Strategies and resources for thinking about AI in your classroom:

Below are three steps to take toward considerate classroom AI practice and use, along with resources such as syllabus statement templates, practical and theoretical articles, and more. As a reminder, currently PCC has no official policy specific to the use of AI in assignment completion as inappropriate use of AI is already considered an academic code violation. 

We hope you can join monthly meetings and webinars on Teaching with AI! Check out the calendar for upcoming dates. 

In addition, the AI Task Force serves to support PCC students and employees navigate AI issues a further policies and practices are being established; please contact pcc-ai@pima.edu with any AI thoughts or questions!

Step One: Communicate course approach in a syllabus statement.

Avoid misunderstandings by including an AI-specific course statement on your syllabus. To ensure a comprehensive policy, consider:

• What, if any, acceptable uses AI has in assignment completion (e.g., during brainstorming? Or in the final product?)

• How to cite or acknowledge AI use

• Repercussions for misuse (e.g., will this be considered an automatic academic code violation? Will learners be asked to resubmit assignments? Is there a grade penalty?)

• Optional: AI limitations, ethics of, unreliability, and bias; how learners can expect you to make use of AI and AI detectors in class

Looking for inspiration? See the below examples: 

• PCC AI Syllabus Statement Templates 

• This 70+ page document with cross-disciplinary examples  

• Using Generative AI in Coursework (student-developed) by Boston University

**And don't forget to set aside time to talk with learners about AI throughout the semester, especially around large assignments or key activities! 

Step Two: Review grading & assessment practices to reduce anxiety and stress.

Incorporate practices that lower grade anxiety. For example:

• Build structured flexibility into due dates, for example by offering a set number of late submissions or through a range of due dates

• Allow more time for major assignments, whether as a general rule or by individual request

• Scaffold assignments with multiple draft and revision deadlines that offer you opportunities to give them feedback

• Redistribute the relative weight of major assessments to reduce the stakes of any one assignment

• Incorporate periodic reflection on work and assignment progress

**Many alternative grading methods such as mastery-based grading, labor-based grading, and ungrading value learner process over a class product, reducing grading anxiety. These or any grading method that makes use of reflective assignments or iterative learning make misuse of AI difficult. 

Step Three: Design with authentic learning contexts and assessments in mind.

1. Incorporate authentic assignments and assessments in your classroom. Authentic assignments are those which are tied to real-world contexts and require hands-on, iterative learning:

   1. • Authentic Assessment 

      • Open Pedagogy 

      • Problem-Based Learning

2. Explore formats beyond traditional reports or essays, such as videos, presentations, podcasts, and websites 

3. Ask learners to demonstrate their process and reflect on their work 

4. Include AI use in the learning process. For example: 

   1. • After learners have read and discussed assigned texts, invite them to work in small groups to ask ChatGPT questions about the readings and then assess and critique its answers

      • After learners complete their own drafts of an assigned essay, invite them to request a draft of the assignment from ChatGPT.  Facilitate a discussion in which learners analyze how the drafts compare, for better and for worse  

      • Assign learners to create an AI-generated essay from a prompt, then instruct them to heavily edit its output using "track changes" and margin comments in Google. Have students reflect on the changes they made, and why. Or, have learners grade an AI-generated essay based on the assignment's rubric