Guiding questions

In an age where AI is constantly evolving, it can be difficult for faculty to keep up with ever-changing technology. Regardless, it is essential to transparently explain to students when and how AI might be used in the classroom. But how do we decide which spaces to utilize AI versus which to avoid in order to develop students’ critical thinking skills? How do we thread these conversations throughout the course naturally?

These are just some of the questions that faculty wrestled with during the AI Faculty Intensive Workshop Series, a CDIL faculty development initiative in partnership with the University Council on Teaching (UCT). This workshop series is one of CDIL’s several offerings that aim to support faculty in addressing assignment design in an age of AI. Read more to learn about the important conversations and activities faculty participated in and how this workshop will build a useful foundation for further conversations on assignment design in an age of AI.

Working with faculty from all backgrounds

Over three sessions, faculty in online, hybrid, and extensively digitally-enhanced courses discussed how AI works as a technology, how students are using it at BC, and how this impacts their assignments. With support from members of CDIL’s Instructional Media, Learning Design, and Academic Innovation teams, faculty workshopped their own assignments to explore how they might adapt them for an AI-integrated world.

Attendees came from a variety of departments and began the workshop series by sharing their current perspectives on AI in the classroom and the AI policies and conversations they have with students. Many faculty expressed that they were unsure how to integrate AI conversations into the classroom beyond discouraging use, and several explained that they wanted to balance using AI to make content more engaging while also developing assignments to be more AI-resistant. Most faculty agreed that maintaining a balance between integrating AI while still keeping learning safe is essential. 

Process over product: evaluating the role of AI in assignment design 

To facilitate these conversations, the workshop was broken down into three sessions: Session 1: An AI Overview; Session 2: Assignment Redesign; and Session 3: Sharing Out. 

The first session, co-facilitated by John FitzGibbon, Director of Digital Learning Innovation & AI, and Tim Lindgren, Assistant Director of Design Innovation, focused on understanding the basics of AI, the different forms AI tools take, and how BC students use and view AI based on survey results. It also provided time for faculty to test their assignments with custom chatbots to see how AI-proof they are and reflect on how they might want to respond to these results. 

The second session, co-facilitated by Yuhan Li, Associate Director of Learning Design, and Zoe Pell, Senior Learning Experience Designer, with Jen Walker, Associate Director of Instructional Media, Aaron Walters, Senior Instructional Media Producer, and Noël Ingram, Digital Teaching Programs Administrator, focused on hands-on assignment re-design, centering on the question of what still counts as good evidence of learning. CDIL’s learning designers reviewed enduring principles of effective assignment design, such as emphasizing process over product, authenticity, transparency, and multimodality, and provided concrete examples on how to adapt assignments to better align with an AI-integrated world. The faculty then had time for hands-on work and workshopping to adapt their assignments based on these principles and discuss with each other.

The third session, facilitated by John FitzGibbon, gave faculty an opportunity to share more about their redesign, what areas of support they still needed, and what their plans were for next steps after the workshop series.

Just as participants discussed in the workshop, learning is all about process over product. The value of workshops such as this one lies in the conversations and experimentations. Although faculty won’t necessarily leave with all their questions about AI in the classroom resolved, they will leave equipped with the tools to evaluate the role of AI in their assignment design and to start facilitating conversations about enduring skill sets and strong evidence of learning.

Continuing the conversation

Over and over again, faculty will return to questions of the role of AI in education. The only way to begin to answer this question is through conversation and community. It is an overwhelming question to tackle, but faculty can take this overwhelm into action by

wrestling with these questions together, staying up-to-date on the role of AI in the classroom, and workshopping assignments and curriculum development in community. 

If you’d like to participate in a workshop series like this one, stay tuned for future events. In the meantime, CDIL offers a variety of resources to keep the conversation going. The discussion is only beginning, but we are here to give you the tools to facilitate this important conversation.