We are excited to announce a new program: Faculty AI Explorers. This initiative is designed for faculty and teaching professors who are at the beginning or intermediate level in terms of their generative artificial intelligence (GAI) understanding and use. Sign up today, and you could earn a $750 stipend in the fall! Read on for details, which are outlined using the TILT categories of task, purpose, and criteria that CATL encourages instructors to use to promote transparency in assignments.
Task
Faculty AI Explorers will complete several steps. All work will be due by December 1, 2025.
- Successfully complete the entire Auburn Teaching with AI course by satisfactorily earning the full course badge. The badge may have been earned previously or completed this summer. To engage in the Fall cohort, the course needs to be finished by August 29, 2025.
- Write an overall course GAI policy for use in one or more of your syllabi in Fall 2025 or Spring 2026, including a student-focused explanation of that policy and the reasons for it.
- Create an “agent” using Copilot that will serve a specific purpose in your course(s).
- Develop at least one learning outcome-aligned assignment that is about GAI (e.g., the environmental implications of the technology) or that asks students to use GAI to complete it. Use the TILT framework to describe the assignment.
- Submit #2-4, along with responses to a list of reflection questions about this experience, to CATL. Share your work and reflections with your department at a unit meeting and at the Fall 2025 GAI Showcase.
Purpose
The primary goal of engaging in these activities is to increase instructors’ understanding of GAI, particularly Copilot, and its strengths and limitations as an educational tool. Another objective is for instructors to improve their practical skills using GAI.
Criteria
CATL will provide some constructive feedback on parts 2-5 below as part of determining eligibility for the stipend. The emphasis, however, will be on providing general, constructive feedback. Criteria include:
Completion of Auburn’s Teaching with AI course by 08/29/25 will be determined by the awarding of the course-level badge. There is no stipend associated with finishing the course, but doing so is a prerequisite for participation in the Faculty AI Explorers program.
Submitted GAI policies should be a) complete, b) in clear, student-facing language, and c) linked with supporting rationale.
Completed agents should be relevant to your course subject matter, have a clear purpose, and have been trained on robust instructions and sources.
Instructors’ finished assignment(s) should be written using the TILT framework, be about GAI and/or require students to use GAI, and align with at least one specific course or program learning outcome.
Reflection responses are designed for your benefit and to help you consider what you will present. As such, they should be thoughtful and directly answer the questions asked. If instructors do not participate in the Fall Project GAI Showcase, then they will provide documentation (e.g., time/date) of presenting at a similar venue.
If you are interested in being part of the initial cohort in the Faculty AI Explorers program, please complete the short Qualtrics survey linked with the button below to enroll for Fall 2025. The priority deadline is May 23, 2025. Depending on capacity, sign-ups will also be accepted during the summer months. Please be sure to also enroll in the Auburn “Teaching with AI” class for this summer if you have not yet completed it.
