Generative AI in Teaching

Lead by Shaun Foster, CTL Faculty Fellow, Academic Affairs; School of Design, CAD

This synchronous online teaching circle will explore how AI tools can streamline administrative tasks, personalize learning experiences, and enhance instructional quality and engagement. In our explorations we will:

• Investigate adaptive learning technologies that tailor educational content to individual student needs and learning styles
• Utilize AI to create interactive and immersive learning experiences that keep students engaged
• Leverage AI tools to aid in the creation of educational materials, such as lecture notes, presentations, and multimedia content
• Streamline administrative tasks such as scheduling, student tracking, and communication using AI
• Use AI to analyze student performance data and provide insights to enhance teaching methods and course design
• Incorporate AI into curriculum design to ensure that courses are up to date with current technological advancements and industry needs

Each meeting will involve a mixture of group activities, including:

• Virtual “hands-on workshops” for participants to explore AI tools and share their experiences
• Discussions of a specific subtopic, starting with a short introduction to seed the conversation
• Opportunities for participants to provide examples from their own teaching practices and share resources

We will meet via Zoom from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on seven Fridays--September 6 and 20, October 4 and 18, November 1 and 15, and December 6--during the Fall semester. If you are interested in joining this circle, email Shaun Foster.

Led by Keith Weber, Management Information Systems, SCB

This circle will investigate how our teaching of software tools and methodologies might evolve as generative AI (genAI) is adopted in contemporary organizations. We will consider how genAI might transform the environment for us as teachers, for our students as learners, and for our graduates as workers.

While we acknowledge the importance of genAI's potential risks, public policy, and ethical implications, this circle will not focus on these issues. Similarly, topics such as plagiarism, exam integrity, or the use of genAI for instruction preparation, delivery, or grading will not be the center of our discussions. These vital subjects are explored in other academic and professional forums and discussing them here would divert our focus. This circle supplements, rather than replaces, those discussions.

This circle is designed for instructors preparing students for technological roles impacted by genAI, particularly (but not limited to) those involving systems design and development, programming, engineering, math, statistics, analytics, data science, economics, finance, digital marketing, and content creation. We will forecast, discuss, and analyze:

How our students can better understand genAI and integrate it into their work

• How this new level of abstraction will eliminate or elevate job roles
• Emerging software tools, approaches, and methodologies in our fields
• Student insights on genAI and methods to stimulate those discussions
•  Preparing students to prevent potential displacement by genAI

We will meet using Zoom five times during the Fall semester. We will poll participants to determine the most suitable meeting times. Each session will feature a subtopic and begin with a short introduction to seed the discussion. Participants are encouraged, though not required, to provide examples from their own teaching. 

The schedule for this Teaching Circle is listed below. Meetings will take place on Zoom, and attendance is not required for all meetings. 

• Friday October 6 from 10-11 am
• Friday October 20 from 10-11 am
• Friday November 3 from 10-11 am
• Friday November 17 from 10-11 am
• Friday December 1 from 10-11 am

If you would like to join this circle, email Keith Weber to obtain the Zoom meeting link.

Hosted by Amanda Bao, Civil Engineering Technology and Environmental Management and Safety, CET; and co-hosted by Garret Arcoraci, School of Information, GCIS

Generative AI has been rapidly spread into higher education. While the power of generative AI initially caused some panic about academic integrity, the positive impact of generative AI on STEM fields has received more and more attention. For example, generative AI has been adopted in the construction industry to provide technical project support and best practices, as well as offering job training and education. 

The rapid growth and implementation of technology and AI in higher education is the trend, and there is no going back. It is important for higher education instructors in the AI era to effectively implement generative AI tools to enhance students’ learning experience. In this teaching circle, participants will share and discuss their experiences and teaching practices with generative AI-powered tools, either success stories or lessons learned. 

This teaching circle aims to foster discussions and collaborations on generative AI in all of RIT’s STEM fields, explore potential opportunities for grant applications, and summarize effective practices in teaching and learning with generative AI.

The schedule for this Teaching Circle is listed below. Meetings will take place in-person on campus. 

• Friday, September 8, 12:00-12:50pm
• Friday, September 22, 12:00-12:50pm
• Friday, October 6, 12:00-12:50pm
• Friday, November 3, 12:00-12:50pm
• Friday, November 17, 12:00-12:50pm
• Friday, December 1, 12:00-12:50pm

If you would like to join this circle, email Amanda Bao to obtain location information.

Join the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) for a faculty panel on the impact of generative artificial intelligence on teaching and learning in higher education. Faculty members from various disciplines will address a range of topics including preparing students for generative AI in the workplace, incorporating generative AI into courses, and the use of generative AI to help accelerate and improve the teaching process.

