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Artificial Intelligence Tools

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Teaching in the age of artificial intelligence:
Practical strategies, recommendations, and samples

The following recommendations are meant to assist in creating a positive learning experience for instructors and students. The provided suggestions and samples should be tailored to meet the specific requirements and goals of individual courses. Faculty members are encouraged to adapt and modify as needed.

Early steps

  1. Use the tools yourself; experiment and test how these AI tools could impact what students will produce in your course. Talk with leadership and colleagues in your department. Is there a department-wide stance on use of these tools? What are your professional networks saying about Artificial Intelligence tools in the context of your industry or discipline?
  2. Revise your academic integrity policy statement in your syllabus. Consider including statements that connect your integrity policy to the ethical standards of a professional industry or network. See below for sample language*.
  3. Begin planning design changes to your course assignments. Remember, small, pointed changes can make a big, positive impact.

Additional recommendations and strategies are provided below. Members of the Oregon State University community have access to an open Canvas community site for examples and sample language.

Additional recommendations

  1. Ensure your students understand expectations: describe the outcomes and/or behaviors that you’re comfortable having students develop using Artificial Intelligence tools from those you are not. Include an expectations discussion or syllabus quiz to confirm student understanding aligns with yours.
  2. Explicitly describe both what is and what is not allowed on every assignment. Include a statement as to why. Provide specific instructions and/or prompts that will be helpful in appropriately using Artificial Intelligence tools, like ChatGPT.
  3. Require process documentation (production of images, video, visual representations, handwritten process documentation, or use of a specific tool) as part of an assignment submission.
  4. Revise assignments to encourage unique aspects/choice of students. Ask students to weave in findings from previous assignments or details from prior discussion assignments. Encourage their agency, interests, and creative pursuits.
  5. Create space for students and you to talk about ethical challenges in higher education and/or invite students to help craft an academic integrity statement/commitment.
  6. Include a required reflection component with major assignments prompting students to describe their process. Alternatively, at key points in the term ask students to describe the challenges of working with new Artificial Intelligence tools and how they worked ethically to produce work in the course.
  7. Include explanation of the importance of learning and knowing foundational skills/concepts. Provide terminology and basic concept quizzes as no/low point opportunities for students to self-assess. Create a companion assignment that asks for their reflection about their performance.
  8. Provide a low-stakes warm-up activity on AI tools allowed/required in your course.
  9. Continue conversations with colleagues, and revise even small aspects of your course regularly. Stay in touch with teaching and learning centers on your campus (Ecampus, Center for Teaching and Learning).

Assignment redesign ideas

For advanced STEM- and Humanities-specific assignment redesign strategies, members of the Oregon State University community are encouraged to see an open Canvas community site.

Making use of AI tools

Limiting use of AI tools

Idea generation

Creative demonstrations of learning: posters, 3D projects, drawings, multimedia

Explain new or confusing concepts

Reflection activities

Precheck assignments for editing and feedback suggestions

Hands-on activities

Debate with an AI text generation tool asking it to take on a particular position

Applying learning to real-world scenarios

Text summaries

Collaborative learning

Refine AI prompts to improve the final output, for accuracy, persuasiveness, etc. rework and add to it

Open-ended discussions that require synthesis of course learning materials

Apply a concept to a new situation

Project-based learning

Ask for counter-arguments to a student-generated thesis or idea

Field trips followed by writing observations

Identify potential risks or causes of failure

Conduct interviews with industry experts

Sample syllabus statements

  • From the Ecampus online course syllabus template: In this course, use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools is…(restricted, allowed, encouraged). Additional details will be shared in course activity and assignment prompts. I encourage you to contact me if you have questions about the use of AI tools so that, together, we can ensure that we are using these tools in productive and ethical ways.

  • Essays, code, and images generated by generative artificial intelligence tools that have been trained on public data, documents, and images may be subject to copyright infringement and any use of such tools to generate these should include a statement that it has been utilized. I will include a prompt or reminder to you on assignments that allow use of AI tools.

  • I expect you to generate your own work in this class. When you submit any kind of work (including projects, exams, quizzes, or discussions), you are asserting that you have generated and written the text unless you indicate otherwise by the use of quotation marks and proper attribution for the source. Submitting content that has been generated by someone other than you, or was created or assisted by a computer application or tool, including artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT is cheating and constitutes a violation of the Student Conduct Code. You may use simple word processing tools to update spelling and grammar in your assignments, but you may not use AI tools to draft your work, even if you edit, revise, or paraphrase it. There may be opportunities for you to use AI tools in this class. Where they exist, I will clearly specify when and in what capacity it is permissible for you to use these tools.

  • There are many skills you will build while gaining proficiency toward the course outcomes for this class. On your learning journey, you will have many tools and resources available to help you skill-build and gain deeper understanding. On all major assignments in this course, guidance will be provided on how to complete the assignment and what tools you are encouraged to use. Specifically, ChatGPT is a potentially powerful tool that some students are aware of and using, while others may not be. I do encourage you to use ChatGPT in this course, but expect that you will do so in line with the guidance provided on assignments. It is a matter of integrity for all students to follow this guidance or ask questions when confused. It’s ok to feel confused, but you need to seek clarity by contacting me. I’d love to chat! This ensures a fair, transparent, and ethical experience for everyone in this class, which I believe we all want.
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