Join a “Teaching with AI” Book Group this Fall!

Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning [Book]Want to dive deeper into the ideas and insights on AI in education Dr. C. Edward Watson presented on Aug. 29, 2024? CATL is sponsoring small book groups this fall semester centered around his book, Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning. These groups will meet three times during the Fall 2024 semester, each focusing on a specific theme, such as asynchronous online teaching or history instruction. Meeting times and dates will be arranged based on participant availability.

The book is available via free online access through the UWGB library. Physical copies are also available for the first 30 full-time UWGB instructors who register!

 

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) and Acknowledging or Citing Use

UW-Green Bay’s libraries have an excellent student-facing webpage on how to acknowledge or formally cite the use of GAI. This blog is intended to supplement that resource with information more specific to instructors. Professors will be vital in helping students understand both the ethics and practicalities of transparency when employing GAI tools in our work. Please keep the following caveats in mind as you explore this resource.

  • As with all things GAI, new developments are rapid and commonplace, which means everyone needs to be on the alert for changes.
  • Instructors are the ones who decide their specific course policies on disclosing or citing GAI. The information below provides some options for formatting acknowledgments, but they are not exhaustive.
  • Providing acknowledgment for the use of GAI may seem straightforward, but it is actually a very nuanced topic. Questions about copyright implications, whether AI can be considered an “author,” and the ethics of relationships between large AI entities and publishing houses are beyond the scope of this blog. Know, though, that such issues are being discussed.
  • Please remember that it is not only important for students to acknowledge or cite the use of GAI. Instructors need to do so with their use of it, as well.

Acknowledgment or Citation of GAI

There is a difference between acknowledging the use of GAI with a simple statement at the end of a paper, requiring students to submit a full transcript of their GAI chat in an appendix, and providing a formal citation in APA, MLA, or Chicago styles.

  • UWGB Libraries have some excellent acknowledgment examples on their page.
  • UWM’s library page provides basic templates for citations intended to be consistent with APA, MLA, and Chicago styles.
  • There are also lengthy blog explanations and detailed citation examples available directly from APA, MLA, and the Chicago Manual of Style.

Regardless of the specific format being used, the information likely to be required to acknowledge or cite GAI includes:

  1. The name of the GAI tool (e.g., Copilot, ChatGPT)
    Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI’s ChatGPT 4.o (May 23, 2024 version), etc.
  2. The specific use of the GAI tool
    “to correct grammar and reduce the length in one paragraph of a 15-page paper”
  3. The precise prompts entered (initial and follow-up)
    “please reduce this paragraph by 50 words and correct grammatical errors”; follow-up prompt: “now cut 50 words from this revised version”
  4. The specific output and how it was used (perhaps even a full transcript)
    “specific suggestions, some of which were followed, of words to cut and run-on sentences to revise”
  5. The date the content was created
    August 13, 2024

Ultimately, instructors decide what format is best for their course based on their field of study, the nature and extent of GAI use permitted, and the purpose of the assignment. It is important to proactively provide specific information to students about assignments. Professors who are particularly interested in whether students are using GAI effectively may focus on the prompts used or even ask for the full transcript of a session. If, in a specific assignment, the instructor is more interested in students learning their discipline’s citation style, then they might ask for a formal citation using APA format. Although the decision is up to the professor, they should tell students in advance and strongly encourage them to have separate Word documents for each of their classes in which they save any GAI chats (including prompts and output) and their date. That way they have records to go back to; If they use Copilot with data protection, it does not save the content of sessions.

What Messages Might I Give to Students about Using, Disclosing, or Citing GAI?

Instructors should consider how they will apply this information about acknowledgments and citations in their own classes. CATL encourages you to do the following in your work with students.

