Teaching with AI
As we continue to learn more about Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), the implications for teaching are innumerable. This page is intended to provide faculty with ideas and inspiration for how GenAI can assist in creating personalized, engaging and impactful learning experiences for students. This page is divided into topics pertinent to teaching and learning including course design, lesson planning, question generation, assignment prompt construction, rubric creation, and examples of assignments that encourage student use of GenAI.
Note: The most popular free GenAI tools include Google Gemini (formerly Bard) and ChatGPT. All the tools mentioned here were free at the time of publication. While a specific tool may be referenced in the resources below, please keep in mind that the tools can be used interchangeably and are often identified based on user preference.
Two ways in which GenAI can positively impact your course design and development processes and procedures include: (1) the generation of learning outcomes and objectives and (2) the generation of course content, assessments/activities, and rubrics.
First, the generation of learning outcomes and objectives can be difficult, particularly without a deep background in education. GenAI can be used to help streamline the process of writing clear, concise, and measurable objectives.
Video: Learning Objectives in ChatGPT - Dr. Kimberlee Everson, School of Leadership and Professional Studies
Second, the generation of ideas for course content, assessments/activities, and rubrics can be exceptionally laborious and isolating. Technology such as the Blackboard Artificial Intelligence (AI) Design Assistant can provide you with everything from ideas and topics for module creation and assignment/discussion/journal prompt generation to test question generation. Drawing only from the content you have in your Blackboard course, which could be as simple as a course title or as much as a fully developed course, the Design Assistant is a great brainstorming tool in the course design process. If you have questions about how to use the (AI) Design assistant, please contact the CITL.
Video: Introducing the AI Design Assistant for Blackboard Learn - Anthology
GenAI tools can also provide you with ideas for lesson planning including everything from a class outline to specific activities.
Video: Create a Lesson Plan with ChatGPT – Dr. Kimberlee Everson, School of Leadership and Professional Studies
Video: Create Learning Activities from Objectives – Dr. Kimberlee Everson, School of Leadership and Professional Studies
Video: Refine an In-Class Activity with Gen AI – Dr. Will Perry, School of Leadership and Professional Studies
While assessment question generation can be done with the Blackboard AI Design Assistant, other GenAI tools can also be used to help you to develop assessment questions and test banks quickly.
Video: Generate Assessment Questions with GenAI – Dr. Jeremy Logsdon, School of Teacher Education
Video: Generate Questions from Documents with ChatPDF – Dr. Jeremy Logsdon, School of Teacher Education
In addition to being able to use GenAI tools, including Blackboard’s AI Design Assistant to help develop assignment prompts, GenAI tools can also help us to refine our current assignments that may have led to student confusion or poor student submissions due to a lack of understanding.
Video: Revise Assignment Prompts with ChatGPT - Dr. Will Perry, School of Leadership and Professional Studies
Rubrics can be time consuming and difficult to write. GenAI Tools and Blackboard AI Design Assistant can help you to create rubrics in a short amount of time. All GenAI Tools provide you with the ability to specify formatting and assessment areas to ensure that the rubric appropriately aligns with your assignment and learning outcomes.
Video: Create a Rubric with ChatGPT – Dr. Kimberlee Everson, School of Leadership and Professional Studies
To help you envision what an assignment utilizing GenAI might entail, members of the CITL Generative AI Community of Practice, have given their permission to share their assignments as an example for how other faculty could integrate GenAI into their assignments. The format of these assignmentsis modeled after the TILT Higher EdTemplate (Transparency in Learning and Teaching project) to help provide clarity and consistency in the examples. Additionally, research shows that this assignment design format leads to increased success for all students, with larger gains made by historically underserved students. For more information about TILT Higher Ed and the research conducted, visit the project homepage.
In the words of Gemini, “Remember, GenAI is a powerful tool, but effectiveness lies in your vision and implementation. Let's work together to harness its potential and personalize the learning experience for every student!”
Acknowledgement: Unless otherwise noted, the links and resources have been created by members of the 2023 CITL Generative AI Community of Practice.
Some of the links on this page may require additional software to view.