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| At “Talking with Our Students about AI,” our three presenters shared their different approaches to incorporating AI into their teaching and students’ learning.
Rhodora Vennarucci (AGRS) explained that her thinking is grounded in the issue of the “digital divide” within her own fields of archaeology and her concern to provide all of our students with the tools they will need to navigate professional lives after Denison. As her syllabus policy indicates, she is working to balance between teaching students some uses of AI and setting (and discussing) clear limits on AI use. Ashwin Lall’s (CS) approach to AI in students’ learning process is: “You should not use AI for something if you can’t do it yourself.” While effective AI usage may be possible in upper-level classes, in 100- and 200-level courses, students don’t yet have the foundational understanding of course material necessary to evaluate an AI product. Malliga Och (PPA) explained the ways that she has learned to use AI as a “faithful agent” and time-saving resource in her own teaching preparation–for example, using a day-long AI conversation to refine and finalize a syllabus or using AI to design a visually appealing and clear Canvas page. She discussed the importance of being transparent with students about where she uses AI in her own work, but also the challenges created by student misperceptions of AI’s role in her course materials. The common theme across presentations and small group discussions was the importance of communicating clearly about AI expectations and use/prohibition with our students, for whom AI is now one more thing that they need to navigate and adapt to as they move among our classrooms and disciplines, and through their lives. This handout provides a sampling of syllabus wording that colleagues across campus have been developing to ground their AI conversations with students. |