Faculty Afternoon Breakouts
Academic Senate 

This workspace session will be devoted entirely to conversations with colleagues in your discipline about course assignments and essential learning outcomes. After brief context and instructions to clarify how we will participate, we will break out into discipline groups in the room and in Zoom. We will work in 20 minute sessions. We will identify specific learning activities and assignments. We will evaluate the learning experiences that occur there. And we will determine when it is important for students to turn assistive/generative technologies off, and when it is important for students to turn these tools back on.  

Show my colleagues how to build creative content (write a book, create ZTC content, build content to support learning) How to use multiple AI tools to support a project.  

This session explores the transformative potential of Nectir AI in education. Participants will:

1. Learn how to integrate AI Course Assistants into their teaching practices.

2. Understand the ways AI can enhance student engagement, critical thinking, and academic performance.

3. Examine real-world case studies showcasing improvements in GPA, motivation, and self-efficacy due to AI integration​.

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4. Engage in hands-on activities to create and customize AI Assistants tailored to their course needs.

5. Discuss ethical considerations, data privacy, and best practices for leveraging AI responsibly in education​.

By the end of the session, participants will be equipped with actionable strategies to implement Nectir AI effectively and insights into fostering a collaborative, AI-enhanced classroom environment. 

This conversation will focus on how to approach students when they submit assignments that are utilizing AI more than or in ways other than what is agreed upon for the class or reflected in the syllabus policy. These responses would look different depending on the AI policies and also depending on the modality of the class, etc. The goal is to have a variety of productive interactions versus accusatory ones. Conversations would also be very different in classes where there is a no AI policy versus classes where it has some place. So this workshop could potentially involve some role-playing scenarios and also have everyone who attends share their experiences and brainstorm a variety of approaches. 

Previously, conversations with students about plagiarism were often quite challenging, and plagiarism was more concrete than AI misuse. The goal would be for everyone to feel confident in their approaches to addressing AI misuse (and what that means to them individually) and moving students through it to a productive application of AI (again, whatever that means for each course).

Discover one rookie instructor's journey to learn how to ask the right questions of ChatGPT to get feedback on instructional ideas and labs regarding rigor, originality, accessibility, and more! This hands-on lab will empower you to create and evaluate a lesson plan with AI, while equipping you with the tools to enhance your teaching practice using AI as a powerful support. (That last sentence was written by ChatGPT--twice) 

Playlab is an AI tool developed in California enabling educators to easily create customized chatbots, engaging students in learning in powerful ways aligned with faculty teaching strategies. Playlab is free for faculty and students, but provides access to the most powerful AI models. Be one of the first at MiraCosta to get access to this tool, and learn from one of the CCC system pioneers, Fabiola Torres, about how to get started with Playlab! 

Explore strategies to actively engage students and users in utilizing AI for learning activities and creative processes. This session focuses on the intersection of equity and design, emphasizing the importance of designing with your users, not just for them. Learn how to gather and incorporate user feedback to create AI-powered activities and materials that foster meaningful engagement inside the classroom as well as across various campus areas.

Participants will discover how to empower learners by co-creating experiences that promote agency and equity. Walk away with practical tools and approaches to collaboratively design impactful learning opportunities shaped by those they serve.

Workshop Objectives:

• Integrate User Feedback: Learn strategies to involve students and users in designing AI-driven learning activities and materials.

• Apply strategies: Utilize design strategies to promote equity, creativity, and agency in the design process.

• Foster Collaboration: Explore methods to co-create impactful and inclusive learning experiences with users.

• Promote Empowerment: Equip participants to design learning opportunities that enhance learner engagement and ownership.

We will explore a sample assignment and the responses provided by AI (probably Chat-GPT). This will include a chance for faculty to complete an assignment using AI. After, we will have a discussion about how to show students the benefits and problems with this tool, and how to use it to increase their learning in a class. 

