HxA Event: How to Promote Constructive Disagreement with "Sway"

Event Title:
“How to Promote Constructive Disagreement in Any Course at Any Scale: A Practical Tool for Educators" with Simon Cullen & Nick DiBella

How to Watch:
This online event is FREE, but you need to be a member of Heterodox Academy to register to get the Zoom link:
https://heterodoxacademy.org/events/how-to-promote-constructive-disagreement-in-any-course-at-any-scale-a-practical-tool-for-educators/

Event Topic:
Join us for an interactive HxA members-only workshop with researchers and HxA members Simon Cullen and Nicholas DiBella on July 28th at 4:00-5:15 PM ET. At the workshop, they will showcase Sway, their AI-facilitated student-to-student chat platform developed with HxA and built from the ground up to cultivate HxA values at scale. Sway is supported by grants and available to HxA members and their students at no cost.

Most discourse programs teach students about constructive disagreement; Sway gives them hands-on, structured practice. Every Sway chat features two students and an AI discussion facilitator, named Guide. Guide actively participates to deepen student reasoning, de-escalate tensions, and ensure everyone’s voice is heard.

The platform:

• Allows instructors to upload topic statements for student pairs to discuss
• Matches students with opposing viewpoints into private, one-on-one chats
• Provides real-time suggestions to help students express themselves more constructively
• Quizzes students at the end of every chat to test how well they listened and understood their partner’s reasoning
• Delivers insights about student reasoning to instructors while protecting student privacy

Since Sway launched at HxA two years ago, it has been used by over 11,000 students in classes at over 100 colleges and universities. Nearly all students (91%) report feeling comfortable sharing their sincere views on the platform, feeling respected by their chat partner (93%), and finding it valuable to chat with someone who didn’t share their perspective (83%).

This workshop is designed for faculty, administrators, campus leaders, and student affairs professionals seeking easy-to-use, classroom-tested tools that cultivate open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement. Members will experience the platform firsthand in small breakout sessions.

Join us to learn how faculty across the country are using Sway to give students guided, hands-on practice with constructive disagreement.

About the Speakers:
* Simon Cullen is a visiting Research Professor of Artificial Intelligence & Civil Discourse at The University of North Carolina's School of Civic Life and Leadership. With Nick DiBella, he co-created Sway, an AI-scaffolded chat platform that helps students engage in constructive conversations about difficult—and often controversial—topics. He has a PhD in Philosophy from Princeton.
* Nick DiBella is a post-doctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University as well as the Co-Founder & Chief Technology and Operations Officer at Disagree Wisely, Inc. His work focuses on fostering constructive disagreement and civil discourse through research and education. He has a B.S. in Physics from MIT and a PhD in Philosophy from Stanford.

About the Event Host:
The Heterodox Academy (HxA) is a nonpartisan collaborative of thousands of professors, administrators, and students committed to enhancing the quality of research and education by promoting open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement in institutions of higher learning. It was founded in 2015 by Jonathan Haidt, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, a Georgetown University law professor, and Chris Martin, an Emory University sociologist.

To learn more about their mission, go to https://heterodoxacademy.org/our-mission/