Panelists:

• Neil Hair (moderator), Center for Teaching and Learning, and Saunders College of Business
• Liz Lawley, Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences
• Juan Noguera, College of Arts and Design
• Esa Rantanen, College of Liberal Arts
• Jennifer Schneider, Eugene Fram Chair, and College of Engineering Technology
• Phil Shaw, University Writing Program

View Event Recording
(requires RIT Authentication

They symposium explored a range of opportunities and challenges that generative artificial intelligence presents in higher education. Jeffrey Allan, Director of Nazareth University’s Institute for Responsible Technology delivered a keynote address on How Generative AI Will Transform Teaching, Learning, and Research. Afterwards, attendees participated in collaborative exercises with colleagues discussion the following:

• Benefits to Educators
• Benefits to Students
• Challenges & Responsible Use

The results of this work are currently being evaluated and key findings will be released to the RIT Community in the near future.

In this workshop, participants will experience how artificial intelligence tools can help students, writers, and researchers extend their cognition (Clark & Chalmers, 1998). Through on-screen demonstrations and a series of scaffolded group activities using ChatGPT, teams will partially complete 3 stages of an inquiry-based research process common to assignments in Writing Intensive (WI) courses:

1. developing research questions, 
2. analyzing sources, and 
3. acknowledging sources of information. 

There will be opportunities for evaluating the benefits and challenges of using AI in research writing, as well as a concluding discussion about the personal, professional, and institutional ethics of AI-assisted writing and research as a scholarly method. Participants should bring their laptops in order to fully participate in the activities. Click here to register for this workshop. 

Led by Phil Shaw, Senior Lecturer in the University Writing Program, Academic Affairs & Faculty Fellow for Gateway Course Student Success, Center for Teaching and Learning.

Join us for an open discussion on the influence of generative AI on teaching methods to determine what support faculty need, as well as topics for future programming. 

This session is intended for RIT faculty, including adjuncts and teaching assistants. Participants should request access services if needed.

This was an open discussion on the influence of generative AI on teaching methods, to determine what support faculty need, as well as topics for future programming.

This session is intended for RIT faculty, including adjuncts and teaching assistants. Participants should request access services if needed.

Leading RIT faculty offered short practical demonstrations on how AI tools have been used to enhance their teaching practices.  This showcase was a great opportunity for RIT faculty to sharpen their skills or learn something new through hands-on demos and live Q&A. 

Presenters are listed below, along with an introduction video on their demonstration topic.

• AI Tools: Low Hanging Fruit Shaun Foster, CAD
• Text-based AI tools for Research and Writing Processes Phil Shaw, SOIS 
• ChatGPT in Higher Ed: Boosting Teaching Efficiency Garret Arcoraci, GCCIS
• A Formula For Ethical AI Concepting Application Ihab Mardini,CAD
• Fast formative feedback for your students using Gen AI Clark Hochgraf, CET

This session is intended for RIT faculty, including adjuncts and teaching assistants. Interpreters will be provided.

View the recording of the event.

Facilitated by Lisa Hermsen, Department of English, CLA

Dennis Baronhow, in A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution (2009), poses questions about "how we learn to trust a new technology and the new and strange sorts of texts that it produces; how we expand the notion of who can write and who can’t; and how we free our readers and writers while at the same time trying to regulate their activities." The inquiry is as important now, if not more so, as it was over 10 years ago.

This circle will briefly review the history of OpenAI and follow theories for the future of Generative AI. Avoiding utopian/dystopian views, we will consider other possibilities. Generative AI will continue to be pervasive, almost ubiquitous; it will limp along with diminishing returns; it will collapse under the weight of the infrastructure supporting it. The purpose of the circle is to move from these discussions to think deliberately about how Generative AI is working and will continue to work in our classrooms. Is it possible to disallow or detect? Would version history be useful? How can we engage students with the new complexities of copyright? Might we teach expert prompting? How will students respond to questionable-use ethics? What will this technology do for human expression?

Participants may take a position, try out an assignment, or experiment with their own writing, and can opt in or out of using OpenAI on their computers (though we will check out Bing and other silent authoring technologies). We will be meeting in Zoom, 12:00-1:00 pm, on the following Mondays: January 29, February 12 and 26, March 18, and April TBD. If you would like to join this circle, email Lisa Hermsen.

