This Week for Faculty: Campus Conversations on Teaching with AI Tools

The national and international discussions about generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, like ChatGPT, have been developing at a rapid pace in recent months. While many conversations about these tools raise concerns about assignment design and academic integrity, there is also a strong consensus that AI presents higher education with an exciting opportunity to explore creative ways to leverage it as a tool in teaching and learning!

To help facilitate productive, generative conversations about the potential for AI tools in teaching and learning, the Center for Teaching and Learning is hosting a series of campus conversations to engage the Columbia teaching community in discussion around AI Tools in higher education. 

Each conversation this semester will revolve around a different theme, including: the potential for AI tools to enhance student learning, the function of writing in a world with ChatGPT, considerations for assessment of learning and assignment design when incorporating AI tools, and the importance of human engagement in teaching and learning.

Please join us for any or all of these online discussions as your schedule allows!

Are humans still relevant!? Big questions for higher education and AI tools
Date: Wednesday, April 12
Time: 11:00am–12:00pm

Enhancing student learning with AI and ChatGPT
Date: Wednesday, April 19
Time: 2:00–3:00pm

Assessment and assignment design with AI Tools
Date: Wednesday, April 26
Time: 10:00– 11:00am

Mentoring Monday Conversations

Do you mentor graduate students and/or postdocs at Columbia? Join the CTL and colleagues for the final two Mentoring Monday Conversations online to discuss your mentorship practices, brainstorm solutions to mentoring challenges, and explore what can be learned by reading excerpts from the book Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring: Lean Forward, Learn, Leverage (Fain and Zachary, 2020).

Addressing Challenging Moments
Date: Monday, April 10, 2023 
Time: 12:00–1:00pm

Building Trust and Giving Feedback
Date: Monday, May 1, 2023 
Time: 12:00–1:00pm

CUIMC Anti-Racist Educator Institute (AREI) – For CUIMC Faculty Only

Applications are open for the 2023 cohort of the CUIMC Anti-Racist Educator Institute (AREI) and its associated Community of Practice (ARECP). This program is designed for CUIMC faculty interested in implementing curricular and pedagogical reforms in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The Institute is meant to augment existing CUIMC departmental initiatives. The goal of the ARECP is to convene a community of practice committed to facilitating anti-racist change in the education programs across all schools at CUIMC. ARECP participants engage in training, implement the pilot training in their departments, and bring back their experience to the group to share best practices and plan continuous quality improvement. The application deadline is April 12th at 5pm. Decisions will be emailed the week of April 24th.

Provost’s Conversation on Online Learning (PCoOL) Event

A Conversation with Joel Podolny: From Improving Content to Improving Engagement—20 Years of Lessons Learned

A central question during Joel’s tenure as Dean of the Yale School of Management and then Dean of Apple University was what makes one piece of learning content better than another—better at clarifying a particular point, prompting deeper reflection, or driving a desired change in someone’s behavior. Why is one fact, image, or story better than others that could have been chosen?

When COVID hit, these questions took on added importance and urgency as it became clear that the teacher was becoming decentered in the learning experience, as reflected, of course, in the term remote teaching. And a new question arose: how does one best create collective engagement around learning content when the teacher is not as front and center to drive it? Taken together, these questions ultimately helped shape the vision for the digital platform of the company that he leads today, Honor Education. In this conversation, Dr. Podolny will share the lessons he has learned over the past 20 years addressing these questions.

Date: Thursday, April 6
Time: 4:00–5:30 PM
Location: Butler Library, Room 203

The CTL is here to help!

Office Hours
Join us for office hours via Zoom (or phone) Monday-Friday, 9:00am-5:00pm to have your teaching with instructional technology questions answered.

Consultations
Schedule an in-person or virtual consultation to discuss any teaching, learning, and mentoring needs by emailing ctlfaculty@columbia.edu or email the CTL Learning Designer assigned to your school or department.