This Week for Faculty: Staying in the loop—Leveraging AI for teaching and learning
Inclusive moves in the age of AI
When it comes to AI in your course, you are the “human in the loop.” You decide how to use it to meet your teaching goals and course learning objectives. To thoughtfully integrate AI into your teaching and your students’ learning, lean into pedagogical practices that support all learners—draw on the principles of inclusive teaching. Learn more in the Guide for Inclusive Teaching at Columbia.
Below are a few tips to consider as you bring AI into your classroom.
- Transparently communicate your AI course policy and your expectations. Include your course AI policy in your syllabus as it aligns with your school, department and/or the University’s Generative AI policy. Explore open source examples of syllabi policies for AI generative tools for inspiration. Share your rationale for your policy as it relates to student learning and how learning works. Learn more about designing an inclusive syllabus. Be transparent about your expectations, tell students the extent to which they can use AI, for what aspects of their course work, and how they should acknowledge their use of AI.
- Design learning that leverages AI with accessibility in mind. Make sure that the AI tools you select for students to use in activities or on assignments are accessible to students. Recognize that paying for a subscription may be a barrier to students’ full engagement and learning in your course. Learn more about accessibility in teaching and learning. Consider how you might leverage AI to make course materials accessible to your students (e.g., leverage AI to generate alt-text for images used).
- Teach students the skills they will need to be successful in your course and share resources. Ask students about their experience using AI tools and which tools they have used. Use this information to meet students where they are. Guide students on how to leverage AI for learning, and provide resources on prompt engineering and support as they develop their AI literacy skills.
Learn together! Explore AI for teaching and learning with us
At the CTL, we have been experimenting with AI and learning along with you about what is possible when it comes to leveraging AI for teaching and learning. We are excited to continue our exploration with you into the upcoming semester. We hope that you will engage in our live offerings listed below, explore our related on-demand resources, and connect with us during office hours or through scheduled consultation.
Join the CTL for upcoming sessions
AI Institute for Teaching and Learning
September 17, 10:00am – 4:00pm, in-person, Butler Library
Join the CTL to explore how you might leverage ChatGPT for your teaching and learning goals! This 1-day institute offers sessions around several pressing AI topics in teaching and learning, including AI literacy, and leveraging AI for your teaching and course design, and for learning activities.
Participants will have an opportunity to learn more about AI literacy, and how they might foster both their own and their students’; experiment with ChatGPT to meet teaching and course design needs (e.g., developing activities to meet a specific learning objective, designing rubrics), and to design learning activities that engage students.
Join a single session to meet your needs, or join us for the full day—CTL staff will reach out to registered participants to confirm the sessions they will participate in.
Faculty Book Discussion Group: Teaching with AI
Are you curious how you might leverage AI in your teaching and course design? Have you been considering the role AI might play in your course assignments and activities? Join the CTL for a discussion of José Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson’s new book Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning, where we will discuss these questions and more!
You will join colleagues across three 60-minute sessions organized around the book’s thematic framing. In addition to discussing the book itself, you will have an opportunity to experiment with some of the ideas proposed in the book, as well as discuss your own course materials in relation to AI.
Session Dates and Reading Outline
Sessions occur 3:00 – 4:00pm, hybrid format (participants can attend in-person or online)
- September 26; Part I: Thinking with AI (Chapters 1-4)
- October 24; Part II: Teaching with AI (Chapters 5-8)
- November 21; Part III: Learning with AI (Chapters 9-12, Epilogue)
Demonstration videos: Leveraging AI for teaching and learning
Looking to experiment with AI for teaching and learning? Watch the CTL’s video playlist to view ChatGPT in action and explore sample prompts to adapt for your own course context.
This video series provides examples of ways to leverage AI for teaching, course design, and learning activities that engage students in developing AI literacy skills. Each video includes a demonstration using ChatGPT-4o. The prompts used in each demonstration are shared in the video descriptions.
New resource: Learning through writing in the age of AI
Writing activities, whether low- or high-stakes in nature, are a valuable learning tool for students. Despite the presence and availability of generative AI, there are a number of ways for instructors to engage their students in meaningful and impactful writing activities that are specific and contextualized to their discipline. Explore the resource and find strategies to integrate into your courses.
The CTL is here to help you get ready for Fall 2024!
Virtual 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.
*In-person Office Hours: August 19 through September 20, 9:00am-5:00pm*
Stop by 212 Butler Library for in-person support to help you get your courses ready for Fall 2024! CTL Learning Designers can assist you with setting up your CourseWorks sites, making your CourseWorks sites more accessible, and help you integrate other Columbia-supported instructional technologies.
In-person support is always available by appointment! To schedule an appointment, contact the CTL at ColumbiaCTL@columbia.edu.