ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING AT UD

Created in May 2023, the AI for Teaching and Learning Working Group represents the broad educational landscape of the University. The working group meets monthly to help guide the University of Delaware in the development of innovative practices and sound policies regarding the use of emerging AI tools.

The AI for Teaching and Learning Working Group invites the entire UD community to join the AI Seminar Series.

This series – hosted collaboratively with the Library, Museums and Press – aims to help UD faculty and staff grapple with how AI is changing the nature of teaching and learning in higher education. It will provide opportunities to dive more deeply into the central questions and concerns that arise as faculty have experimented with these tools in their teaching. Seminars will feature lively panel discussions allowing attendees to consider numerous experiences and perspectives. 

Multiple in-person and virtual seminars will provide insight into the broad topics of:

• Does AI enhance or subvert learning?  
  • This theme will explore how faculty have investigated the capabilities of AI tools in discipline-specific contexts, to better understand how it can be effectively deployed and when its use should be limited. We will also explore how generative AI complicates information evaluation and impacts trust in online information

• Centering Students:

  • This theme will focus on what we know about student use of generative AI tools, what we now know about student attitudes and expectations surrounding AI during their time at UD, and how the world of work students are entering  is changing as different fields are exposed to the impacts of AI. We will hear from students and alumni panelists.

Most seminars are hybrid events, and registration is required. When registering, please denote whether you plan to attend virtually or in person. 

Upcoming seminars:

How AI Should Be Used in the Classroom: Bridging the Perception Gap Between Faculty and Students

December 5, 2024 from 10-11am, this virtual panel discussion will explore the differences in how faculty and students perceive and use artificial intelligence. As AI tools become more prevalent, students and faculty may approach their use with varying levels of enthusiasm, comfort, and concern. While some view AI as a tool for enhancing learning and efficiency, others may question its role in education, particularly in terms of academic integrity and teaching effectiveness. Bringing together faculty members and students to explore differing viewpoints, this seminar will:

• Dive into how each group perceives AI, the concerns that exist, and what it takes to find common ground. 
• Discuss how AI can be integrated into the classroom in ways that support both effective teaching and meaningful learning. 
• Create open, collaborative conversation where we’ll share ideas, tackle challenges, and look at how AI can truly enhance education for everyone.

Click here to register

Previous seminars:

No Authors, Hidden Bias, Uncertain Sources: How Generative AI Complicates the Information Ecosystem

November 6, 2024 — this seminar explored the evolving landscape of information in the age of generative AI, highlighting the need to adapt educational strategies for evaluating sources and ethical information use while empowering students to critically assess AI outputs.

Watch the recording of the seminaar here. 

Does AI Enhance or Subvert Learning?

October 8, 2024 — this seminar featured faculty who have experimented with the use of these tools in teaching writing, education content, and computer science. 

Watch the recording of the seminar here.

Large Language Models — Challenges and Opportunities

Sept. 26, 2023 — Large language models (LLM) such as ChatGPT are changing many aspects of our lives, such as how we access online information and how we learn. This talk explored the mystery of LLMs and discussed the challenges and opportunities in this new era of AI.  

Watch the recording of the seminar here

Ethical Considerations in AI

Oct. 19, 2023 — This seminar presented two engaging talks. One delved into ethical and conceptual issues surrounding Generative AI, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), in the context of research misconduct. The second explored the duty of teachers to support students in learning to use AI and to resist the temptation to limit teaching to the tools that happened to be available in the past.

Watch a recording of the seminar here.

Pitfalls and Promise: Generative AI, Disability, and Access

Nov. 6, 2023 — This talk considered the duality of two realities disabled people face in the context of their everyday lives, and specifically, generative AI. The first, considerations of people with disabilities and our experiences are often left out of decision-making processes which produce policy, like those being made within the university and individual classrooms. The second, we are often the "test market" and expert users of many tools used by the masses to gain more physical and electronic access to the world around us, like closed captioning, descriptive audio, voice to text, and other predictive and generative AI tools. 

Watch a recording of the seminar here.

Navigating the AI Landscape: A Framework for Evaluating Assessment Tools in Higher Education

Nov. 29, 2023 — Advanced automated tools, including generative AI open a world of new possibilities for assessing student learning. They can provide immediate, personalized feedback. But determining if a particular tool should be used is complex with many potential questions and decisions. The presenters shared a draft framework that will help faculty make well-informed decisions about the use of AI tools to assess student learning.

