Person with computer sitting on a stack of papers with red Xs and green checkmarks
Celena Kusch Calendar, Engaged Pedagogy, GenAI, Technology

AI and ChatGPT for Instructors

Person with computer sitting on a stack of papers with red Xs and green checkmarks

We’ve all heard the hype about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT. For some, this technology is a death knell for original writing, learning, critical thinking, and higher education itself. Others see it as the latest in a long line of transformational technologies for learning and knowledge production, like the typewriter, the calculator, the personal computer, and the Internet.

If we cut through the hype, we can find several ways to use generative AI tools in our roles as instructors. Generative AI can help us streamline our workload, enhance the resources we offer our students, and free up more of our time to build meaningful mentoring relationships with our students and engage in the original scholarship that fulfills our own intellectual curiosity.

ChatGPT and other Artificial Intelligence Language Models are great at one thing–producing text that fits the expectations of a given situation. Using AI to support your classroom communication can help you translate your expert knowledge (and vocabulary) into more novice-friendly terms. AI can provide you with what I’ll call “bridging” materials–guides, instructions, samples, templates, and related materials–that help your students connect the dots between where they are starting and where you need them to go.

AI can create “bridging” materials–guides, instructions, samples, templates–that help your students connect the dots between where they are starting and where you need them to go.

AI-Generated Bridges to Learning

1. Ask ChatGPT or an AI Outcomes Generator to general student-friendly course learning objectives or module learning objectives that use Bloom’s taxonomy and are based on standards in your discipline. You may not find it easy to think about your field from a novice lens anymore, but ChatGPT can.

2. Enter course lecture materials, a list of readings, or even a research question into ChatGPT or Taskade to generate a study guide, reading guide, or summary at a lower reading level than your original text. Use your AI-generated guide as an anchor to introduce your course unit so students know what to look for in the more complex materials you are about to share. The Texas A&M University LibGuide for AI-Based Literature Review Tools is a great place to start.

3. Ask ChatGPT to respond to one of your assignment prompts to generate a sample completed assignment, sample assignment template, or process outline students can use to guide their work.

4. Share the results of a model ChatGPT session to show sample prompts and questions students could ask to work through pre-writing, brainstorming, outlining, organizing ideas, or other processes or tasks on the way to producing a project or assignment. Any process-based guidance that you would work through patiently, one-on-one with students during office hours can be replicated (less expertly) by AI. And, all the students who need the one-on-one coaching at 1am will be able to get it at the time that is right for them.

5. Use AI Tone Checkers or Tone Changers to refine or enhance the feedback you provide students on assignments or in emails. If you find yourself wondering why students do not listen to your feedback, try using a tone checker, like Sapling or Grammarly, to see how students may be hearing your words. Use ChatGPT or a dedicated tone changer to shift the tone from more formal and complex to more casual, simpler, or more encouraging. You can even dial up or down the level of the tone so your comments still feel authentically yours, just a little more student-centered.

Screenshot of Text.Cortex AI Tone Changer, showing options for a more cheerful, decisive, casual, encouraging, formal, simple, or creative tone.

6. Finally, if you know rubrics help students understand your expectations, but you hate writing them, use Taskade or ChatGPT to generate quick, effective rubrics for grading and feedback on assignments. Blackboard now includes a built-in AI-based rubric generator and other AI tools right inside your courses. Links to the Blackboard AI workshop and additional resources are available in the USC System KnowledgeBase Article.

Just as you would guide your students to use AI responsibly, you, too, will need to review the AI materials for accuracy, appropriateness, copyright, and citation, but AI can produce your draft in seconds, not hours. Letting your students know that these materials were generated with AI can also open the door to productive conversations about the ethical uses of AI in their own work.

Celena Kusch Calendar

No Learning Wasted: Prior Learning Credit and Equitable Transfer Practices

March 17, 9:30 am – 11:00 am, Virtual Meeting Link

Credit for Prior Learning is an essential strategy for supporting adult learners and transfer students. It is based on the premise that it doesn’t matter where learning occurs; what matters is what students know and what they can do.

USC Upstate recognizes a range of educational experiences and grants credit for prior learning: AP, CLEP, and similar exams; credit from military transcripts; workplace training experience recognized by the American Council on Education (ACE); credit by challenge exam for a USC Upstate course; credit by advanced standing (application for back credit); and credit by portfolio. USC Upstate also recognizes the completion of the general education requirements of an associate’s degree or bachelor’s degree at another accredited institution as fulfilling the general education requirements for a USC Upstate bachelor’s degree.

Learn how to navigate USC Upstate’s credit for prior learning policies and procedures and contribute to an accessible, affordable, and equitable education for all.

Can’t attend? Read more about Awarding Credit for Prior Learning and Institutional Best Practices. Explore the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning’s resources on “A Brighter Future through Credit for Prior Learning.”

Celena Kusch Calendar, GenAI

The Implications of ChatGPT in Higher Education

March 22, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm in the Arts and Sciences Building, Room 117

a human hand and robot hand with fingertips meeting in the post of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Geometric design of glowing computer screens in the background.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The speed and power of ChatGPT to generate fluid text and synthesize information has taken higher education by surprise. Join this panel discussion of the implications of ChatGPT in higher education. Panelists include Dr. John Barnett, dean of the Library; Dr. Ron Fulbright, professor of information management and systems; Dr. Shuang Hundley, assistant professor of digital studies and mass media; and Tasha Thomas, senior instructor of English. 

