Getting Started with Artificial Intelligence

Generative AI has been the latest tsunami to hit higher education, and the SUNY Faculty Advisory Council on Teaching and Technology (FACT2) has a task group that has been working since last summer to develop resources for faculty and instructional support staff.

As part of this, FACT2 has planned a series of webinars for March and April (Tuesdays at 10 am, repeated Fridays at 1 pm), on the following topics:

·         Getting Started with Artificial Intelligence (Mar 12, 10:00- 11:00 a.m. & March 15, 1:00 – 2:00 pm)

·         Exploring Potential and Pitfalls of AI Use in the Classroom (Mar 19 & 22)

·         Developing Syllabus Statements on AI Use (Mar 26 & 29)

·         AI As an Assistant (Apr 2 & 5)

·         AI Tools to Help You Build Your Course (Apr 9 & 12)

Please see the webinar events page for more information and to register.

Description: As GPT has gained widespread attention since the release of GPT 3.5 in late 2022, our digital landscape has been evolving quickly.  With academia, media, governments, and corporations focused on the furthest reaches of artificial intelligence, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the possibilities this powerful tool offers us. This hands-on session focuses not on the outer limits of AI, but instead on:

• Getting started with GPT/ Understanding its roots
• Establishing best practices for general usage
• Expanding our comfort zone
• Working with AI to determine how it can and cannot meet our individual needs Attendees will have the option to observe, click along with provided usage examples, and share their results with others.

Presenter: Robert Becker

Exploring Potential and Pitfalls of AI Use in the Classroom 

• March 19, 2024, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
• March 22, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Description: AI tools have access to enormous data and use enormous processing power to generate plausible patterns that can save time, offer sophisticated text for users to consider, and boost thinking/learning and writing/communication for students and faculty alike. But they also have glaring weaknesses, such as their inability to recognize reality (versus merely “plausible” strings of words), understand context or culture, offer unbiased and ethical responses, avoid privacy or security infringement, etc. Join this hands-on session to learn and share how to help students recognize pitfalls of AI, as well as explore its potentials. We will collaboratively develop and exchange learning activities for our students.

Presenter: Shyam Sharma, Michael Murphy, & Cynthia Davidson

Developing Syllabus Statements on AI Use

• March 26, 2024, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
• March 29, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Description: As faculty navigate the use of Chat GPT and other AI tools in their courses, it is important to communicate their expectations with the students.  This session will provide participants with examples of syllabus statements being used within SUNY and beyond.  The examples will reflect varying levels of permitted AI usage:

• Minimal/ none
• Some use with specific rules/ circumstances
• Expected/ required

Participants will be encouraged to discuss the examples and how they relate to their own current or future AI use in their courses.  Following an open discussion and sharing of ideas, individuals will collaborate to adapt/ develop a syllabus statement based on their desired level of AI usage.  Participants will leave the workshop with a syllabus statement that they may use in their course.
Presenter: Meghanne Freivald & Keith Landa

AI As An Assistant

• April 2, 2024, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
• April 5, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Description: AI can be helpful for a number of tasks for students, including suggesting writing improvements, summarizing or rephrasing concepts they are learning, helping with ideation to overcome “blank page syndrome”, or even generating questions for review. The commonly available tools, such as ChatGPT, have been trained on a vast corpus of information that covers many subjects, albeit non-uniformly, and its ability to provide accurate and helpful information varies by subject, as it its likelihood that it will provide incorrect information (they call this a “hallucination”).

Those are factors that are out of your control, but you can mitigate them….with a well crafted prompt.

This workshop aims to help you assess how effective these tools could be for your students – looking at whether they work out of the box, and whether the right prompt can address gaps and concerns. Even if you find that these tools are really not well suited for your course, that can be something that you can share with your students and have a chance to guide them to other options.

Presenter: Maureen Larsen & Brian Cepuran

AI Tools to Help You Build Your Course

• April 9, 2024, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
• April 12, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Description: There are a variety of tools to help instructors build out their courses, from designing learning outcomes, to creating course content, to creating quizzes and other assessments.  Both general-purpose and specialized AI tools will be demonstrated in the workshop, and participants will have opportunities to try them out.  Both faculty and the instructional support staff that assist them are encouraged to attend. No prior AI experience required.

Presenter: Brian Cepuran & Keith Landa