1. Save Time on Administrative Tasks
When they first consider using AI, most faculty members think about using it for content creation and administrative tasks, Conatser says. That may include creating slide decks, answering emails and writing letters of recommendation. Those use cases can boost productivity: Research from Harvard Business School shows that using AI for these sorts of tasks increased the speed of completion by more than 25%.
However, using AI for content creation and administrative tasks is only scratching the surface of its full potential.
2. Access Assistance for Course Design
Generative AI can help with “any task that involves aligning and organizing different ideas according to overarching goals or frameworks,” Conatser says, which makes it perfect for course design.
Whether they’re designing a new course or revising an existing course, faculty members are using generative AI tools to help with the clarity and sophistication of learning outcomes; the sequencing of topics and tasks; the alignment of course content and assignments with learning outcomes; and the creation of content such as syllabi, instructions, prompts, study aids and media. “Using AI isn’t just about the transactional output, such as using it to produce something,” Conatser says. “It’s also good for giving input on plans and drafts, imagining alternatives or paths not taken, evaluating different strategies, and so on.”
RELATED: How higher education institutions can successfully adopt AI tools like Gemini.
3. Adjust Content Mid-Course To Better Meet Student Needs
In the past, changing course content or activities according to student needs might have required too much time, Conatser says. But AI tools make it possible to shift gears quickly based on student feedback or assessments.
For example, some professors are using AI to generate actionable data in real time while teaching, says Derek Bruff, associate director of the University of Virginia's Center for Teaching Excellence and host of the Intentional Teaching podcast. In a blog post, Bruff described how he asked students a free-response question and then had an AI assistant read and summarize the students’ responses. This allowed him to quickly categorize responses and see the most common ones in order to help guide class discussion.
4. Grade Assignments More Efficiently
Some faculty members are skeptical about using AI for grading, but it can be a helpful “complement to faculty feedback,” says Jose Antonio Bowen, co-author of Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning.
Brown recommends using AI to provide students with feedback, such as checking for grammar and spelling, on early drafts.
For professors who want more help, Brown advises calibrating an AI grader such as GradeWhiz by providing it with a rubric and learning outcomes, as well as multiple previous essays you’ve graded and given feedback on. “Have it write a draft of feedback on a paper and comment on what it got right and wrong,” he says. “Many of us tend to give too much feedback and overwhelm students, and we can tell AI to give the student one or two things to focus on to improve their work.”
5. Build Better Assignments
If an instructor has established a course structure and basic goals for an assignment, AI can quickly produce many options for potential assignments.
“AI can help us think through many iterations and possibilities, where a person would need a considerable amount of time and dedicated focus to ideate so prolifically,” Conatser says. “That’s one of the superpowers of generative AI, for all of its problems and limitations: It doesn’t get tired, bored, annoyed or, hardware and internet connection willing, slow down. It can iterate and ideate as many times as you’d like it to and, in the end, you can make a more informed choice as to what sort of assignment best engages students in the learning outcomes of the course, the professional competencies of the program, and the critical skills and habits of mind in the discipline.”
