COURSE TYPE
Ethical Integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools for Instructors' Professional Development is a structured problem-solving course for instructors in higher education. The course is well-suited to address the identified learning gap, as instructors have a general awareness of AI but lack structured guidance on ethical use, its application across disciplines, and its limitations. The course ensures that instructors can demonstrate ethical decision-making and responsible integration of AI tools in their professional practice by integrating the following sequence of components (Adeoye et al., 2024).
1. Identify Instructional Goals - The instructional goal for the course is to teach instructors how to ethically integrate AI tools into their professional practice, with examples of ethical application across disciplines such as Social Sciences, Education, STEM, and Business.
2. Conduct Instructional Analysis - The course is sequenced into smaller skills, for example, an overview of AI tools, the ethical principles to consider in Education, along with their application in the educational context.
3. Analyze Learners and Contexts - Participants are between the ages of 30 and 65+, motivated and skilled in their disciplines, with varying levels of technology and AI proficiency across academic disciplines.
4. Write Performance Objectives - Measurable objectives are set for learners' success, which are:
• Identify and explain the ethical principles (such as transparency, equity, privacy, and academic integrity) and their application in at least two different scenarios in their discipline.
• Analyze AI-supported scenarios in their professional practice and categorize each use as appropriate or inappropriate based on ethical guidelines.
• Design a course component, for example, a course syllabus or learning activity that aligns with ethical principles and meets the provided criteria for authentic learning and assessments that align with those goals.
5. Develop Assessment Instruments – Scenario-based assessment is used, where instructor participants use their discipline-related examples to redesign a course component, such as a syllabus, which is used to evaluate the ethical or unethical use of AI tools in their professional practice.
6. Develop Instructional Strategy – The instructional strategy for the mini course includes scenario-based learning due to the participants' varied disciplines, structured reflection to enhance learners’ autonomy, scaffolding for varied participants' proficiency in AI tools and technology, and hands-on activities to enhance learners' engagement with the course.
7. Develop and Select Instructional Materials - The instructional materials included in the course are 5-15-minute videos, clickable infographics for further research, extensive resources for skilled learners to enhance further research and engagement, accessibility support such as video captions, transcripts, and alt text, all of which address diversity and accessibility to meet learners' needs and preferences.
8. Design and Conduct Formative Evaluation - Formative evaluation, such as scenario-based activities, reflection prompts, and feedback, is used at the development phase of the course to gather feedback and make necessary revisions for the course improvement. is included to help identify areas for improvement.
9. Revise Instruction - Instructions are consistently revised based on learners' feedback to ensure coherence and effectiveness. For example, revisions could include adjusting scaffolding for learners with basic knowledge of AI tools or technology who may feel overwhelmed, providing discipline-specific examples, and reducing cognitive load where needed.
10. Design and Conduct Summative Evaluation - The course evaluation is used to gather information on how effective the learning instructions are and to determine if the learning goals were achieved. For example, learners analyze how AI tools are used both ethically and unethically, with provided examples or reflections on the ethical considerations of integrating AI tools in an educational context relevant to their discipline (Pappas, 2024).
COURSE MODALITY
Given learners' preferences, a self-paced, asynchronous modality is best for my participants, who are higher education instructors with varied, busy schedules across different faculties, because it offers flexibility. The course resources are computers or smartphones connected to the internet that support the course's multimedia tools, enabling instructor participants to explore the content. The asynchronous modality also enhances learners' autonomy by providing independent learning experiences. The asynchronous modality of the course addresses accessibility for learners and diverse learning preferences and needs by structuring the course around the identified instructional goals, learners' demographics, learners dispositions and concerns, varied AI tools and technology proficiency level by providing scaffolding to assist learners through audio and video captions, text, alt text options for infographics, clear language, prompt templates and respectful language across all course content (Chapparo, 2023).
REFERENCES
Adeoye, Moses Adeleke, Wirawan, Kadek Adrian Surya Indra, Pradnyani, Made Shania Satya, & Septiarini, Nyoman Intan. (2024). Game-Changer Using Dick and Carey Model in Enhancing Academic Achievement through Effective Instructional Strategies. Indonesian Journal of Instruction, 5(1), 25–38. https://doi.org/10.23887/iji.v5i1.69298
Obizoba, C. (2015). Instructional design models-framework for innovative teaching and learning methodologies. Centre for Business & Economic Research.