The AI In Education Taskforce
The AI in Education Taskforce is a group of faculty and staff from across the university that serves as a hub for supporting educators at Boise State in responding to AI. We invite you to bookmark the AI in Education site as the best location to find up-to-date information on resources, events, and referrals for considering the role of AI in your courses. The Co-Chairs of the taskforce are Ti Macklin (First Year Writing), Leif Nelson (Learning Technology Solutions), Daniel Sanford (Center for Teaching & Learning), Amy Vecchione (eCampus Center) and Sarah Wilson (Academic Integrity). For all questions and inquiries related to AI, please reach out to the taskforce at ai-group@boisestate.edu.
Artificial Intelligence and Your Fall Courses
As we approach the beginning of the 2023/2024 Academic Year, the landscape of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to shift rapidly in ways that have raised a wide range of questions for all in higher education. As you plan the year ahead, the AI in Education Taskforce encourages all instructors to carefully consider the role AI will play in courses.
Currently, every instructor at Boise State has the academic freedom to determine their own course practices with respect to AI. This may include a range of responses:
- You might opt to tell students not to use AI when completing any work in your course.
- You might decide to accept AI-generated or -influenced work in some assignments and not in others.
- You may determine that the use of AI in one portion of an assignment supports student learning, while its use in another portion harms student learning.
- You might add a course learning outcome about responsible and ethical use of AI within your discipline or field.
Your decisions about the effectiveness of AI in your coursework likely will differ from those of other instructors. Students will encounter divergent approaches to AI across their courses. Accordingly, it is very important to share clear course policies regarding AI in your syllabus and in each assignment or activity instructions.
The taskforce has crafted a sample AI use statement for your syllabus (the link is to a Google Doc which will prompt you to make a copy for your own revision and use). It represents an approach that acknowledges the utility of AI to students while also putting clear boundaries around its use. This sample statement will not necessarily fit every course. We hope it will serve as a starting point as you consider policies and practices for your courses. We encourage you to adapt it, making changes as appropriate, for your own courses. The sample statement also links to two variations you might consider if you are planning to prohibit AI use or encourage AI use.
eCampus Center Offering Faculty Seminar on Teaching and AI
Do you feel like you need to get up to speed on artificial intelligence (AI) before the semester begins? Do you want to learn more about Chat GPT, Google Gemini, or other AI tools and how AI might be used in your course?
Throughout the month of August eCampus Center is offering three sessions of a week-long asynchronous online seminar titled “Preparing to Teach in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”, starting on August 9, 16, and 23. During the seminar faculty will explore how and when instructors might leverage AI for their own use, and how and when students might use AI in their course. Then faculty will use that information to create an AI action plan for their upcoming courses, including drafting syllabus statements and adapting course activities to account for AI. Space is limited, please go to the eCampus Faculty Development Catalog to enroll for one of the week-long asynchronous seminars.
Following the seminar, if faculty would like to talk to someone about their online course and how it might be adapted to account for AI, they are encouraged to request a consultation with someone at the eCampus Center. If faculty are teaching an in-person, hybrid, or remote course, they can request a consultation with someone at the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Learn More about AI in Teaching and Learning: Google Gemini
There will be many opportunities, in the semester and year ahead, to learn more about the challenges and opportunities represented by AI and to consider the ways courses must adapt to them. Look for announcements in upcoming Provost’s Newsletters; note as well that staff from the Center for Teaching & Learning, eCampus Center, Academic Integrity Program, and Learning Technology Solutions are all available for consultations on redesigning courses, assignments, and assessments around the emergence of powerful, freely available AI tools.
One great way to learn more about AI is to experiment with Gemini, Google’s AI Chatbot available at gemini.google.com. Access to Gemini is provided through the university’s use of Google’s Workspace for Education, and it is available for all active faculty and staff of Boise State University, using their campus credentials. Please note that sensitive student information (data at Level I or II of Boise State’s data classification guidelines, per Policy 8060) should not be entered into Gemini. The Help Desk is available for any questions on accessing or using Gemini. More information is available at boisestate.edu/oit/google-gemini/.