AI: Familiar Territory or Alien World?
Several universities and companies have made online courses about different aspects of AI available at no cost.
Two colleagues at Bentley University host an AI in Academia Podcast where they invite faculty and administrators to discuss topics that shape teaching, learning, and research related to artificial intelligence.
Grush: Those are good resources for educators to check out while they ponder their own AI journeys. Meanwhile, AI is finding its way into higher education…
Frydenberg: Yes, AI is finding its way into higher education teaching and learning! Here are just a few highlights:
Learners can converse with AI tools as if they were chatting with a tutor or their instructor about discipline-specific knowledge, and the output that students receive is often well-structured and specific. The downside is that AI doesn't always know what the student doesn't know, and may suggest solutions using techniques that students haven't learned yet in class, so be careful!
AI is good at creating outlines and summarizing information. Recently I was recording a short video for an online class I'm teaching. After I completed the recording, I pasted the transcript into ChatGPT. I asked ChatGPT to generate an outline with at most five topics and four items under each, that I could use as the basis for a PowerPoint presentation to accompany my video. This gave me something to start with as I edited the slides and added images and diagrams.
AI is also good at creating lesson plans once you identify the topic, time allowed, types of activities to include, and so forth. It's also pretty good at creating discussion questions and prompts, and examples that can be used for teaching. Best results occur when prompts are specific: Tell ChatGPT who you are, who your students are, what the course is, concepts they might know already, and what your objectives are for the lesson.
I've read reports and spoken to some educators who have used AI tools to grade student homework. I'm not quite ready to do that, although I have tried creating a rubric and asking AI tools to evaluate term papers based on it after I graded them first. For the handful that I chose at random, I had AI grade each paper three times. I took the average, and in most cases, the results were within a half-grade level of mine.
Grush: Those are pretty inspiring highlights. But there is so much in those scenarios that you do as a teacher, that I'm thinking probably only you can do. Or, could you be replaced by AI? Assisted, maybe, but certainly not replaced…
Frydenberg: AI tools won't replace teachers, but they will require teachers to think creatively about how they teach in partnership with AI. AI tools can save teachers time in managing and creating course materials and provide students with more individualized learning experiences.
AI tools won't replace teachers, but they will require teachers to think creatively about how they teach in partnership with AI.
Given all that, educators must have the skills to use AI tools effectively and recognize the capabilities that AI provides, as they create new learning experiences for students.
About the Author
Mary Grush is Editor and Conference Program Director, Campus Technology.