» Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom

A Collection of Resources/Ideas Prepared by CETL

 

Use AI with students to develop higher-level thinking skills and encourage academic integrity.

Strategies/examples from Eight Ways to Engage with AI Writers in Higher Education.

  1. Use AI writers as researchers. They can research a topic exhaustively in seconds and compile text for review, along with references for students to follow This material can then inform original and carefully referenced student writing.
  2. Use AI writers to produce text on a given topic for Design assessment tasks that involve this efficient use of AI writers, then critical annotation of the text that is produced.
  3. Use different AI writers to produce different versions of text on the same topic, to compare and evaluate.
  4. Use and attribute AI writers for routine text, for example, blog content. Use discrimination to work out where and why AI text, human text, or hybrid text are appropriate, and give accounts of this thinking.
  5. Use and attribute AI writers for creative text, for example Google’s Verse by Verse requires the user to input a first line, then writes the rest of the poem or provides suggestions based on the work of famous poet muses. This is just one of countless ways that AI can make interventions in creative processes. Students can research the multiple programs and algorithms on offer.
  6. Explore and evaluate the different kinds of AI-based content creators that are appropriate for your discipline.
  7. Research and establish the specific affordances of AI-based content generators for your discipline. For example, how might it be useful to be able to produce text in multiple languages, in seconds? Or create text optimized for search engines?
  8. Explore different ways AI writers and their input can be acknowledged and attributed ethically and appropriately in your discipline. Model effective note-making and record- keeping. Use formative assessment that explicitly involves discussion of the role of AI in given tasks. Discuss how AI could lead to various forms of plagiarism, and how to avoid this.
Some of the key critical questions to ask about any AI text generators are:
  • What was the body of material on which this AI was trained? In other words, what has this AI read and absorbed, to make its “assumptions” of what strings of words make “sense”?
  • Who, and what, has been excluded from this body of material, and therefore, potentially, the text generated?
  • What assumptions, biases and injustices are embedded in this material, and therefore, potentially, in the text generated?
  • Assess process rather than outcome (completed product); scaffold in skills and competencies associated with writing, producing, and creating.

A Sample Class Activity (from Times Higher Education)

Take a given week’s assigned reading. Ask students to discuss it in small groups for five minutes (this works with 10 students, or 600 students; online or face-to-face).

Then introduce them to OpenAI’s GPT-3.5.

Break students into groups of three and invite them to plug the reading’s research question into GPT-3.5 and let it generate an alternative essay. Ask the students to assess the writing in line with the course learning objectives.

They can compare the assigned reading and the AI-generated content. It is a great way to explore nuances. This can be done as an assessment, but it needs to be closely aligned to learning objectives such as: evaluation of evidence; identification of assumptions; review of methodology or lack thereof, etc.

  • Need to help students develop information literacy skills to counter the misinformation that a convincing AI generated text can produce.
  • Minimize opportunities to use AI in assessments by shifting assessment types and practices.
  • We must teach our students what this means in practice; how this changes the process of creating essays.

Ideas below from Times Higher Education (1)

  • AI-generated citations are often fully or partially fake (e.g., the author is real but there was no study published in the year indicated)
  • Text is original, not copied, so it won’t be flagged in plagiarism detection programs
  • AI gives the appearance of knowledge but has no ability to reflect on what they have written or check whether their output is decent, accurate, or honest
  • Need to rethink assessment and harness creative AI for learning
  • If we are setting students assignments that can be answered by AI tools that lack self-awareness, are we really helping students learn?
  • There are many better ways to assess for learning, such as constructive feedback, peer assessment, reflective practice and teach back. In a class on academic writing, transformers could show students different ways to express ideas and structure assignments. A teacher can run a classroom exercise to generate a few assignments on a topic, then get students to critique them and write their own better versions. Writing with creative machines may soon become as natural to students as processing words on a screen.
  • Transformer technology is a step towards a new kind of human-machine creativity where writers and artists collaborate with machines to produce interactive stories, images, films and games. How higher education manages this transition will show how it prospers in a hybrid world of real and artificial experience.

Ideas below from Times Higher Education (2)

  • How can ChatGPT be used to reimagine the way we teach content and deliver assessment? How can we redesign and craft cheat-proof assessments that embrace AI?
  • Learning designers can generate content in collaboration with AI; it enables them to be more efficient in practice and processes; can cut down on build times
  • AI can be used to generate content during the course design process, such as writing the course outline, first draft of course content, scripting and editing videos and podcasts (there are examples/explanations of each in the article)
  • AI can be used as a starting point, with content to be reviewed by SMEs or learning designers; leaves more time for other elements of course design such as interactives
  • Principles: AI should not be able to pass a course, when AI is used it should be attributed, AI should be open and documented (from the Sentient Syllabus Project)

Ideas below from Inside Higher Ed

  • Have students engage in a Socratic debate with AI as a way of thinking through a question and articulating an argument
  • In computer science: AI can deliver codes that work, but may not be easy to edit or understand by a real person; create assignments that distinguish between content and creative content
  • Assignments that require critical thinking; ChatGPT’s ability to craft logical arguments is currently weak; it generates, but does not reflect on accuracy or soundness of arguments
  • Compare to Wikipedia – both offer coherent prose that is prone to errors; adapt assignments to mix use of tech tools with fact-checking
  • Students can be expected to use ChatGPT to produce first drafts that warrant review for accuracy, voice, audience, and integration to the purpose of the writing project
  • Faculty may need to help students learn to mitigate and address the inherent, real-world harm new tech tools may pose

Resources for exploring ChatGPT and higher education (living document, includes readings, videos, podcasts, etc.)