The 2024 Summer Institute for Teaching and Learning was held in conjunction with an AI Symposium, and co-sponsored by RIT Research, on May 14-15, 2024. The theme was Teaching the 21st Century Student. The program consisted of a variety of workshops, the PLIG Poster Showcase, a panel discussion and an AI demonstrations and poster session led by RIT faculty and recognized experts on the following topics: Helping Students Succeed, Engaging Learning Experience, Harnessing New Technologies, including those powered by AI, and Research on AI.

When: Sep 10, 2024, 11:00 am–12:00 pm
Where: Wallace Library 05-3430

Learn how to integrate AI tools and outcomes into the design process. Faculty from 3D Digital and Industrial Design will shared their insights and workflows for the creative and responsible use of AI tools, including Vizcom, Generative Design, Chat GPT, and others. The session will included a short individual presentations from each panelist, followed by an open dialogue with the audience.

Panelists:

• Shaun Foster, Professor and Program Director, 3D Digital Design
• Alex Lobos, Professor and Director, School of Design
• Ihab Mardini, Assistant Professor, 3D Digital Design
• Juan Noguera, Assistant Professor, Industrial Design

When: Sep 23, 2024, 10:00 am–11:00 am
Where: SHED 1380 Sklarsky Glass Box Theater

Explored the transformative impact of AI on modern educational practices with the Fram Signature speaker Kerri Holley and RIT Faculty.

Moderator: Neil Hair, Executive Director, CTL and Professor, SCB
Panelists:

• Kerrie Holley, Fram Signature Guest Speaker
• Christopher Collison, RIT Director of AI Hub and Initiatives, Harris Endowed Professor, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, College of Science
• Alex Lobos, Professor and Director of School of Design, College of Art and Design
• Ihab Mardini, Assistant Professor, School of Design, College of Art and Design
• Esa Rantanen, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts
• Phil Shaw, Senior Lecturer, University Writing Program, School of Individualized Study

This event was open to the RIT community.

When: Oct 4, 2024, 10:00 am–12:00 pm
Where: SHED, Room 3350

The Fall Symposium on AI in Instruction, rises to the challenge set by Provost David for RIT to lead in the integration of AI into education. This symposium showcased the innovative ways AI is already enhancing student learning, from 24/7 tutoring and office hours to personalized problem-solving experiences that resonate with students' own learning interests. We provided practical demonstrations of how AI tools can empower instructors and faculty, help them become more effective in their educational responsibilities while maintaining the quality of teacher-student interactions. We also invite you to engage in an open dialogue about where AI could provide the most value in your own teaching practice—especially in tasks where outsourcing to AI might lighten your workload while preserving the human connection with students.

This symposium was not just about sharing cutting-edge tools, but about working together as a community to shape how AI can meet your needs. We sought participants interested in collaborating on research to assess and publish findings on the effectiveness of AI tools. Additionally, we hoped to form complementary partnerships with faculty who bring diverse skills that can help us align with the provost’s vision for AI in instruction. This was a collaborative, inclusive event, where every voice matters as we work toward a shared future in AI-enhanced education.

Presenters:

• Shaun Foster, AI Education Integration and Interfaces (Slides) (Video)
• Ihab Mardini, Enhancing Design with AI Without Ethical Compromise (Slides)
• Chris Schwartz, Nate Mathews, Matt Wright, Gen AI and Cybersecurity (Slides)
• Dina Newman, RIT’s CASTLE (Slides)
• Christopher Collison and Thomas Fuller, TutorBot (Slides)

When: Nov 1, 2024, 10:00 am–12:00 pm
Where: SHED, Room 3350

The Fall Symposium: AI in Instruction, co-sponsored by the AI Hub and the Center for Teaching and Learning, the important work of integrating AI into education. Building on the momentum from the October 4th session, this event will focus on practical applications and faculty experiences with AI tools in their classrooms. 

This session was designed to deepen understanding of how AI can enhance teaching and learning. You’ll hear from faculty members who are already using AI to transform their instructional practices—whether it’s through adaptive learning platforms, AI-driven feedback mechanisms, or personalized student support systems.

This session featured 4 lightning talks from fellow faculty members, introducing AI tools with the potential to transform your teaching. After the talks, breakout sessions took place with attendees could engage directly with presenters and brainstorm ways to apply these tools in their classroom.

Presenters & AI Tools:

• Liz Lawley, Leading By Example (Slides)
• Phil Shaw, Asking for What You Want: ChatGPT and the Peer Review Process (Slides)
• Garret Arcoraci, Creating Rubrics with ChatGPT  (Slides) (In-Class Rubric) (Essay Rubric)
• Mike Eastman, ProGenie: Enhance Student Engagement by Creating Interesting Domain-specific Problems (Slides)