Watch a recording of this seminar here. Download the slides here.

AI and the Future of Higher Education

Dec. 7, 2023 — The integration of AI into academia presents unparalleled opportunities for enhancing core university missions of teaching and research, but it also poses significant challenges, from misinformation threats to concerns about equity, intellectual property, and undermining critical thinking. The presenters surveyed the national landscape to see how public research universities are responding to the moment and consider how UD can promote the AI literacy of our students and harness AI's transformative power responsibly.

Watch a recording of this seminar here.

AI and AI – The Intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity

Jan. 17, 2024 — This session addressed how students can use AI while still upholding standards of academic integridy and how faculty can define and encourage appropriate use of AI. This session also covered how faculty may identify inappropriate use of AI as well as the range of response options when AI-assisted academic dishonesty occurs.

Watch a recording of this seminar here.

Ethical Use of AI Tools for Research and Publishing 

Feb. 15, 2024 — New tools for quickly and easily finding research publications are exploding in popularity and are being used extensively on campus right now. AI can be controversial: Is it ethical? Does it replicate bias? Can using it infringe copyright? Sometimes the answers to these questions are complicated. This seminar covered effective ways for thinking through these questions when you are exploring particular tools. 

A video recording of this seminar will be posted here when it becomes available.

AI-Powered Career Advancement: Navigating Career Preparation, Recruitment, and Lifelong Learning

Feb. 28, 2024 — Lifelong learning and career preparedness are crucial in our fast-paced, technology-driven economy. Predictions about job security have rapidly shifted over the past few years, highlighting the importance of adaptability, skill development, critical thinking, and problem-solving for both traditional and emerging roles. This session explored the best practices for coaching students in their use of Generative AI in career exploration and job/internship searching as well as how employers utilize Generative AI for recruitment. The session covered how we can support students to be enterprising in their learning for career exploration and reskilling throughout their lives.

Watch a recording of this session here.

Virtual AI Information and Demo Session for Faculty

April 24 and 29 and May 3, 2024 — This seminar explored the opportunities and challenges of integrating generative AI into your teaching practice. This virtual event highlighted insights gathered throughout an AI seminar series held this past year and featured lightning talks by UD faculty who have firsthand experience implementing these tools into their teaching. 

Watch a recording of Phil Duker, Associate Professor in the School of Music, here. 

Implications of AI on Training the Next Generation of Human Resources Professionals 

May 2, 2024 — Generative AI is profoundly impacting Human Resource (HR) development. Using a framework drawn from the presenter's co-edited book project on this topic, this seminar delved into the evolving role of AI in HR, highlighting both the opportunities and challenges it presents. 

Watch a recording of this seminar here. 

AI Demo and Information Session

May 3, 2024 — Following an introduction by Matt Kinservik, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, a series of lighting talks are offered by Xuan Cai of IT- Academic Technology Services, Ju-a Hwang Assistant Professor of English, and Persephone Braham, Professor of Spanish and Latin American & Iberian Studies. 

Watch a video recording of this seminar here. 

The AI Literacy Tutorial was developed by the UD Library, Museums & Press as a resource for students and faculty to start a conversation about appropriate use of artificial intelligence.

The tutorial provides an overview of how large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT work, the limitations of their use, and ethical considerations for the appropriate use of LLMs. Specifically, it describes hallucinations (i.e., when the LLM generates false information), asks you to consider bias embedded within AI, and the appropriate uses for AI tools.

The tutorial takes about 30-40 minutes to complete.

How can faculty use the tutorial?

• To spur a discussion between you and your students acknowledging AI tools and education

• To help you and your students collaboratively craft a policy about appropriate and inappropriate uses of AI tools within your specific course

• To introduce content about bias

• To introduce content about ethics

How can students use the tutorial?

• To learn the basic concepts of AI

• To increase awareness of the appropriate and inappropriate uses of AI

• To consider bias, ethics and other considerations related to AI

The University of Delaware's AI for Teaching and Learning Working Group is part of a two-year partnership with 19 universities to assess AI’s impact on higher education and evaluate institutions’ readiness to implement the technology.