Examples of ChatGPT uses

An exploration of using AI tools with students

ChatGPT and students with disabilities

Will AI tech like ChatGPT improve inclusion for people with communication disability?

AI technologies like ChatGPT may help people with communication disabilities to:

  • Expand on short sentences, saving time and effort
  • Draft or improve texts for emails, instructions, or assignments
  • Suggest scripts to practice or rehearse what to say in social situations
  • Model how to be “more polite” or “more direct” in written communication
  • Practice conversations, including asking and answering questions
  • Correct errors in texts produced for a range of purposes
  • Write a complaint letter, including nuance and outcomes of not taking action
  • Help with making that first approach to a person socially.

Suggestions below for alternate assessments from

Chat GPT Is Here! – 5 Alternative Ways To Assess Your Class!

  1. Oral presentations: Have students give a presentation on a topic they’ve been studying. This allows you to assess their public speaking skills, as well as their understanding of the material.
  2. Group projects: Assign students to work in small groups to complete a project. This allows you to assess their teamwork and collaboration skills, as well as their understanding of the material.
  3. Self-reflection: Have students reflect on their own learning through written or oral reflections. This allows you to assess their metacognitive skills and self-awareness.
  4. Peer assessment: Have students assess the work of their classmates. This allows you to assess their understanding of the material, as well as their ability to give and receive constructive feedback.
  5. Performance-based assessment: Have students demonstrate their understanding through hands-on activities or projects such as science experiments, art projects, or mock-trials. This allows you to assess their understanding of the material, as well as their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Adapting your course for AI

ChatGPT: How to adapt your courses for AI?

  1. Craft course guidelines with AI in mind
  2. Creating growth-oriented and skill-based activities
  3. Using alternative assessment practices

Specific examples of these three strategies are included in the article

Using AI to bridge attainment gaps; ideas below from "How to use ChatGPT to help close the awarding gap"

  1. Rewording concepts and considering different perspectives
  2. Providing applied examples
  3. Comparison of essay structures

Ideas below from: “The nail in the coffin: How AI could be the impetus to reimagine education”

We can design education that is AI-proof, but we will have to do it by designing learning experiences that are so meaningful and beguiling that students wouldn’t want to turn to AI any more than they would want to have AI play a video game for them or eat a delicious meal for them.

  • What if we focused on designing significant learning experiences rather than asking students to witness and record our learning? 
  • What would it look like to incorporate far more autonomy, mastery, and purpose into learning? 
  • Are efficiency and standardization what are most needed now in a world where AI can do so much? 
  • Did you know research suggests that non-experts (such as our students) may be more likely to stumble upon solutions to gnarly problems in our fields than experts (us), especially if we prepare them to be creative problem solvers?

ChatGPT: Understanding the new landscape and short-term solutions

Helpful resources related to ChatGPT

Reflections on the future of education in the face of AI

ChatGPT: A Must-See Before the Semester Begins

Faculty Focus article that includes strategies for designing assignments that AI cannot perform – in class writing, writing alternatives, assigning highly specific topics related to something that occurred in class, writing based on human experience/relies on student perspectives, experiences, and cultural capital

Ideas below from Inside Higher Ed:

  • focus on classroom and human interactions to build relationship and constructive dialogue skills
  • incorporate more in-class assignments that do not require computers to complete
  • develop courses and assignments that are specifically designed for working with GPTs and other AI text generators
  • need to have policies around using AI, including what counts as AI misuse (e.g., it’s not plagiarism, as original content is being created, so what kind of academic misconduct or violation of academic integrity is it?)

Notes below from The Ahead Journal

  • “Students turn to AI because they are increasingly desperate. They frequently have to commute long distances due to housing concerns; they often have to work north of 20 hours per week on top of their studies to make ends meet, and they face a huge assessment burden in college. They’re often over-assessed, with huge bunching of deadlines across modules, and often in rigid assessment formats, not flexible enough to cater for the needs of diverse students.”
  • We need to examine the role of educators in creating conditions for academic integrity to flourish; students and educators need to work together to create a trusting environment where dishonesty is minimized, and fairness and equity are demonstrated.
  • “Perhaps the most important way to promote academic integrity is to highlight the supports available to students who are struggling with their work, introduce more flexible assessment methods, and work across programs to reduce and space out the assessment load. We should also, in my view, be working to create an environment which places far less weight on competitive grading, and far more emphasis on rewarding growing and learning, which disincentivizes cheating.”
  • Higher education institutions should teach their students how to use AI tools to create better work and to build assessments that develop their skills at critically analyzing and applying AI outputs. 

Additional ChatGPT Resources

From Dr. Luke Hobson

  • Focus on the process, not the product - explore open-ended questions to encourage critical thinking, decision-making skills, and emotional intelligence; how can we see the students’ thought process and how they arrive at their decisions? How do we get them to be cognizant of their own thought process – have them document how they arrived at a decision; creating rather than producing (e.g., creating a new business model based on current trends vs just writing about/reporting on what a company is doing already).
  • The 10 Commandments of Instructional Design 

Some earlier explorations of AI and ChatGPT (March 2023)