All academic tasks are artificially constructed situations that rely on certain constraints (like exams without notes) to place students in situations that assigns them a role (use prior knowledge to answer questions) that by design leads students to engage learning actions (study, annotate, practice, seek tutors...);  AI technologies have broken many of those interesting constraints for "conventional assignments" and so decrease engagement with assignments.

In this session, we will select our most tried and true, go-to “conventional” assignments and identify the ways AI breaks its generative constraints in order to explore together the possible learning-situations we might re-design in order to reintroduce meaningful roles that lead students to engage in their learning experiences.

Show users how to use new prompting techniques for new reasoning models and advanced voice features 

Explore how bias emerges in AI tools and algorithms, its impact on decision-making, and strategies to address it. Empower yourself and students to critically assess AI-driven technologies and foster equitable, informed use in education and beyond. 

Explore multiple tools with AI features available at MiraCosta College and discover how they can help you work smarter. This session offers a tour of tools like Zoom AI features, Co-pilot, and AI in Canvas (smart search, discussion summaries, etc.). Together, let’s discover creative ways to leverage these technologies to boost efficiency, enhance productivity, and transform the work we do at the college. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced user, this session will provide practical insights and ideas to make the most of AI tools in your work.

Workshop Objectives:

• Identify AI Features integrated within Tools: Familiarize participants with AI tools available at MiraCosta College, such as Zoom AI features, Co-pilot, and Canvas AI functionalities like smart search and discussion summaries.

• Enhance Productivity: Demonstrate how to leverage these tools to streamline workflows, boost efficiency, and save time in daily tasks.

• Encourage Creativity: Explore innovative ways to integrate AI technologies into teaching and administrative work to enhance engagement and collaboration.

• Build Confidence: Provide practical insights and hands-on guidance to help both beginners and experienced users effectively utilize AI tools in their roles.

• Transform Practices: Inspire participants to rethink how AI can transform traditional approaches to work and education at the college.

In this session, workshop participants will:

1) Choose a YouTube video and make a multiple-choice quiz using an AI-powered quiz generator,  

2) Generate a voice-enabled chatbot that can discuss the video with students 

3) Import both activities into Canvas.

The quiz scores flow to the grade book. The transcripts are automatically sent to the teacher (pre/post analysis). The AI-powered quiz builder is free, the “export to canvas” tool isn’t free, but the presenter will provide attendees with access. 

Playlab is an AI tool developed in California enabling educators to easily create customized chatbots, engaging students in learning in powerful ways aligned with faculty teaching strategies. Playlab is free for faculty and students, but provides access to the most powerful AI models. Be one of the first at MiraCosta to get access to this tool, and learn from one of the CCC system pioneers, Fabiola Torres, about how to get started with Playlab! 

Always, the focus of a workshop and the agenda of a meeting excludes the nuance and complexities attendees are expecting, especially–especially–in the AI conversation. The intention of this session is to listen, so faculty groups attending may identify what’s been overlooked or under-represented and then follow-up. 

Facilitate a discussion on the need for Human-Centered approach to AI.

Discover how AI tools can streamline time-consuming tasks, empowering faculty to focus on teaching and creativity. Learn to integrate AI effectively, preserving your autonomy and voice while enhancing productivity and reducing workload. 

Participants will share their experiences around student use of generative AI on class assessments, as well as ideas about how those challenges might be addressed. Ideas might include rethinking assessment types and formats, grading practices, class policies, and even student learning outcomes. This discussion will also serve as a preview and invitation to a Community of Practice which will enable a deeper, extended conversation around academic integrity, assessment, and AI through regular meetings during the spring semester. (Note - this session is a reprise of a workshop offered during Spring Flex Week.) 

Playlab is an AI tool developed in California enabling educators to easily create customized chatbots, engaging students in learning in powerful ways aligned with faculty teaching strategies. Playlab is free for faculty and students, but provides access to the most powerful AI models. Be one of the first at MiraCosta to get access to this tool, and learn from one of the CCC system pioneers, Fabiola Torres, about how to get started with Playlab!