The introduction you just read was generated using ChatGPT. When tasked with writing an article about AI and how it’s being used (and avoided) on campus, I had no clue how it worked or where to begin. What better way to dive in than to dabble with it? As a writer, I’ve been skeptical about using generative AI. Would it be any good? Is it considered plagiarism? Would my job eventually become obsolete? With the increased uses and advances in AI, will it become more difficult to distinguish what is real versus fake? I think many of us share similar concerns. Perhaps the more we know about AI and how it can be used, the more we can embrace this growing technology (or at least become a little less hesitant). I’ll admit, I was pleasantly surprised by the introductory text generated above, but I do think there’s something to be said for “garbage in, garbage out,” and that my detailed prompts yielded the output I was wanting. Next, I needed to find out more about how AI is being addressed in our classrooms. I spoke with Andrew Stafford, Ph.D., assistant professor of French and francophone studies and associate provost for teaching excellence, who is part of the College’s AI working group and has led several discussions on the topic. He said there’s a general hesitation among faculty with using AI. “From the pedagogical side, we need to have a baseline for students of an understanding of what generative AI is, and then instructors can decide if they are going to use it or try to monitor/limit it.” Stafford shared that Inside Higher Ed conducted a nationwide survey that showed 60 percent of employers are expecting graduates to have experience with AI, yet only 20 percent of faculty have a basic understanding of it. “We need to incorporate AI in some aspect of our students’ academic careers so that they will be competitive candidates on the job market. My goal is to create a First Year Seminar for an AI module and create an AI assessment scale to be used across campus.” Mary Kate O’Donnell, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology, and Emily Wilson, Ph.D., assistant professor of astrophysics, independently began incorporating AI assignments into their curricula two years ago. In Spring 2024, the two co-presented “ChatGPT in the Classroom” to colleagues as part of their Lycoming Innovations in Teaching with Technology grant projects involving ChatGPT and how they developed assignments using generative AI policies. O’Donnell said she was aware of a general misunderstanding of generative AI chatbots’ capabilities. “It felt like there was confusion between a language model that produces persuasive and effective humansounding writing and the sci-fi notion of an all-knowing artificial intelligence that can solve the world’s problems.” She wanted to give students a chance to try out some ethical uses of ChatGPT and to give them some exposure to areas where it fails, giving them an appropriate amount of skepticism about what AI should or shouldn’t be used for. In Wilson’s Life on Mars class, her favorite exercise was an adaptation of something done in a prior class. “Students spent a period sketching their dream Martian colony, complete with everything we had discussed that was necessary for human survival (including psychosocial needs). Students then described the scene to an AI image generator to see if AI could be as creative as they were,” said Wilson. “The most educational part of this exercise was that AI would include completely impossible scenarios — like outdoor gardens on Mars — that students would acknowledge with a laugh. This allowed for some great discussion about the efficacy of generative AI, and I believe allowed students to feel ‘smarter’ than AI.” I THINK IT’S IMPORTANT THAT WE EDUCATE OUR STUDENTS ABOUT HOW TO ETHICALLY USE AI... 19 www.lycoming.edu
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