The supportive model for GAI use in courses encourages a student-centered, inquiry-driven, and constructivist approach in which GAI is not merely a tool for efficiency, but a platform for learning, exploration, and creativity. It prioritizes engaging students actively in the learning process and preparing them for a future in which GAI will be an integral part of their lives.

When desired learning outcomes can be achieved with the use of GAI, the supportive model encourages faculty and students to learn from and with each other as we all learn how to navigate GAI tools effectively and responsibly. It requires a commitment from faculty to partner with students as we learn the tools and how they can be used and misused on the assignments and activities in our courses. Embracing a learner’s mindset alongside our students allows us a unique, authentic opportunity to model learning from and with our students and to partner with them in meaningful ways to reimagine aspects of our courses.

Taking first steps #

1. Integrate academic integrity education into your course. Establish a course-wide framework for integrating academic integrity instruction. This is vital to obtaining student valuation for following the rules that you establish in your course for GAI use. Consult CITL resources for integrating academic integrity in your teaching.
2. Understand your starting point. Ask your students how they are using AI and what they hope to learn about AI tools in your course. You can ask these questions via formal or informal conversations, with an anonymous survey, or using email or communication tools in the LMS.
3. Engage students in setting learning goals and expectations. Task your class to collaborate on a course learning outcome related to GAI technology as well as a course policy for expectations about ethical usage of GAI in the course. This approach encourages a heightened sense of ownership, resulting in increased motivation for learning and cultivates both critical thinking and decision making. 
4. Help students become GAI literate. Students and faculty should understand the basic principles of GAI, how GAI tools function, and how they can be harnessed for educational and professional purposes. Students should be aware of ethical considerations and potential risks of using GAI tools so they can develop their own principles about GAI use. Teaching students to use GAI responsibly, ethically, and effectively requires us to model our learning of the same.
5. Teach students how to craft prompts and evaluate GAI outputs. Being able to use GAI to elevate output and productivity is rapidly becoming a necessary job skill in many professions, so learning how to craft and manipulate prompts to achieve the desired output and effectively connect speaker, audience, and content is important. Emotional intelligence, perspective taking, critical thinking, contextual understanding, and discernment are required for crafting effective prompts. Similarly, close-reading and ability to validate factual content are critical skills necessary for honing, evaluation, and modification of GAI generated outputs. Those who get and keep the jobs of the future are those who can improve upon the raw output of GAI tools.
6. Teach students GAI citation practices. Students should be able to discern when and how to cite GAI tools in their work. Collaborating with colleagues and the library on modules or sessions on GAI citation can help us share the workload and ensure that students are well-versed on these issues via a consistent message across campus.

Adapted from Teaching with Artificial Intelligence, Presented by the Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching & Learning at Auburn University Module 5 Support Student Use of AI.

If you are interested in taking this course, visit the CITL website

References and Resources: #

Biggio Center for Enhancement of Teaching & Learning at Auburn University  Teaching with Artificial Intelligence, Module 5 Support Student Use of AI. UWSP Faculty. Enroll in this course through CITL.

Bowen. AJ. And C.E. Watson, (2024) Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning.  Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

McDonald, N., Johri, A., Ali, A., & Hingle, A. (2024). Generative artificial intelligence in higher education: Evidence from an analysis of institutional policies and guidelines (arXiv:2402.01659). arXiv. 

Cengage, (2023) 8 Ways to Prevent Students From Cheating With AI

Kelly, K.J. 2023. Teaching Actual Student Writing in an AI World, Inside Higher Education, January 18, 2023.