relate, Reason" framework. Grounded in neurobiology and six core principles—including safety, mutuality, and cultural responsiveness—TIA helps educators address stress, restore executive function, and build supportive campus environments using tools like the Window of Tolerance. Posted September 11, 2025
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AI for the Educators: Module 1: Practical Skills in Crafting Effective Prompts
- This interactive workshop equips higher education faculty with essential prompt engineering skills to streamline teaching workflows and enhance productivity. Educators will learn foundational and advanced techniques—including persona definition, chain-of-thought reasoning, and setting temperature parameters—while gaining hands-on practice with tools like Google Gemini, custom Google Gems, and NotebookLM to create study guides and course materials. Posted September 11, 2025
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Increasing engagement and belonging in Statistics 244
- To maintain student engagement in Statistics 244, instructor Peter Banwarth Carrillo replaced a complex ten-week research project with a biweekly virtual guest speaker series. Featuring data professionals from epidemiology to political polling, the initiative deepened real-world statistical understanding, fostered a sense of belonging, and demystified career pathways without sacrificing core curriculum requirements. Posted September 11, 2025
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Collaborative quizzes as a learning tool that increases students’ sense of belonging
- In content-heavy science courses, two-stage collaborative quizzes transform traditional assessments into active learning opportunities. Students first take an individual multiple-choice quiz (70% of the grade), then immediately work in small groups to submit a consensus answer sheet (30%). This approach lowers test anxiety, boosts retention, promotes group synergy, and builds essential professional soft skills. Posted September 11, 2025
Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence
Transforming Educators into Changemakers