Can’t attend? Check out “How Much Is Too Much? Drawing the Line on AI Assistance” by The Sentient Syllabus Project and “Artificial Intelligence: Friend, Foe, or Neither?” by the International Center for Academic Integrity.

Ryan Watkins’s article, “Update Your Course Syllabus for ChatGPT” includes several sample assignments that teach students to use ChatGPT responsible or highlight its limits. These also include assignments that have a non-AI and with-AI option in case not every student wants to or has the capability to create a ChatGPT account. Finally, don’t forget to check out the USC Upstate Syllabus template for suggested language about academic integrity.

Toni Dimella Active Learning, Student Success

That’s a Wrap! Using Exam Wrappers to Encourage Reflection

the metacognition cycle: assess the task, evaluate strengths and weaknesses, plan the approach, apply s strategies, reflect, repeat.
Image from “Five Ways to Boost Metacognition in the Classroom” by J. Spencer (2013)

By Jennifer Bland

Have you ever been curious about how much your students are studying for exams, what material they are studying, and how they are preparing for exams?  Exam Wrappers are one way for you to gather this information from your students.  An Exam Wrapper is a written exercise the student completes immediately before or after a graded exam is returned. It is typically completed outside of class for little or no credit, students respond to prompts that require them to reflect on what they did to prepare for the exam, what happened during the
exam, and what they will do to prepare for the next exam to improve performance (Chen, 2016).

Exam Wrappers are good metacognitive exercises for your students to reflect on their learning and the study strategies they used to learn the material. Metacognition is thinking about your thinking.  The Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University describes metacognition as the “processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one’s understanding and performance” (Chick, 2013).  Students need to be taught how to monitor and assess their learning and thinking, which is why exam wrappers can be helpful.

Many times students will study for an exam, take the exam, then not think about how their study habits or preparation affected the outcomes of the exam or how they could make better habits for a better outcome.  Students also may not think about what they learned and did not learn and what they should continue to work on to be ready for the final exam.  By asking your students to complete the reflective questions, you are guiding them through the metacognitive process. 

Your exam wrapper could take on different forms.  You may want to add a few questions at the end of the exam for students to complete.  You could add it as a separate assignment after they complete the exam.  Maybe you want it to be a form they complete and also complete corrections on the items they missed.

Effective and Adoptable Metacognitive Tools (Chen, 2016) reviews two different teaching tools tested in a college classroom—exam wrappers and quiz correction forms.  They have examples of both that they used with their students along with the results from the study. The Exam Wrapper example is on page 7 and provides a good starting point for you to think about which questions would be helpful to include for your students. Whichever route you decide is best for you and your students, make sure that you keep it simple so that your students will complete it and you have time to grade it.

If you have questions about Metacognitive Strategies you could include in your classes, make an appointment with a member of the CAIFS team! 

Name Tag: Hello, I'm... Blank for someone to write their name
Toni Dimella Engaged Pedagogy, Online Learning, Technology, Universal Design for Learning

Name Pronunciations and Preferred Names Available in Blackboard Courses

By Celena Kusch

Name Tag: Hello, I'm... Blank for someone to write their name

We know how important it is for us to be the ones who determine how we would like to be recognized and addressed by name. We invite you to use the name pronunciation features in Blackboard to share your preferences with your instructors and classmates. Pronunciations and preferred names help us to acknowledge and demonstrate respect for each other within the Spartan Family. Helping your students to customize their Blackboard presence can help them feel more at home in all their classroom learning spaces.

Find instructions for using these new Blackboard features below:

Instructors will see pronunciations and preferred names in the roster, discussions, gradebook, messages, and wherever you can find names throughout your course.

table with chairs and flowers on table
Toni Dimella Social and Emotional Learning

Relationship Matters: Casual Conversation as Pedagogy

The Spartans’ Table initiative is BACK!

by Dave Marlow

When you sit down together at the Spartans’ Table, you belong.

Belonging is a primary factor in student retention (Costello, et al., 2022). Students who feel connected to their university are more likely to persist in their educational goals. Interacting informally at the Spartan Cafe in the Campus Life Center or at PerkUp in the Library may encourage at-risk students by giving them a personal connection, allowing them to see your human side, and opening up opportunities for them to ask questions or share information that they would avoid in more formal settings (Tinto, 1975). The Spartans’ Table program provides opportunities for faculty and staff to share a meal or coffee with students, and CAIFS will pick up your tab.

A casual conversation with professionals contributes to students’ career readiness as it offers them experience in soft skills (Guerin, 2015) and social intelligence (Ganaie and Mudasir, 2015) which are critical to success in nearly every career field. The rapport enabled by such conversation also contributes to students’ success in disciplinary content (Granitz, et al., 2009).  Finally, connections to campus matter greatly in the student experience (Cuseo, 2008) – especially for students like ours who work multiple jobs, spend little time on campus and view their on-campus time as a necessity rather than a pleasure.

Good things happen when we talk to each other. Sodexo and the Provost’s office, together with the CAIFS team, offers all faculty (adjunct, non-tenure track, and tenure track) and staff (e.g. advisors, students affairs staff, etc.) will buy lunch or coffee for both you and your students up to twice per semester (sign up on the Spartan’s Table website).

ALL faculty and staff, full- and part-time, are welcome to join students at Spartans’ Table!

Research suggests part-time instructors and staff have a powerful impact on students.