In this program, educators of all levels will learn how to adjust to a world in which conversational AI has become as common as search engines and smartphones. This emerging technology demands some adjustments on the part of educators to make sure our homeworks and tests remain valid assessments of student learning, but adjusting to its existence is only the beginning: this certificate series will also cover the enormous potential of ChatGPT, Bing Chat, and other conversational AI and generative AI systems to support teachers and improve student learning.
The program is broken into three mini-courses: Assessment Design with AI, Chatbots for Instruction, and AI for Teacher Assistance. In the first, we tackle the most immediate questions associated with conversational AI: how do we adjust our assessments so that we are assured we are still assessing student learning, not just students’ ability to get answers from a chatbot? But while part of that involves defensive changes to our assessments, this mini-course goes far beyond these steps to cover how we can embrace conversational AI as a calculator for writing and support student brainstorming, authoring, and revision—as well as design some innovative new assignments that would not be possible without AI assistance.
In the second mini-course, Chatbots for Instruction, we look at how to get students hands-on with conversational AI technology and use it directly in the instructional process. We break this task into three general domains: how we can use AI as an ever-present and always-ready teacher to support student learning; how students can use AI as a lab partner, debate opponent, or other sort of equal position in their education; and how we as educators should teach students about AI itself through these exercises so they are prepared for the next generation of AI tools.
In the third mini-course, AI for Teacher Assistance, we focus on how generative AI can help us even if students never use it directly. From assisting with curriculum planning and authoring assessments to support routine course delivery procedures to enhancing our courses with rapid response new content and activities, AI’s greater potential is in how it can be the world’s most available and knowledgeable teaching assistant.
By the end of this certificate series, our goal is for teachers to go from anxious or ambivalent about the new era of AI in education to excited and ready to handle its increasing role.
