AI in the Classroom

In the short-term, you can have your students write essays in class and on paper. 

This isn't a good long-term solution for a few reasons:

• For longer research papers, students will have access to chatbots outside of class.
• Students may need to use online resources for their writing.
• You won't be able to use the LMS feedback tools for annotation, rubric scoring, and grading.

Note: Some students may have accommodations to type their work rather than handwrite it. Make sure to follow student accommodations when assigning work. 

Idea from Ditch That Textbook

Using collaborative activities and discussions is one strategy to mitigate the use of gen AI responses in your class. While students may generate ideas from an AI tool, they will need to discuss with one another whether they want to use the tool's responses, if they fit the prompt, and if they are factually accurate.

Activities to try include:

• Think-Pair-Share
• Fishbowl Discussions
• Brainstorming with physical sticky notes or Padlet
• 10 Discussion Strategies to Use in Class Tomorrow (Ditch That Textbook)
• Creating Podcasts or Videos

Idea from Ditch That Textbook

Engage your students in meaning-making activities to demonstrate their learning.

Consider low-tech activities like:

• Skits*
• Drawings and sketches
• Concept Mapping
• Fun formative assessment: 12 easy, no-tech ideas (Ditch That Textbook)

Consider technology-infused activities like:

• Infographics*
• Concept Mapping
• Digital Storytelling*
• Drawings and sketches using Google Drawings or Jamboard
• Let students choose a medium and activity (“Digital Media Design Student Choice Board” by Torrey Trust is licensed under CC BY NC SA 4.0)
• Write* or revise Wikipedia articles (Wiki Education)

* Note that an AI tool can provide an outline for these activities.

Idea from Ditch That Textbook

Brain dumps are an ungraded recall strategy. The practice involves pausing a lecture and asking students to write everything they can recall about a specific topic. Read more at:

• Brain Dump: A small strategy with a big impact (Retrieval Practice)

Idea from Ditch That Textbook

During or after writing, students explain their process or thinking. Students could:

• Use Comments in Word or Google Docs;
• Create a video explaining their change history on a Google Doc;
• Use Track Changes to show their revisions.

Ideas were inspired by Watkins (2022).

Consider using planned or impromptu oral exams. You may consider including phrasing in your syllabus about conducting oral exams if you suspect plagiarism through the use of a chatbot.

Idea from Darren Hudson Hick (2022).

When selecting readings, consider sourcing more obscure texts for your students to read. AI may have less information in their training data on obscure texts. As an example, the New York Times reports that, "Frederick Luis Aldama, the humanities chair at the University of Texas at Austin, said he planned to teach newer or more niche texts that ChatGPT might have less information about, such as William Shakespeare’s early sonnets instead of 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream'" (Huang, 2023). 

Contact a Wabash librarian for help sourcing new content.

(Note that ChatGPT is currently trained on data through 2021. Some educators suggest using newer writings and research, but this strategy isn't foolproof since the training models for chatbots are updated frequently.)

Coordinate times to take your class to conduct field observations; students can note their observations and write a reflection about their experience.

Idea from Kelley (2023)