  1. Decide on a policy for acknowledging/citing GAI use for each course assignment and communicate it in your syllabus and any applicable handouts, Canvas pages, etc.
  2. Reinforce for students that GAI makes mistakes. Students are ultimately responsible for the accuracy of the work they submit and for not using others’ intellectual property without proper acknowledgment. They should be encouraged to check on the actual existence of any sources cited by a GAI tool because they are sometimes “hallucinated,” not genuine.
  3. Talk to students about the peer review and publication processes and what those mean for source credibility compared to the “scraping” process used to train GAI models.
  4. Explain that GAI is not objective. It can contain bias. It has been created by humans and trained on data primarily produced by humans, which means it can reflect their very real biases.
  5. Communicate that transparency in GAI use is critical. Instructors should be clear with their students about when and how they may use GAI to complete specific assignments. At the same time, one of the best ways instructors can share the importance of transparency and attribution is through modeling it themselves (e.g., an instructor disclosing that they used Copilot to create a case study for their course and modeling how to format the disclosure).
  6. Remind students that even if the specific format varies, the information they are most likely to have to produce for a disclosure/acknowledgment or citation is: a) the name of the tool, b) the specific use of the tool, c) the prompts used, d) the output produced, and e) the date of use.
  7. Finally, encourage students to copy and paste all GAI interaction information, including an entire chat history, into a Word document for your course and to save it for future reference. One advantage of Microsoft Copilot with data protections is that it does not retain chat histories. That’s wonderful from a security perspective, but it makes it impossible to re-create that information once a session has ended. They should also know that even GAI tools that save interactions and use them to train their model are unlikely to re-produce a session even if the same prompt is entered.

Indicating Generative AI Assignment Permissions with the Traffic Light Model (Red Light, Yellow Light, Green Light)

CATL recommends using the red, yellow, and green light approach to clearly label what level of generative AI (GAI) use is permitted for each of your course assignments. The traffic lights will be useful, but students will also need precise written instructions to supplement them on each assignment’s instructions. In general, you should include: a) whether GAI use is permitted, b) what tasks it can (e.g., brainstorming topic ideas) and can’t (e.g., creating text) be used on, c) how it should be cited (if applicable), and d) a rationale for why it can/can’t be used. We have provided brief examples below, but keep in mind that lengthy assignments that involve complex GAI use might require much more detailed instructions of even a page or more. Note that the text in brackets [ ] is designed to provide some examples of words that might go there; you will need to choose and insert your own text.

Red Light Approach: No GAI Use Permitted

A red traffic light illuminated with an “x” symbol.Collaboration with any GAI tool is forbidden for this activity. This assignment’s main goal is to develop your own [e.g., writing, coding] skills. Generative AI tools cannot be used because doing so will not be helpful to your own skill development and confidence in those abilities.

Yellow Light Approach: GAI Use Permitted for Specific Tasks and/or Using Specific Tools

A yellow traffic light illuminated with an “!” symbol.You may use the GAI tool Copilot – and only Copilot – for specific tasks in this assignment, but not for all of them. You may use GAI tools to [brainstorm a research topic], but not for [writing or editing your research proposal]. You will need to properly cite or disclose your generative AI using [e.g., APA Style]. If you are unsure or confused about what GAI use is permitted, please reach out to me.

OR

You may use GAI tools on this assignment to [e.g., create the budget for your grant proposal], but not to do anything else, such as create text, construct your persuasive arguments, or edit your writing. You will need to properly cite or disclose your generative AI using [e.g., APA Style]. Although other tools are permitted, you are strongly encouraged to use Microsoft Copilot with data protections for reasons of security, equity, and access to GBIT technical support.

Green Light Approach: All GAI Use Permitted

A green traffic light illuminated with a checkmark symbol. You are encouraged to use GAI tools for this assignment. Any generative AI use will need to be disclosed and cited using the methods described in your syllabus. For this assignment, you may use GAI tools to [e.g., brainstorm, create questions, text, or code, organize information, build arguments, and edit]. You will need to properly cite or disclose how/where you used generative AI using [e.g., APA Style]. If you would like feedback on your GAI tool use or have questions, please reach out to me.

