Those are pretty hefty ideas. Naturally, we wondered what was actually happening in college classrooms this fall, so we asked you to tell us. As it turns out — perhaps to no one’s surprise — the reactions are all over the map. Some faculty members have embraced AI. Others are building barricades. You can read all about it in our latest story.
Here are a few quick takeaways, including some comments we couldn’t fit into the original story.
Some professors put a great deal of effort into redesigning their courses.
Netzin Steklis, an associate professor at the University of Arizona, wrote in to say that she did a major redesign of a signature assignment in a general-education course on human and animal interrelationships. In the assignment, students write a policy brief on an animal issue. Her restructuring was typical of many readers who allowed judicious use of AI, while requiring students to show exactly how they used it and to document the process.
“We did not discourage the use of AI but rather included questions to help them reflect on how they used AI — partly to allow them to declare their use of AI and therefore avoid plagiarism, and partly to encourage them to reflect on the pros and cons of using AI,” she wrote.
“The redesign of the assignment now requires them to ‘show their work’ much as you would want a math student to show how they solved a math problem. ... Now we have them upload the scholarly peer-reviewed sources they are referencing and highlight sections they found useful to their arguments. Also we have an outline template they need to use and fill in each section. This avoids students asking AI to simply write a Policy Brief on the selected topic.”
Many professors who put in the effort to think about AI, often alongside their students, felt that it paid off.
“I have not once this semester suspected a student of passing off AI-generated material as their own work or otherwise using AI inappropriately,” wrote Emily Pitts Donahoe, a lecturer in writing and rhetoric at the University of Mississippi. She attributed that to careful course design, ongoing discussion with students, and the use of upgrading, a practice that de-emphasizes grades in favor of detailed feedback and repeated revision.
When Donahoe surveyed her students, most indicated that generative AI “was more trouble than it’s worth,” though a handful did use it to brainstorm or to clarify assignments.
“This is, of course, a credit to the students themselves,” wrote Donahoe, who is also associate director of instructional support at the university’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Donahoe detailed some of the steps she took in a thread on X and on Bluesky that she wrote following the story’s publication.
Some faculty members who teach online and in person noticed more AI cheating online.
“My in-class students have not used it to cheat so far, but in my online class, I have had multiple issues even though I have put the same information about plagiarism in the online modules,” wrote Brenda Hawley, an adjunct professor at Sierra College who teaches literature and college writing. Some respondents attributed the difference to the difficulty of building classroom connections and trust in an online course, or a lack of baseline writing that you can do in person but less easily online.
Hawley went to great lengths to teach herself about AI, redesign her intro writing course, talk to her students about academic integrity and plagiarism, and use tools like Honorlock and Turnitin.
At the end of the semester, though, she noted that these lessons did pay off: “I have graded many of my research papers from both my on-campus and my online classes. I am amazed that there was not one AI paper turned it! I emphasized many times that if they got caught, they would fail the class and I guess they took me seriously.”
Many faculty members are seeking guidance from their colleges.
Readers often noted that their department or their college had not provided much information or guidance, other than a few workshops or general language that they could include in their syllabus about AI use. Many wanted more clarity on how, for example, to determine if students were inappropriately using AI, how to provide some consistency across campus, and how to educate themselves better on these tools.
“We need to urgently think about how we will teach students to use the tool effectively,” wrote one academic, “but it is challenging if we as staff are not sure how to use it either.”
Beckie and I will continue to track the evolution of AI, and of classroom and college policies. As always, feel free to write to us with your thoughts at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com and beckie.supiano@chronicle.com
More on ChatGPT usage
Another study of academic use of AI applications comes from Primary Research Group Inc. It surveyed a representative sample of 777 higher-education faculty members to find out how much they use tools like Bard, Bing, and ChatGPT. The survey also asked how important AI is, and will become, in research, teaching, and scholarship.
Among the findings: ChatGPT was used far more than the other AI tools listed. Most respondents said that AI applications currently were not at all important or not so important to their work. Adjunct instructors were more enthusiastic about AI compared to others. And academics in allied health, fine arts, engineering, history, and business all showed very high levels of interest.
Asked to look ahead three years, most respondents expected AI to increase in significance in their work. Faculty members at smaller institutions and those who are nontenured but on the tenure track showed higher expectations for AI’s relevance compared to their peers in other categories. Among those who expected to invest time in learning to use ChatGPT, deans and department heads were more likely than others to plan a significant investment of time.
ICYMI
- Molly Roberts, a Washington Post editorial writer, weighs in on ChatGPT after a visit to the University of Mississippi.
- Does your syllabus need an upgrade? The Chronicle’s advice editor, Denise Magner, points you to a good resource in the latest issue of the Your Career newsletter.
- A growing number of students — and colleges — are jumping into data science. A recent Chronicle virtual forum, which you can watch on demand, reviewed the benefits and obstacles of its increased popularity.
Thanks for reading Teaching. If you have suggestions or ideas, please feel free to email us at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com or beckie.supiano@chronicle.com
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— Beth
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