Experiment with AI
Mollick and Mollick (2023) remind us to be aware of the risks associated with AI use including: confabulation, bias, and privacy risks. As you experiment with AI tools to determine the role it will play in your classroom, keep in mind that you and your students are the “humans in the loop.” Only share information with the AI that you are comfortable disclosing and evaluate the AI output. When incorporating AI into the classroom, ensure that it aligns with your learning objectives, that AI tools are accessible to all students, and that digital literacy skills are taught. Additionally, make sure that expectations and policies around AI are transparently communicated to students.
Leveraging AI for Teaching and Course Design
Experiment with how AI can support you behind the scenes with your teaching. Watch the videos on generating creative assignments, rubrics, and quiz questions. Customize and test out the sample prompts provided and consider how you might leverage AI to support your teaching practices.
Generating Quiz Questions
This video offers several demonstrations on different ways to leverage AI to generate quiz questions. Low-stakes practice quizzes are a great way for students to recall course concepts to reinforce their learning and raise their self-awareness. The feedback they receive from these opportunities can help them correct any misunderstandings and better prepare for other higher-stakes course assessments. Before leveraging AI, instructors should first determine the scope of the quiz and overall learning objectives, as well as gather any relevant course materials they may wish to input. Additionally, they should determine the parameters of the quiz questions (e.g., type(s) of questions, number of questions, level of difficulty, topics to cover).
Prompt 1 (quiz based on a topic): You are teaching a graduate-level course on the science of learning, and students have learned about active learning. Generate a quiz that asks five multiple choice questions and one short answer question to assess students’ understanding of active learning. Be sure to include the answers to each of the questions.
Prompt 2 (quiz based on course reading): Using the attached reading, create a quiz that asks students 5 multiple choice questions. This is for a graduate level course on the science of learning, and the quiz should gauge students’ understanding of the text. Be sure to include an answer key.
Prompt 3 (alternative version of quiz based on previous quiz): Generate a new practice quiz based on the original quiz content provided. The practice quiz should include questions that are similar in difficulty and cover the same topics. Provide the correct answers for each question.
Generating Rubrics
This video offers a demonstration of generating rubrics using AI. Rubrics are a great assessment tool that can help make explicit an assignment’s goals and expectations, while also helping students understand the key elements of an assignment. To be most effective and beneficial to you and your students in the feedback and grading process, rubrics should align with the assessment learning objectives of a course or assignment. In order to generate a rubric that will be useful to your course context, it is important to specify the course or assignment learning objectives and share as much information about the assignment as possible. It’s also important to provide as much detail about the structure and parameters of the rubric as possible.
Prompt: Using the course learning outcomes and assignment description shared previously, create a rubric for a first-year writing course at a university. The rubric should be in table form with the first column being the list of criteria and the first row being a sequence of assessment values reading “Excellent”, “Good,” “Developing”, and “Not Present”. Write a one-sentence description of the quality of each criterion that will be given for that assessment value category. Also note the predicted level of quality that an AI can reach for each criterion.”
Leveraging AI for Learning Activities
Experiment with how to incorporate AI into learning experiences for your students. Watch the videos on critiquing AI output, getting feedback, and applying learning through role-play. Customize and test out the sample prompts provided and consider how you might leverage AI to support your students’ learning.
Applying Learning through Role-Play
This video offers a demonstration on how to guide students in using AI to role-play. Practicing the knowledge or skills learned is an important part of students’ learning in order to develop expertise in their discipline, because it targets varying levels of cognitive processes, such as applying, analyzing, and evaluating. By engaging in role-playing with AI, students can go beyond simple recalling and put their newly acquired knowledge or skills to use in a simulated interaction. Sample prompt used in the video is provided below and can be adapted for each course context.
Prompt: The goal of this interaction is for us to role-play with each other. You will play the role of a [insert AI role] engaging in [insert AI action]. I will play the role of a [insert student role] engaging in [insert student action]. Suggest 3 topics of possible scenarios and have me pick 1 topic. Each of the scenarios should be different. Here are examples of three potential scenarios: [list desired scenario topics] Only play your role. Do not play my role. Wait for me to respond after your turn.
Critiquing AI Output
This video offers a demonstration on how to guide students in critiquing AI’s output. By critiquing an output generated by AI, students can see for themselves what AI can do and cannot do and develop metacognitive skills to critically evaluate AI-generated content. When doing so, students engage in higher cognitive processes like applying and analyzing. They identify biases and inconsistencies in the AI-generated output and make judgments about the quality, credibility, and relevance of it. Instructors can make space in class for students to practice these important skills and discuss afterward. Sample prompt used in the video is provided below and can be adapted for each course context.
Prompt: Write a five-sentence summary of the following text. Be sure to highlight the main point of the article.
Text to summarize: [insert text of your choice]
Getting Feedback
This video offers a demonstration on how to guide students in using AI to receive feedback on written work. Timely, goal-directed, and targeted feedback is critical to student learning and the writing process. Students draft and revise based on the feedback received to improve their written work. Integrating AI-generated feedback into the writing process can create an additional layer of a scaffolded learning experience where multiple sources of feedback are available, such as you, the instructor, a peer, and in this case, AI. Sample prompt used in the video is provided below and can be adapted for each course context.
Prompt: You are a tutor for college students. Provide me with feedback on my essay on [insert essay topic]. I need feedback specifically on [insert specific part of essay], which explains [insert details]. The purpose of this writing is [insert details]. When giving feedback, use the following assessment criteria to tailor your feedback. Guide me to improve the text. Ask me questions for further consideration and reflection on how to improve my writing. Do not improve it yourself; only give feedback.
Assessment criteria:
[insert assessment criteria]
Draft to provide feedback on:
[insert draft]
Resources on Prompting AI
- AI for Education Prompt Library
- Knowledge Base of CUIT Emerging Technologies
- OpenAI Educator FAQ
- Prompts included in Teaching with AI available at https://teachingnaked.com/prompts/
Prompts from Mollick & Mollick
- Mollick, Ethan R. and Mollick, Lilach, Assigning AI: Seven Approaches for Students, with Prompts (September 23, 2023). The Wharton School Research Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4475995 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4475995
- Mollick, Ethan R. and Mollick, Lilach, Using AI to Implement Effective Teaching Strategies in Classrooms: Five Strategies, Including Prompts (March 17, 2023). The Wharton School Research Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4391243 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4391243