Whether you’re designing a quick small-scale activity to get students acquainted with GenAI or whether you’re overhauling a whole course, you have a lot of choices about how you ask your students to interact with GenAI!
Here are a few possibilities, but there are no doubt many more – if you’d like to explore further with TLI staff, feel free to submit a service request form, and we’ll set up a meeting!
The Sounding Board
Instructors often deploy GenAI to help students overcome challenges in taking the first steps of a project. You might invite students to come up with a few ideas of their own, then share them and their questions with a chatbot or other AI. Once they receive the responses, students can then ask the AI for further elaboration or alternatives. Then invite students to debate the AI’s responses with their peers and use the results to enhance their work.
The Interlocutor
A well-designed AI assistant “personality” can provide a useful thought partner, case example, or debate opponent, to help students develop and refine their ideas. You might design an AI assistant personality and share it with students and then invite them to explore a topic of inquiry as though talking with a relevant individual—a patient, a client, an expert in a topic. With encouragement and reflection, students could then turn from the “safe space” of an artificial interlocutor to a conversation with a real person. OIT offers guidance on developing an AI Assistant personality in UTVerse.
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See how Dr. Misty Bailey uses this method in her Veterinary Medicine Program 832!
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See how Dr. Bob DuBois uses this method in his Psychology 330.
The Co-Planner
In preparing large projects, students may procrastinate or have difficulty starting or advancing if they feel daunted by the number of steps involved. You might invite students to develop a plan, then ask GenAI to offer feedback or propose revisions. Students could even experiment with having an AI agent send them email or text reminders to set aside time for a project. Particularly if students begin with a plan of their own, an AI co-planner can help them identify and address problems in their learning or work habits.
The Simulator
Instructors have begun setting up AI “bots” with personalities that simulate specific case examples for use in problem-based learning or authentic assessment situations. There are some examples that rival first-person gaming experiences, but you need not be a graphic or game designer to achieve this kind of effect.
A well-prepared AI assistant “personality” can be knitted into a scenario or simulation, breathing life into assignments and tasks in ways that a text-based case example often cannot. If students work together to prepare for an encounter and then debrief together (or with their instructor), they can learn more from the experience and also troubleshoot areas where the AI system does not perform perfectly. For more training on advanced applications of AI software, see OIT’s workshop schedule.
The Respondent
A well-drafted prompt can enable GenAI to respond to student creations (text, visuals, or even speeches!) with high-level feedback, attending less to grammar and style and more to argument and ethos. Is this pitch convincing? Does this explanation make sense? Will this argument get me into hot water with this audience? GenAI can offer a first-round, first-draft response, a process that can be especially fruitful if students share their responses and reactions (did the AI get it right?) with their peers.
The Co-Author
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ince 2022, instructors and students have been stimulated by the possibility of generating instant text. It is the role that requires the most careful preparation and execution, but if done well, it can help students see the possibilities and attain metacognitive awareness of their own learning processes.
Rather than having the software draft text out of whole cloth, you might encourage students to have the GenAI create the proverbial “sacrificial draft,” putting an idea to the page so the student can decide whether it represents a meritorious approach. Working by the paragraph rather than by the page can help highlight what the software does well and where it struggles, and sharing and co-critiquing its products can help students decide how best to put it to work.
The Co-Editor
Most students are already using AI as their personal editor and proofreader without even realizing it—programs like Grammarly and even Microsoft Word are increasingly turning to LLM-based AI to support their software. Used well, it can be one of GenAI’s strongest areas of performance, and one of the most helpful for students—many students feel insecure about their grammar and style, and an instructor-sanctioned opportunity to get “proofreading help” can serve as a pressure valve for high-stress projects. On the other hand, it’s worth helping students understand that not every stylistic recommendation is worth following—it’s important to write like a human, not like a “bot”!