By STEPHANY ANDRADE
According to a survey of 1,250 students across 49 colleges and universities conducted by Inside Higher Ed, almost 75 percent of students believe that their institutions should prepare them to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools effectively. As student interest in AI grows, more instructors have begun to address AI in their teaching.
As a current second-year student here at the University of Pittsburgh, I have had the privilege of experiencing the practices of various professors campuswide. I have worked with professors who have: banned the use of AI; allowed the use of AI with limitations; or promoted the use of AI throughout the course.
Experiencing the various syllabi, policies and pedagogies of different professors has allowed me to note how different approaches to AI can affect the learning experience. Although there is no one best or most correct approach, I have appreciated when professors have embraced AI in their teaching. Therefore, this article aims to provide suggestions on how faculty who are interested in AI can navigate using it in their courses:
Learning how to use AI effectively starts with you, the instructor.
The first step to determining how to address AI in your courses involves learning how to use it yourself. I recommend starting by testing tools like ChatGPT on a day-to-day basis for tasks like creating a schedule based on your to-do list. From there, you can move on to using it for teaching tasks like adapting lesson plans or creating problems or examples to use in class.
Familiarizing yourself with various AI tools and their capabilities and limitations, then experimenting with AI, can help you determine when and how it can be used. It also can give you insights into how your students may already be using these tools.
Resources:
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More Useful Things: AI Resources and Prompt Library by Ethan and Lilach Mollick
Be clear about how students can and cannot use AI. Teach AI use as if no one knows AI.
If you decide to incorporate AI into your courses, it is essential to remember that your students come from different backgrounds. Many may have no experience of using AI and will have had classes with different policies on AI use.
Explain when and how AI is permissible in your class. If you plan to incorporate AI use into learning activities and assignments, teach students how to access AI tools, the basics of AI tool functionality, and how to properly cite work when using the tool. Communicating your expectations and best practices clearly to your students can prevent cases of accidental misuse and academic integrity violations.
Resources: Suggested Syllabus Language from the Teaching Center’s Teaching with Generative AI site
Create activities and assignments that promote the critical use of AI.
To grow your own and your students’ AI skills, consider creating assignments that purposefully promote the use of AI and allow students to explore the tool under your guidance. Start small. For example, you could ask groups students to use AI to generate examples of texts that the class could then critique or respond to together. This can help students learn to review AI output critically. Starting small will also allow you to adapt to your classroom feedback and learn how to use the tool for yourself.
Resources:
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“The TextGenEd: Teaching with Text Generation Technologies Collection,” edited by Pitt faculty member, Annette Vee, Tim Laquintano, and Carly Schnitzler
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“Assignment Makeover in the AI Age” from the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast
Mentor students in the use of AI.
Building a foundational understanding of AI will allow you to mentor students on how to ethically use AI in and out of the classroom. If you use AI as part of a class activity, you can offer students guidance and feedback on their prompts, how to engage in a dialogue with the AI tool to produce better output, and how to evaluate the quality of AI output. Engaging your class in discussion about how they use AI can help you correct potential missteps and can inspire new and creative uses in your classes.
Resources: Promoting Students’ AI Literacy from Oregon State University
Students understand that they will need to become adept at using AI as they prepare for their future careers. Faculty can play a crucial role in helping teach students to be proficient, ethical AI users.
Instructors who want to learn more can find information and workshop recordings on the Teaching Center’s Teaching with Generative AI website. For individualized help, email teaching@pitt.edu to request a teaching consultation. You also can request a co-consultation with me if you would like a student’s perspective or feedback on activities or assessments you have designed.
Stephany Andrade is undergraduate student liaison at the University Center for Teaching and Learning.