FACTS 2024

Faculty Communities of Teaching Scholars (FaCTS), an initiative funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 

The FaCTS initiative supports faculty in planning and implementing innovative curricular and/or pedagogical projects. FaCTS is intended to enhance scholarly teaching practices, encourage faculty involvement in the scholarship of teaching and learning, and ultimately enhance student learning experiences. 

The theme for 2024 is “Human Learning in an AI World.”

The introduction of AI into higher education presents both opportunities and challenges for faculty and students. AI has the potential to enhance and augment traditional teaching methods, such as providing personalized learning experiences and freeing up faculty time for more engaging and dynamic instruction. However, there are concerns about the impact of AI on academic integrity and the potential for displacement of human instructors. The challenge for educators is to find a balance between leveraging the benefits of AI while ensuring that the human element of teaching and learning is not lost.

Predictive AI to Analyze Germline MSH6 Mutations

Christopher Bolden (Biology)

This proposal is to implement and introduce AI into BIOL 3110 – Genetics Lab. This research- based undergraduate course investigates the effect point mutations have on protein function. Our current understanding of these mutations in relation to DNA replication are not well understood and vary drastically in each person. To expand our understanding and increase the efficiency of genomic analysis, AI-based algorithms have emerged as a valuable toolset that can be tailored to progress the modern world’s goal of individualized medicine. In this proposal, AI algorithms will be incorporated to further expand the protein dynamic information obtained from each group’s assigned mutation.

This proposal will attempt to restructure our current final project to incorporate AI in the analysis of DNA mismatch repair mutations along with submission of NSF HBCU-Up.

AI Pedagological Resources

• Theory and Research-based Principles of Learning - This resource from the Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon University presents the basic principles that underlie effective (human) learning. We should keep these principles in mind as we integrate AI into our teaching.

• 7 Things You Should Know About Generative AI This article from Educause Review explains why Generative AI, like ChatGPT, is revolutionizing education. Generative AI creates human-like content, but raises concerns about plagiarism and accuracy.

• Creating Your Course Policy on AI - This site from Stanford university offers "example syllabus statements, suggestions for what to include, and sample sentences that you might use as you think through your own course policy on AI and begin writing a statement to put in your syllabus."

• Syllabi Policies for AI Generative Tools - This resource, created by Lance Eaton, is for the purposes of sharing and helping other instructors see the range of policies available by other educators as they develop their own.

• How To Teach with AI and Still Put People First - This blog post describes an AI writing assignment.

• Generative Artificial Intelligence and Writing Assignments - This resources from the Bok Center at Harvard University is a great resource for creating writing assignments that integrate AI. It provides many examples for a variety of specific types of writing assignments (e.g., response papers, article summaries, research papers).

• AI in Assignment Design - The Center for Teaching Innovation at Cornell University describes issues we should consider when creating AI assignments.

• 10 Best Practices for AI Assignments in Higher Ed - This blog post provides what the title says it does.

• AI & Accessibility - This resource from Cornell University explains the importance of accessibility and how to use generative AI to create more accessible content.

• AI Writing Educator Resources — This is another meta-resource; this one is from Turnitin, the similarity detection service integrated into Xavier's Brightspace LMS.

• Teaching Conferences Directory - Want to present the innovative things you are doing with AI in the classroom? The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Kennesaw State University maintains a directory of teaching conferences that you can search by discipline.

• Teaching Journals Directory - Want to publish the innovative things you are doing with AI in the classroom?The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Kennesaw State University maintains a directory of teaching journal that you can search by discipline