Faculty use of artificial intelligence (AI) varies across campus, but the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) is helping all skill levels with a new course in Canvas. The CELT Generative AI in Education course has three main modules to explain: 1) what generative AI is, 2) challenges it presents and how they can be managed in the classroom, and 3) how faculty can integrate AI in their teaching.
Faculty can self-enroll in the course.
"This is a response to the need we heard from faculty," said CELT course design and senior manager Lesya Hassall. "We have used Canvas to supplement our faculty training before, but this is a self-paced course that is engaging and gives faculty ideas and skills in integrating AI in classes."
Course structure
The course, which takes about two hours to complete, is interactive with videos, questions, quizzes and applicable scenarios to get faculty thinking about how it relates to their work. CELT staff designed the course with faculty input, highlighting innovative Canvas functions to show how AI can benefit students. Some pitfalls of AI use, such as providing incorrect results or making up information, also are discussed.
"Faculty can learn more about AI by interacting and doing activities with the assist of generative AI tools in the course," CELT instructional designer Jamie Niman said. "We focused on demonstrating a variety of quizzing and interactive learning techniques. On top of the videos, text and activities, there are ways to take a deeper dive past surface-level summaries to learn about AI."
Hassall said the course doesn't have to be completed sequentially. Faculty members with a solid AI background can begin in the third module, focusing on experimenting with Microsoft Copilot to build the strongest prompts for the best results.
English associate professor and Jonathan Wickert Professor of Innovation and Student Innovation Center associate director Abram Anders and accounting associate professor and CELT director of instructor development Christine Denison contributed videos to highlight how they use AI in the classroom and its impact. Those shared experiences show the importance of instructors in teaching students how to effectively use AI.
"The course gives faculty a chance to try prompting, post their output and read what other faculty did so they can do some analysis," Denison said. "It helps them think about where they are in the process and where they want to go."
"AI is a very powerful technology but it can never 100% replace a human," Niman said. "When dealing with AI there is always the human-in-the-loop element where we must review and refine what AI produces."
Nieman said CELT will host a virtual discussion before the end of the semester so enrolled faculty can talk about what they learned and ideas they implemented.
Survey
All faculty members received an email survey on Sept. 12 from the Iowa State University Generative Artificial Intelligence Teaching and Learning Committee on the integration of AI on campus. Faculty -- whether they use AI or not -- are asked to respond by Sept. 30. Results will help the university provide AI guidance, tools and resources.
Workshop
Denison and Anders will present at a workshop Sept. 27 (1-2 p.m., 1118 Student Innovation Center) focusing on integrating AI in the classroom and implications of its use in education. It is the first of three workshops in CELT's fall semester AI in teaching series.
Denison said she will talk about teaching students to effectively prompt AI, evaluate the output and integrate it into their own work. Her students provide a disclosure note with every assignment to explain which AI they used, how they used it and affirm they are responsible for the result.
Anders said faculty gathering to talk about AI often leads to new and improved uses.
"Even when you gain an understanding of AI skills, and you have a sense of how you might adapt it in your courses, being in a workshop and working alongside peers gives you examples and allows you to share ideas," he said. "It's all essential to help you put the pieces together to design a learning experience that will be effective for students."
