Tag: artificial intelligence

Early Fall Opportunities are Here!

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We are loving the energy on campus to start the Fall. In FDEV, we are launching our programming as quickly as possible to support you this semester. We don’t want to clog your inbox, so we are using the teaching tips to promote our upcoming workshops and the Fall Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs). 

 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Workshops. All sessions will be recorded. 

  1. AI Basics. 9/5 from 12-1pm. Zoom. Get started with the foundational knowledge you need about this disruptive technology. This session is designed with beginners in mind. Collaboration with TLP.
  2. Academic Integrity and AI. 9/19 from 9-11am. Zoom. This collaboration with Student Rights and Responsibilities covers how Academic Integrity and AI intersect and your changing role as an instructor. 

Classroom Culture. All sessions will be recorded. 
This series will launch in late September and will focus on fostering a healthy classroom environment, especially during contentious times like election season. This is a collaboration with the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office. Details forthcoming. Preliminary schedule will be:

  1. Free speech fundamentals. 9/20 from 12-1pm. Zoom.
  2. De-escalation in the classroom. 9/27 from 12-1pm. Zoom.
  3. Campus support systems. 10/4 from 12-1pm. Zoom. 
  4. Culminating event. 10/11 from 12-1pm. In Person. 

FLC Opportunities for Fall. All applications due on 9/3 at 11:59pm.

Advancing Hispanic/Latinx Student Success
(Google Doc)Who: All faculty including lecturers 
Leads: Teresita Curiel and Gloria Lopez
Grant Contact: Sabrina Marquez
Compensation: $1000 (a taxable training and professional development stipend)
Format: In Person
Application

This project is partially funded by a generous U.S. Department of Education Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) grant from PI Ryan Patten, College of BSS.  We are happy to collaborate on this important work.  This FLC will feature connected workshops focused on better understanding Hispanic/Latinx university students and how Chico State can advance their success. Applications are due on 9/3.

Collaborative Online International Learning (Google Doc)  (COIL)
Who: All faculty including lecturers 
Lead: Dr. Nan Li
Compensation: $500 (a taxable training and professional development stipend)
Format: Online and Synchronous
Application

International Education and Global Engagement (IEGE) is offering faculty an opportunity to participate in a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) this fall to support with implementation of Collaborative Online International Education (COIL) as a component within your course at Chico State. IEGE offers support—training, mentoring, resources, and partner matching—for faculty members who wish to develop a virtual exchange experience with a faculty member(s) abroad, connecting students globally to project-based learning and valuable international opportunities.

Leadership Development
(Google Doc)Who: Tenure/Tenure-Track and Lecturers currently in/considering leadership roles on campus
Lead: Holly Nevarez
Compensation: $500 (a taxable training and professional development stipend)
Format: In Person
Application

The leadership FLC will introduce leadership styles and strategies. This FLC is designed for people who lead from wherever you are. Perhaps you are not a formal leader on campus, but find yourself leading other staff or students; perhaps you would like to be a formal leader someday and want to start to develop skills; or perhaps you are going to be a department Chair next year and want to start preparing. In any of those scenarios, this FLC is for you. We will talk about staffing, shared governance, facilitating meetings, managing difficult people, work to develop a leadership philosophy and more. Applications are due on 9/3.

Quality Learning and Teaching (Google Doc) (QLT)
Who: All faculty including lecturers
Lead: Allison McConnell
Compensation: $500 (a taxable training and professional development stipend)
Format: Fall Online and Primarily Asynchronous
Application

The Quality Learning and Teaching (QLT) Program is an asynchronous, self-paced Canvas course structured around the QLT evaluation rubric. This QLT course is designed to meet core standards in the QLT instrument through the completion of eight modules with associated deliverables that guide you to fully redesign a course (or design a new course). Topics and deliverables focus on backwards design, student engagement, authentic assessment, inclusion and accessibility, and more. This QLT course requires a final course review. While focusing on online learning, QLT provides a framework that is applicable to all modes of instruction. Applications are due on 9/3.

Universal Design for Learning (Google Doc) (UDL)
Who: All STEM faculty, including lecturers (CNS and ECSCM)
Lead: Jamie Gunderson Compensation: $1880.00 (a taxable training and professional development stipend)
Format: Academic Year Online and Synchronous 
Application

The CSU Chico Office of Faculty Development (FDEV) is thrilled to present an NSF-funded Faculty Learning Community (FLC) dedicated to implementing teaching strategies that enhance student learning in STEM disciplines. This FLC invites participants to delve into Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to design assessments and implement activities that foster inclusion, accessibility, engagement, and student success within their courses. We strongly encourage all STEM faculty to apply.

 Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.

Artificial Intelligence Grab-Bag

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Several AI stories/resources are coming in at the same time, so I’ve packaged them together to save some time and inbox space.

First, Ethan Mollick, a professor at Wharton and a leading voice on AI in higher education was a recent guest on the Ezra Klein show. I can’t make you read or listen to anything about AI (or anything else for that matter), but if I could this would be the thing. During a 2nd half conversation about writing (which they later expanded to many other areas of student work) Mollick remarks “any writer knows about the tyranny of the blank page, about staring at a blank page and not knowing what to do next, and the struggle of filling that up. And when you have a button that produces really good words for you, on demand, you’re just going to do that.” The situation is not hopeless, but it does require some attention. Invest some time in this episode and you will be closer to solutions than where you are now.

Second, we are hosting an informal AI conversation on 4/19 via Zoom. This is a great opportunity to talk about what is going on in the classroom, in your own work, and discuss ethics and possibilities. Nik Janos and I started these conversations last year and we have found they work best when we come with a supportive attitude and intentionally to avoid disparaging our colleagues, students, or administrators by keeping the conversation focused on the technology and our perspectives. This is not a policy-making or agenda-driven space. All employees are welcome to attend and participate.

Third, applications for our summer programs are due on 4/19. We have an AI retrofit intensive and the popular writing intensive. Apply for one or both. We would love to see you and work with you this summer.

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

Workshop and Workload

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Ever wish you could get some preliminary help grading? Tired of drafting your own slide decks and visuals? Do you daydream about endless question sets to diversify your Canvas quizzes? Trying to prioritize your research, but having trouble putting resources and timelines together? We have a workshop for you! Join us today, March 12th from 12-1:30 p.m. in Selvesters and on Zoom for an AI workshop about tools to help with your workflow. Visit the FDEV website for full details. This is an investment of time, but it will be worth it. You will get this time back in weeks, if not days, with improvements to workflow and the ability to offload certain tasks to AI tools.

If you are concerned about workload, but currently not interested in AI tools, I have another recommendation. Check out this interesting essay from Inside Higher Ed from a few weeks ago about “selfish” teaching and scholarship. I was struck by this one excerpt that resonates with my teaching: “we should resist the temptation to teach every chapter of the textbook and instead zoom in on those content areas that best allow us to communicate the processes we want students to understand.”

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

SoTL Grants and Workshops!

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This is a reminder that FDEV is offering support for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The application is not tedious, but it is due tonight at 11:59 p.m. One question we have received a lot has to do with the approved travel request. Ideally, you have something approved or in process already, but if you do not please apply anyway. We will evaluate all applications we receive. Full details are in the tip from last week and the application is here.

On Friday we are offering a workshop to faculty and staff on an introduction to AI. We brought in Dr. Brett Christie for this work, he has been a national leader in this space and we are fortunate to have him. The workshop is on Friday, March 8th from 12-1:30 p.m. in MLIB 045 and on Zoom. On Tuesday, March 12th we are offering another AI workshop about tools to help with your workflow. Full details are here.

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

Tools for Spring

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Faculty start work on their spring courses at different times and with different needs. For those of you preparing now, we want to highlight a couple of asynchronous faculty development resources.

We have a robust set of teaching guides developed by campus experts on everything from Teaching with Case Studies to Culturally Responsive Teaching. Check out the full, searchable and sortable, FDEV Teaching Guides list to get help with your prep for the spring semester. 

We also developed an asynchronous Canvas course with a step-by-step guide to course revision in the world of generative AI. The world has changed, and this will help you change with it. Enroll in the course at a time that works best for you.

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

Changes in Artificial Intelligence Mean Changes in Our Classrooms

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In August we shared some basic information about what generative artificial intelligence is and what it means for your classroom. Since then, TLP has hosted a series of fantastic workshops organized by joshuah whittinghill. 

Today I want to share some AI news with you that has and will change how we teach and learn again. 