 

Outlining When and How Students May Use GAI

An instructor may want to outline specific tasks when using the traffic light approach. Consider some of the examples below.

You may use AI to “[task(s)]”, but not to “[task(s)]”:

  • Analyze Data
  • Brainstorm Ideas, Thesis Statements, etc.
  • Build Arguments
  • Conduct Peer Review
  • Create Discussion Posts
  • Create Questions
  • Create Study Guides
  • Develop Thesis Statements
  • Edit Content
  • Format Documents/Presentations
  • Generate Citations
  • Generate New Text, Code, Art, etc.
  • Generate Research Questions
  • Generate Samples/Examples
  • Organize Information
  • Provide Explanations/Definitions
  • Research a Topic
  • Search for Research Articles
  • Summarize Text/Literature/Article
  • Write Self-Reflections

Learn More

Explore even more CATL resources related to AI in education:

If you have questions, concerns, or ideas specific to generative AI tools in education and the classroom, please email us at catl@uwgb.edu or set up a consultation!

My Resistance (and Maybe Yours): Help Me Explore Generative AI

Article by Tara DaPra, CATL Instructional Development Consultant & Associate Teaching Professor of English & Writing Foundations

I went to the OPID conference in April to learn from colleagues across the Universities of Wisconsin who know much more than I do about Generative AI. I was looking for answers, for insight, and maybe for a sense that it’s all going to be okay.

I picked up a few small ideas. One group of presenters disclosed that AI had revised their PowerPoint slides for concision, something that, let’s be honest, most presentations could benefit from. Bryan Kopp, an English professor at UW-La Crosse, opened his presentation “AI & Social Inequity” by plainly stating that discussions of AI are discussions of power. He went on to describe his senior seminar that explored these social dynamics and offered the reassurance that we can figure this thing out with our students.

I also heard a lot of noise: AI is changing everything! Students are already using it! Other students are scared, so you have to give them permission. But don’t make them use it, which means after learning how to teach it, and teaching them how to use it, you must also create an alternate assessment. And you have to use it, too! But you can’t use it to grade or write LORs or in any way compromise FERPA. Most of all, don’t wait! You’re already sooo behind!

In sum: AI is everywhere. It’s in your car, inside the house, in your pocket. And (I think?) it’s coming for your refrigerator and your grocery shopping.

I left the conference with a familiar ache behind my right shoulder blade. This is the place where stress lives in my body, the place of “you really must” and “have to.” And my body is resisting.

I am not an early adopter. I let the first gen of any new tech tool come and go, waiting for the bugs to be worked out, to see if it will survive the Hype Cycle. This year, my syllabus policy on AI essentially read, “I don’t know how to use this thing, so please just don’t.” Though, in my defense, the fact that I even had a policy on Generative AI might actually make me an early adopter, since a recent national survey of provosts found only 20% were at the helm of institutions with formal, published policy on the use of AI.

So I still don’t have very many answers, but I am remembering to breathe through my resistance, which has helped me develop a few questions: How can I break down this big scary thing into smaller pieces? How might I approach these tools with a sense of play? How can I experiment in the classroom with students? How can I help them understand the limitations of AI and the essential nature of their human brains, their human voices?

To those ends, I’d like to hear from you. Send me your anxieties, your moral outrage, your wildest hopes and dreams. What have you been puzzling over this year? Have you found small ways to use Generative AI in your teaching or writing? Have your ethical questions shifted or deepened? And should I worry that maybe, in about two hundred years, AI is going to destroy us all?

This summer and next year, CATL will publish additional materials and blog posts exploring Generative AI. CATL has already covered some of the “whats,” and will continue to do so, as AI changes rapidly. But, just as we understand that to motivate students, we must also talk about “the why,” we must make space for these questions ourselves. In the meantime, as I explore these questions, I’m leaning into human companionship, as members of my unit (Applied Writing & English) will read Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick. We’re off contract this summer, so it’s not required, but, you know, we have to figure this out. So if we must, let’s at least do it over dinner.