Strategies for Leveraging GAI in Course Assignments

Integrating generative artificial intelligence (GAI) into your course assignments presents both real opportunities and real challenges. Because this technology is increasingly pervasive, modeling appropriate and thoughtful use of GAI tools may offer students examples of effective and ethical usage. No matter how you might integrate GAI, be clear on your learning goals for each assignment and ensure that students recognize the importance of critically analyzing and verifying AI-generated outputs.   

 

Model How to Critically Evaluate Gen AI Outputs

Students may lack the knowledge and expertise to be able to critically evaluate the outputs generative AI produces, which are often stated confidently and fluently even when incorrect. As a subject matter expert, you can model how to assess these outputs and demonstrate why fact-checking, including source verification, is a crucial part of interacting with generative AI. You may also wish to introduce students to lateral reading and other information literacy practices.

 

Beyond fact checking, you might want to have students analyze these outputs thematically. One way you might do this is by asking students to analyze outputs using genre analysis, looking at what kind of conventions, structure, and style the outputs conform to. If you’re interested in this approach, Purdue Online Writing Lab offers a number of guides for genre analysis. 

 

Engage Students in Reflecting on GAI Use

If you allow generative AI use in your class, ask students to reflect on their interactions with it. You might ask them to cite their usage and share links to transcripts. Offering guiding questions for students to respond to can help spur critical thinking, e.g.: 

  • What was helpful in my interactions with GAI?

  • What risks do I incur by interacting with GAI?

  • How might I adjust my approach in future interactions with GAI?

Lisa Rosen, from UChicago’s Committee on Education, asks students to identify their own learning goals for her assignments, in addition to engaging in critical reflection on their GAI use. Refer to the Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning (CCTL)’s Teaching Spotlight on Lisa Rosen for an extended dialogue on how she approaches reflection and GAI in her courses.

 

Explore GAI Personas

One potentially powerful aspect of GAI is its ability to adopt personas assigned by users. A user may request GAI to respond as a Spanish instructor for extended written practice or as a Linux terminal for learning to navigate that operating system as a beginner.  

 

In one assignment in his Humanities Course on “Readings in World Literature,” Hoyt Long, from the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, had his students read and annotate St. Augustine’s Confessions. Then, in a follow-up assignment, students created historical personae using GAI, to further explore historical perspectives on Confessions. For a more detailed discussion and reflection on this assignment, see the CCTL’s Teaching Spotlight on Hoyt Long.

 

Experiment with AI as a Study Partner

Generative AI can be a patient tutor and conversation partner for students looking to extend their learning. Students might prompt generative AI to create extra problem sets, essay prompts, and even flashcards to use as study aids. GAI may offer opportunities for students to get “unstuck” learning a new programming language or overcome other roadblocks by offering instant feedback and personalized guidance. The same caution must be extended as with any use of generative AI: Pay attention for any hallucinations or errors in reasoning.  

 

Share your strategies with ATS

Is there a strategy that you’ve used to engage students with GAI tools that you’d like to share? Get in touch with Academic Technology Solutions so we can learn more from how you and your students are using these tools.