First, ChatGPT premium users now have access to a plugin that can browse the internet. When we first started our campus discussion of AI this program was limited by training data that was frozen in time and a year out of date. This was not the case for some competing programs like Google Bard, but asking students about current events was a useful way to work around the most popular model. That is no longer the case. This new development exacerbates the financial equity gap since only paid users get access to this new more powerful version of the tool.

Second, later this month ChatGPT will roll out “vision” which integrates visual and text tools together. This is part of a next-generation set of “multi-modal” models where the inputs and outputs can be in a variety of forms. I was not sure about the impact this would have on education until a recent episode of the podcast/YouTube channel “AI Breakdown.” You will be amazed by an example from beta-version user Pietro Schirano where ChatGPT draws meaning from a series of images that look like they were lifted from a textbook. I have included the image at the end of this message.

I prefer Tuesday Tips that have straightforward and actionable steps. This one does not. The tip is to try and stay abreast of developments because the assignments we have used for years and even some of the workarounds we developed a few months ago are suddenly out of date. 

This winter we will be offering an AI retrofit one week intensive to help faculty figure out how their content fits in this new world and we are also developing a self-paced Canvas course to accomplish some of the same goals at scale. Be on the lookout for those announcements in the coming weeks. In the meantime, look at the image below, whether you are a regular user or have never touched an AI tool before, it is likely to change your perception.

a group of individuals comparing their perspectives to reach a consensus through communication

Zach Justus
Interim Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

Artificial Intelligence in Fall Classes

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Hey folks!

We have received quite a few requests for help with Artificial Intelligence (AI) policies for Fall syllabi. Faculty have had a wide variety of reactions to AI programs that generate language, solve problems, create images, and write code. There is no one-size-fits-all policy for the campus, and we have several workshops on the horizon to help faculty explore some of these new possibilities. For now, you have quite immediate and practical concerns—here is what we are suggesting.

Things to keep in mind

  • The “ignore” disposition with AI is not viable. The tools are here, accessible, and accomplish a wide variety of tasks.
  • You should play around with some of these tools. Google Bard is free. ChatGPT has a free and a premium version. There are a thousand other specialized tools.
  • Consider how AI will change your course overall and specific outcomes/assignments in your course. I (Zach Justus) created a guide with Nik Janos if you are interested in a systematic approach.
  • We strongly recommend you adopt a syllabus policy. Below you will find sample policies adopted from Bryant University by joshuah whittinghill. AI is prevalent with students so if you don’t adopt a policy, students will ask or will use it without knowing what your expectations are.
  • There are legitimate privacy concerns with ChatGPT and other programs. Requiring student usage requires careful consideration.
  • joshuah is developing a series of AI workshops starting with several on AI Syllabus Statements & Detection Tools. Workshop information is below. Some of these workshops are after the first day of the semester. It is okay to make syllabus adjustments during the first week of the semester as long as you notify students.
  • It is important to be aware the tools currently available to detect AI-generated work are inconsistent and may discriminate against non-native English speakers. Therefore as noted in the Chico State’s Integrity Policy, have a conversation with the student(s) before referring the student(s) for violation of Academic Integrity to the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities.  

Sample syllabi language

  • All Use: AI writing tools such as ChatGPT are welcome in this class, provided that you cite when and how you use the tool. You will be provided with examples of how to cite your use of this tool in your assignments.
  • Some Use: As an instructor I recognize there are a variety of AI programs available to assist in creating text, images, audio, and video. However, I want to stress that, AI programs are not a replacement for human creativity, originality, and critical thinking. Creating is a skill that you must nurture over time in order to develop your own individual voice, style, and view.  During our class, we may use AI  tools.  You will be informed as to when, where, and how these tools are permitted to be used, along with guidance for attribution.  Any use outside of this permission constitutes a violation of Chico State’s Integrity Policy and may result in you being reported to the Office of Students Rights and Responsibilities.
  • No Use: AI writing tools are not permitted for any stage or phase of work in this class. If you use these tools, your actions will be considered academically dishonest, and a violation of Chico State’s Integrity Policy and you may be reported to the Office of Students Rights and Responsibilities.
  • Example of attribution language: “The student generated this assignment in part with [enter tool used here]. Upon generating an initial draft or outline of ideas, the student reviewed, edited, and revised the work to their own liking and takes ultimate responsibility for the content of this assignment.”

Workshop Information

  • Wednesday, August 23 from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
  • Thursday, August 24 from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
  • All workshops will be in the Zoom TLP Lab

Zach Justus
Interim Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences