Tips for Integrating AI into your Course
Not sure if or how to incorporate AI into your course? Here are a few tips for creating assignments, learning outcomes, and/or assessments that integrate AI in ways that are fair and meaningful to students.
Navigate your options: First, review this flow chart from the Center of Teaching and Learning (CTL) to help you navigate the use of GenAI in your courses.
Clearly define the learning outcomes for your AI assignments. Be specific about the knowledge and skills you want students to acquire. Transparency in these outcomes provides a roadmap for students. Take a look at the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL's) guidance and crafting Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) in your course.
Model the appropriate way to use AI apps with you students, including how AI can and can't be used for an assignment.
Syllabus Statements: Make sure you communicate to your students how they can and cannot use AI.
- The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) has provided sample syllabus statements.
- Lance Eaton at College Unbound has helped compile a crowdsourced online repository of syllabus statements written by instructors at other institutions of higher education.
Revisiting Bloom: If you use Bloom's Taxonomy to generate vocabulary for creating assignments and assessing student learning, take a look at an adapted Bloom's Taxonomy pyramid developed by Oregon State that accounts for GenAI.
Think strategically. The thoughtful integration of a diverse array of AI tools into the curriculum involves strategic decision-making. Instructors should select tools purposefully, aligning with the goal of empowering students to innovate, deepen their understanding, and generate creative ideas. Consider the assignment’s complexity and desired outcomes when integrating AI tools, ensuring they enhance the learning experience.
Use a rubric: The TCEA has created a useful rubric for assessing the right AI tools for a class or assignment.
AI is Everywhere. As AI becomes more ubiquitous -- embedded in digital assistants, search engines, messaging apps, online shopping, research databases, productivity software, and more -- adapt and plan for your plans accordingly.
► See the Tool Comparison section of this guide for more resources.
Career Connections: It is important that students learn now about how AI can navigate their future and solve real world problems. The classroom offers an excellent space to add structure the exploration of its uses, both positive and negative.
Transform AI assignments into creative playgrounds. By encouraging experimentation and play, students can uncover unexpected applications of AI, fostering curiosity and innovation beyond initial expectations.
Example assignment:
- Ask students to research how AI will change their major. How will jobs change for students with degrees in certain majors? This could be an excellent opportunity for faculty to discuss their experiences as career academics and how AI has changed their work.
- For more assignment ideas, explore 101 Creative Ideas to use in AI Education, including #54 "It’s about the journey, not the destination" and #60 "Enhancing employability with AI-driven authentic assessments."
According to AI expert Ethan Mollick, PhD, it takes around 10 hours of use to become proficient with GenAI or other innovative AI apps. Before employing in assignments, or prohibiting use, make sure you put in the time to understand the tool as a user.
Video: How to Use AI in Teaching & Research for Higher Ed
AI Detection
Many instructors opt to use AI Detection tools for student assignments, and many colleges and universities (including UGA) provide instructors with some sort of AI or plagiarism checking options. However, there is an ongoing discussion in higher education about their weaknesses and risks. For example:
- Detectors can yield both false negatives and false positives, which can result in tagging a student paper as written by AI when it wasn't.
- If your native language isn't English, these tools will often tag your writing as written by AI (Liang et al., 2023).
- And while many studies advocate for the use of text-matching software like Turnitin (Hayden et al., 2021), some researchers have argued that these tools erode trust with students (Williams, 2007).
Academic Integrity expert Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, who does not advocate for their use, has recommended a set of ethical principles for instructors who decide to use AI Detection tools.
In their ChatGPT Guidance for Instructors, the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) discusses the limitations of these detectors.
Here is a list of AI detection tools:
Additional discussions on the efficacy and ethics of AI Detection tools.:
Professors Cautious of Tools to Detect AI-Generated Writing - Inside Higher Ed
How Hard Can It Be? Testing the Dependability of AI Detection Tools - Times Higher Education
Nobody wins in a academic integrity arms race - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Making ChatGPT detectors part of our education system prioritizes surveillance over trust - George Veletsianos, professor of education at Royal Roads University
What to do if you are falsely accused of cheating with AI - Dr. Lydon Walker, YouTube
Vanderbilt University's Guidance on AI Detection and Why We’re Disabling Turnitin’s AI Detector
AI Detectors Don’t Work. Here’s What to Do Instead - MIT Sloan Teaching & Learning Technologies
