Statement of Need
As an institution, we need to appropriately and effectively respond to the increasing availability of emerging AI tools especially as they challenge conventional practices related to teaching, learning, and work.
Scope
The AI Education Taskforce will develop resources, events, guidelines, and other opportunities for engagement with special attention to faculty and instructors as a target audience. Topics may include teaching practices, activity and curriculum design, and academic integrity as they relate to the presence and use of AI among students and instructors. Further, the group will:
- Coordinate the efforts of educators and administrators from across the university in responding to the challenges & opportunities represented by AI (most urgently AI Writing, but also other uses of AI such as grading tools and image generation)
- Provide educators at Boise State University with information, support, and resources on teaching in the new landscape created by AI tools
- Make recommendations to the Office of the Provost & others on potential changes to university policy
- Consider broader changes to how writing is taught at Boise State University (e.g., a Writing Across the Curriculum program) that makes the university’s response to AI Writing part of the creation of a larger, institution-wide approach to writing
Strategies and Tactics
- Educate campus constituents about these tools and how they may be dealt with by conducting workshops and developing resources.
- Facilitate open and responsive communication, respond to faculty questions, and provide forums for open discussion and sharing of ideas.
- Ensure any pertinent policies are modernized and address these topics. This includes faculty response to academic integrity and academic misconduct (4180), the Student code of conduct (2020), and acceptable technology use.
- Explore potential enterprise technical tools to help address potential misuse of AI tools in coursework, such as tools to detect whether AI-generated content was submitted in assignments, and tools that incorporate AI in responsible and ethical ways as teaching and learning aids.
Guiding Principles
- A unified (or at least coordinated) approach to faculty communication, events, resources, and development will be of benefit to faculty and our collective response to emergent topics, issues, and needs.
- Place an emphasis on academic quality, rigor, and integrity rather than an undue focus on plagiarism, prevention, and punishment.