By Robert Shields
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way that we approach faculty work in a modern information society. Soon, AI-assisted work will become the norm within organizations. In fact, many of the tools that we use daily, such as Alexa, Amazon, Netflix, Siri, and others, are already powered by AI (Digital Media Ninja, n.d.; Marr, 2019). But how can we use AI as faculty members?
Below are four (4) ways that AI can help you teach this semester.
- AI can generate assignment instructions. Free AI tools such as Magic School can be used to generate learning content such as case study assignments, essay assignments, and more! These types of tools can generate content to reach specific grade levels, such as university or high school. AI tools can also generate text-based content up to a specific length and can be generated based on specific learning objectives. Users can provide additional context to the AI tool to refine its output (Magic School, n.d.).
- AI can create grading rubrics. Rubrics help instructors provide useful feedback to students, save time, and contribute to more equitable classrooms (Stevens and Levi, 2013). Khanmigo’s “Rubric Generator” is an AI tool available to teachers for free! The tool lets a user design a rubric based on specific criteria and performance levels. Users are guided through the rubric creation process by an AI chat bot – the chat bot develops the rubric by processing natural language provided by the human user (Khanmigo, n.d.)!
- AI can summarize content. AI can help faculty summarize documents to highlight key concepts. Free AI tools such as Quillbot can provide summaries of text up to 1200 words in length. This tool can also provide summaries in paragraph form or even as bullet points. Users can paste text into the interface or upload text within a document (Quillbot, n.d.).
- AI can locate research. Faculty can improve their teaching by staying up to date with the latest research in their fields. AI can help researchers locate articles related to specific topics or research questions. Free AI-powered tools such as Elicit can locate and summarize research articles by searching across more than 125 million papers! The free version of Elicit can provide summaries of four papers at once and can extract main findings, methodology, limitations, and more (Elicit, n.d.)
Go Deeper
AI can also be used to create customized assignments for individual students. For example, an instructor can ask AI to take an existing course assignment and create variations of that assignment to match the interests and/or needs of individual students. AI can also be used to analyze large datasets and literature reviews, provide personalized academic and career guidance, answer queries and provide support via the use of chatbots, and even act as a tutor that provides feedback. AI can also role play using the style/voice of historical or popular figures, such as Albert Einstein or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Bowen & Watson, 2024). AI can also be used to evaluate work based on a rubric, suggest improvements on existing documents, and summarize information (Bowen & Watson, 2024; Kaltura, n.d.).
In summary, AI is an essential piece of the college instructor’s modern toolkit. It can help faculty work smarter and more efficiently.
Did you know that CBU faculty can earn an Integrated AI Educator badge? Attend at least three (3) AI workshops and complete the workshop assignments to earn the micro credential! Go to the TLC Event Center today to sign up!
Contact the Teaching and Learning Center at tlc@calbaptist.edu to brainstorm ways that AI can be used within your course!
References:
Bowen, J.A., & Watson, C.E. (2024). Teaching with AI. John Hopkins University Press.
Digital Media Ninja. (n.d.). 17 best examples of how AI is already used in our everyday life. Retrieved from https://digitalmedianinja.com/blog/17-best-examples-of-how-ai-is-already-used-in-our-everyday-life/
Elicit. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2024, from https://elicit.com/
Kaltura. (n.d.). AI in education. Retrieved from https://corp.kaltura.com/blog/ai-in-education/
Khanmigo. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2024, from https://www.khanmigo.ai/
Magic School. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2024, from https://www.magicschool.ai/
Marr, B. (2019, December 16). The 10 best examples of how AI is already used in our everyday life. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/12/16/the-10-best-examples-of-how-ai-is-already-used-in-our-everyday-life/
QuillBot. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2024, from https://quillbot.com/
Stevens, D. D., and Levi, A. (2013). Introduction to Rubrics. Stylus Publishing.