Teaching
Generative AI can be used to enhance and support teaching. Several institutions have developed guidelines for teaching with AI. For example, at the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill, The UNC Generative AI Committee concluded that the use of generative AI in teaching should be based on the following principles:
- AI should help you teach, not teach for you. AI can serve as a complementary tool to support instructors, but not as a replacement for human interaction. Instructors should continue to play an active role in teaching and engage directly with students.
- Balance quality and timeliness for grading purposes. If you decide AI is appropriate for grading, make sure to verify that the output generated by AI is accurate and reflects each student’s accomplishments and the feedback you would provide.
- You are responsible for your teaching materials. This means that you are responsible for any mistakes made by AI that are included in your course lectures or materials. Therefore, you should research and verify information before using it. This includes properly attributing ideas and using correct sources.
- The use of AI should be open and documented. Be transparent about your use of AI in your work. This includes informing students about the use of AI in generating course assignments, exam questions, and other course materials. You may also want to demonstrate and document the AI tools you used and how you worked with them.
- Adjust teaching practices to address AI use concerns. Use activities that promote intellectual aims compromised by uncritical AI practices. For example, emphasize in-class generation of knowledge and identify opportunities for reflection and meta-cognition.
- Select AI tools that align with course objectives. Utilize AI tools that align teaching strategies with course objectives, making sure that they facilitate and enhance learning and support students’ needs. Consider ease of use, accessibility, and the potential for personalized learning. Use of AI should be purposeful and beneficial to the learning process, rather than being incorporated merely for its own sake.
- Ensure that AI use is inclusive. Make sure that the AI tools and instructions provided are accessible to all students, including those with disabilities or diverse learning needs.
- Facilitate and encourage critical thinking. Continue to encourage students to think critically, which means questioning information provided by AI tools. Encourage intellectual curiosity and assist students in developing an AI literacy.
- Emphasize human skills. Highlight the importance of human skills such as empathy, creativity, and critical reasoning. Teach students to use AI as a tool and challenge uncritical attempts to ascribe human characteristics to AI.
- Specify AI policies for your course. Develop guidelines for student AI use in your course. Remind students regularly of your AI policies and how they can use AI appropriately in your course.
- Avoid entering confidential or personal data into AI tools. Putting confidential or personal data into these tools exposes you and others to the loss of this information; therefore, do not do so.
- Stay informed. Keep up to date with advancements in AI technology and instructional best practices, including new AI tools and ethical guidelines related to AI in education. Engage in professional development opportunities to enhance your AI integration skills.
Here are some of the many ways that instructors can incorporate generative AI tools into their teaching:
- Write student learning objectives
- Create syllabus outlines
- Write syllabus policy statements, including about use of AI
- Draft lesson plans and outlines
- Write lecture notes and slides
- Create graphics (e.g., tables, graphs, flow charts, and diagrams)
- Generate responses to common student questions or emails
- Create student feedback forms
- Generate feedback comments to create a comment bank for assignments
- Create test questions
- Create multiple-choice question answer options
- Write rubrics for grading
- Write study materials for students
- Generate FAQs with explanations for concepts
- Develop classroom activities and exercises
- Generate discussion prompts or questions for classes
- Generate role playing scenarios and simulations
- Create practice questions for quizzes or tests
- Create sample problems
- Create assignments
- Write assignment instructions
- Create step-by-step guides and checklists for student projects
- Create examples for students to analyze and critique
- Provide high-quality examples as models
Sources
Cornell University Center for Teaching Innovation
Cornell University Committee Report: Generative Artificial Intelligence for Education and Pedagogy
University of Pittsburgh University Center for Teaching and Learning
Generative AI: Teaching with Generative AI
Portland State University OAI+
Generative AI: A Teaching and Learning Primer
Mollick, E., and Mollick, L. (2023)
Student Use Cases for AI
University of North Carolina AI@UNC
Teaching Generative AI Usage Guidance
University of Notre Dame Notre Dame Learning
Potential Uses of Generative AI in the Classroom
Indiana University Teaching.IU
Uses in Teaching and Learning
University of Washington Teaching@UW
AI+Teaching
Northern Michigan University Center for Teaching and Learning
Streamlining Administrative Tasks with Generative AI
Naval Postgraduate School Dudley Knox Library
Generative AI
Research
Instructors can also use generative AI as an aid in their own research. It can help with all stages of research – from conceptualizing an idea to presenting the findings. Here are some examples of ways AI can help with research:
- Find relevant information (e.g., articles, measures, and data bases)
- Summarize written material
- Brainstorm and generating research ideas
- Develop a work plan with a timeline
- Develop and refine research questions
- Create an outline
- Analyze data
- Critique a draft
- Edit and proofread a draft
- Generate titles and abstracts
- Manage citations (i.e., organize references, generate bibliographies, an edit for style)
- Create presentations
Library guides provide information on how to use AI to conduct a literature review for a research project. For example, the Georgetown University Library provides a table of AI tools that can be used to find and summarize information on a topic. The table lists AI powered research tools and large language models, describes what they do, and identifies the underlying data source.
Some universities have developed recommendations and guidelines for Generative AI use in research. They specify acceptable and unacceptable applications and emphasize the need for transparency about its use as well as caution regarding its limitations. Concerns cited involve accuracy or bias, data privacy, and issues involving authorship and intellectual property rights such as copyright. Duke University, for example, provides a list of Do’s and Don’ts for using Generative AI tools in research that emphasizes responsible and ethical use.
Sources
University of Kentucky ADVANCE
Recommendations on the Use of Generative AI in Research and Scholarly Activity
Cornell University Cornell Research & Innovation
Generative AI in Academic Research
Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies
AI in Research
University of Iowa Information Technology Services
Using Artificial Intelligence Tools in Research
Georgetown University Library
Artificial Intelligence (Generative) Resources: AI Tools for Research
Illinois Tech Libraries
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Using AI for Research
Duke University myRESEARCHpath
Using Generative AI tools in research
Harvard University Generative AI@Harvard
Research with generative AI
University of Washington Graduate School
Effective and Responsible Use of AI in Research
Rutgers University Libraries
Artificial Intelligence: Introduction