This fall (2024), USask is launching a set of comprehensive (currently provisional) principles and guidelines on the use of AI by researchers, students, faculty, and support services. The guidelines share specific guidance and resources tailored to the act of teaching, learning, research and administration on campus.
Educators are making intentional use of Microsoft Bing Copilot, ChatGPT, and other forms of GenAI in their teaching and assessment. Strategies are being shared about acceptable use across disciplinary communities. This page aims to offer guidance, suggestions, and resources to help you intentionally engage with GenAI tools within your teaching.
New to teaching with GenAI tools?
As an instructor encountering or seriously exploring GenAI for the first time, you could benefit from completing the new module titled "Understanding Generative AI" in the Academic Integrity Tutorial. This is a student-focused resource, but it explores widely applicable concepts related to GenAI use. The module takes about 45 mins. The entire tutorial is about 3 hours.
Other helpful introductory educator resources:
- What Large Language/Generative AI tools are and how they work - Short video, Wharton School
- Talking about Generative AI – A Guide for Educators. An overview of the technology and implications and applications for teaching - PDF booklet, Sidney I. Dobrin, Broadview Press,
- Using AI to make teaching easier & more impactful - Blog post, Ethan Mollick
- Writing Help: ChatGPT and Other GenAI Writing Tools - Library Guide, USask Library
Using GenAI Tools to Support Your Teaching
Student use of GenAI Tools
ChatGPT is currently the most common GenAI tool, but it is important to recognize that there are thousands of tools available and under development. GenAI tools are also becoming increasingly integrated into many of our everyday software tools, including tools used by students.
It is important to communicate with students your expectations around the use of GenAI within your course. These expectations should be communicated within the syllabus, but also in class with students. These articles may assist you in determining and articulating your expectations:
- Make your “ChatGPT” and other artificial intelligence expectations clear
- Determining levels of acceptable GenAI use
- 10 Guidelines for assessment practice in a GenAI environment
To ensure your students understand how to use GenAI ethically and responsibly, you could have them complete the module, Understanding Generative AI within the Academic Integrity Tutorial.
You can also design and implement activities that require students to use GenAI tools. This enriches the student learning experience and prepares them for the future workforce. For example, you could have students evaluate the output generated by a GenAI tool. This activity would help them develop their critical thinking skills and demonstrate their understanding of the subject matter, as they would need to judge the validity, reliability, and bias of the generated content. Moreover, these tasks would expose students to the benefits and challenges of using AI tools in their academic and professional domains.
If you are instructing students to use GenAI tools, try to avoid the use of specific tools that require students to create accounts or otherwise provide personal information. If students are required to create an account, please use a tool that is listed in the A-Z Tool List as Approved for Academic Use, or work through the process to Request a New LTE Tool, prior to any student use.
Support
Building a community of practice and engaging in workshops and conversations about GenAI in teaching and learning can be valuable. Visit the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning (GMCTL) courses and workshops page to learn about upcoming professional development sessions on teaching and learning with GenAI.
The following people and groups can be contacted for additional guidance:
- Teaching with GenAI - Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning
- Academic Integrity - Academic Integrity Strategist, Susan Bens
- Copyright information - Copyright Coordinator
- Privacy information - Legal Counsel, Access and Privacy Officer, Rayelle Johnston