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Resources for Teaching in the Age of AI

These guidelines are provided in conjunction with Caltech's Guidance on the Use of Generative AI and Large Language Model Tools.

With the arrival of ChatGPT, Claude, GitHub Co-Pilot, and other AI-powered tools, many faculty are wondering about the implications for their teaching. How can I be sure I'm assessing students' actual ability? How can I prepare my students to work in a world fundamentally altered by these tools? How can I use these types of tools to deepen student learning? Here are a few tips as well as additional external resources to review:

  1. Have frequent discussions with your students about learning. Discuss your course learning goals, why they are important, and what students will come away with in your course – if they invest in their own learning. With each class, strive to foster self-reflection on the work of learning. Use exam-wrappers, reflection questions, in-class quick writes, and class discussions to help students discover their own best methods for learning. To students, generative AI may seem like a shortcut to learning. We need to double-down on our attention to student growth as a learner.
  2. Set clear guidelines with your students about what is allowed within the policies of your course. Can your students use ChatGPT (or equivalent) to have questions answered? Is it completely off-limits? Does its use need to be cited in work turned in? Just as Wikipedia changed how students find information, generative AI can act as a readily available source of information (and misinformation) for students. Raise questions in class about how the use of generative AI can take unfair advantage of other members of the community. Consider having the class co-author a policy together after discussion.
  3. Provide incentives for the behaviors and habits that are associated with strong learning — for trying — as well as producing. Offer and assess (and reward) the numerous processes that are needed to be a strong learner in your course: reading, viewing, speaking, improving, reflecting on one's learning, etc. Review your grading criteria and rubrics to make sure you're setting your students up to adopt strong learning strategies.
  4. Be sure to also discuss the limitations and the value of using AI-powered tools, especially as it relates to your field. Are there ways students can use ChatGPT-generated essays to improve their editing and revising skills? How can students verify facts that are possibly misrepresented by these tools? (Currently ChatGPT has a tendency to falsify citations and "facts".) In what ways can students learn to refine and improve work that is AI-generated?
  5. Keep equity in mind. Not every student will want to create an account for a tool that uses their personal information. Likewise, as the cost to use AI-generated content begins to rise, some students may not be able to afford these tools while others may be able to access it easily. It's important to revisit policies and learning goals frequently as the technology evolves rapidly.

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