Potential Uses of Generative AI in the Classroom

There are many generative AI tools available (both free and paid) to faculty and students, but there are three main types most commonly utilized: natural language processing tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini), text-to-image generators (DALL-E, Adobe’s Firefly, Midjourney), and language translators (DeepL, Reverso). These AI tools offer many benefits to teaching and learning.

AI isn’t going anywhere, and incorporating it into the classroom is an increasingly necessary part of preparing students to be responsible and ethical users of AI in the future. We encourage you to experiment with AI tools and consider incorporating them into your courses. Aligning the use of AI tools with your course’s learning objectives can help ensure that the technology is relevant and in support of student learning.

If you have decided to allow students to utilize AI in your class, here are just a few examples of some of the ways both students and faculty can use it to complement their learning experience.

For Students

Improved understanding of complex course materials: Because these systems are typically excellent at summarizing inputted text, students can use generative AI to help them synthesize, summarize, and explain complex reading materials.

Promoting creativity and idea brainstorming: Students can use generative AI tools to inspire and encourage creativity by helping them in their writing, generating topic ideas or writing prompts, and inspiring them to explore other possibilities they may not have thought about before. They can then receive additional support creating outlines for these ideas.

Personalized learning: Students can also use generative AI to develop personalized learning experiences for themselves. They can create their own study guides, sample test questions or problems, and even have a virtual tutor by simulating conversations and receiving instant feedback.

Improved accessibility: Generative AI has the potential to improve accessibility for students with communication impairments, low literacy levels, and those who speak English as a second language. It can provide real-time responses and quick feedback, making learning more accessible and customized.

Check it out: This Canvas site from the University of Sydney—built by students for students—goes more in-depth about how students are using AI to complement their classroom experiences.

AI offers innumerable benefits for complementing in-class instruction. None of these uses, in and of themselves, constitute academic dishonesty. What you consider to be an acceptable use of generative AI in your course is entirely up to you, however; that expectation should be clearly communicated to students in your syllabus and should have a clear pedagogical purpose. Using AI comes with a set of ethical and data privacy concerns that instructors should be mindful of, especially when requiring its use.

If you are a student and have any questions about using AI in your classes, refer to the University’s generative AI guidance for students on the Undergraduate Academic Code of Honor website and ask your instructors to provide more information about acceptable uses of AI.

For Faculty

Efficient content creation: Faculty can use generative AI to streamline the creation of course materials. From creating a syllabus, writing short mini-lectures, creating test questions, and even constructing grading rubrics, it can save a lot of time and effort for faculty. Generative AI can also generate images to enhance course content in Canvas modules or lecture slides for class discussions—essentially aiding faculty in creating engaging and customized learning materials.

Assessment and feedback: Faculty can use generative AI to assess and provide constructive feedback on composition, style, or technical aspects of student work. You should not give any student work to a large language model without student permission, nor should AI-generated feedback be the only feedback offered to students. Instead, you might:

• ask an LLM to generate a comment bank for common errors that you can then adjust to address students’ individual papers
• feed your comments into an LLM to see how it might be improved (to be clearer, more actionable, etc.)
• incorporate activities that help students revise their own writing based on AI-generated edits or feedback

Encourage digital literacy: Too often students use technology without giving much thought to the validity, reliability, and quality of the information they consume. Faculty can use generative AI content as examples to help students to scrutinize and evaluate information and images that may not be accurate and/or misleading.

It's important to note that while generative AI offers numerous benefits, there are also considerations and challenges that faculty should be proactive about, such as protecting data privacy, addressing biases in AI-generated content, maintaining a balance between technology and human interaction in the learning process, and guiding students to use these tools ethically.

In addition, we recommend that faculty continue to learn about these tools and use them in conjunction with their expertise and pedagogical strategies. If you have any questions about using AI in the classroom or would like a demonstration, contact the Teaching & Learning Technologies team.

Check it out: Teaching Tools just launched an AI tool called Brainstorm to help instructors come up with ideas for learning objectives, case studies, and discussion questions. Try it out and schedule a consultation with us to see how you could incorporate it into your teaching.