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Poll Everywhere Conversations and Recommendations
By Kristine Dreaver-Charles, Academic Innovation Specialist with Academic Innovation Technologies The challenge of technology is when it fails. I’ve had those moments of presenting or trying to demonstrate something and my technology just does not do what I intended. Sometimes it is the technology. Sometimes it’s the hardware. But sometimes it’s me and I’ve forgotten a critical step. Ultimately, I am aiming to fail forward and learn from the experience rather than give up completely. If you’ve tried Poll Everywhere and been challenged by it not doing what you need or expect, consider what support you need and where you can find it. My usual beginning point is to talk…
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ChatGPT Detection Tools – neither approved nor recommended at USask
Within weeks of the release of ChatGPT, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) detectors were claiming to be able to identify the text it produces. However, a growing body of research has found that these detection tools are not effective. Even the company that created ChatGPT (OpenAI) abandoned their detector in July 2023 due to its low rate of accuracy. Consequently, such tools are neither approved nor recommended for use at the University of Saskatchewan. Here is what recent research has demonstrated about the lack of efficacy of these tools: 1.) They are unreliable – False positives can lead to false accusations False positives occur when a detector concludes that text was…
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New Season and New Name for GMCTL Podcast
The third season of the podcast from the Gwenna Moss Centre will go live in the next few weeks. Just as in the first two seasons, we’ll be speaking with instructors from across the institution about their teaching and how they connect with learners. One significant change to the podcast as of this season is the name. Formerly known as the Mastering Teaching Podcast, the podcast is now Power of Teaching. You don’t need to change your bookmarks, as the address will not change. You can still find it on your favourite podcast platform or at https://www.spreaker.com/show/mastering-teaching Be sure to share the podcast with your colleagues at USask and beyond,…
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Getting AI to Write Questions for You
You know you should make your class more active. Asking students regular, low stakes questions about the key concepts, skills, and process you are teaching is essential. In a 50-minute lesson, it is great to do that 5 times. You shouldn’t grade any of the questions, and you should asks students to talk with with each other about each one. Even when you know this is important, it can be hard to do. Who actually has time? We wind up avoiding making active learning components because we are already spending so much time making slides of our content and creating assessments. And then we spend even more time marking! The…
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New Module on GenAI added to Academic Integrity Tutorial
The Academic Integrity Tutorial has a new addition entitled Understanding Generative AI which focusses on the ethical and responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in university. ChatGPT is one tool among thousands that fall under the GenAI category. This means there are now 4 modules that each take about 45 minutes to complete (a total of about 3 hours for most students). Module 1 – Understanding Academic Integrity Module 2 – Understanding Generative AI Module 3 – Developing Skills that Prevent Academic Misconduct Module 4 – Understanding Your Rights and Responsibilities The open version of the tutorial as always, is available on the Library’s website. Each end-of-module quiz…
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Inbox Assignment
Summary: Transform your teaching with Inbox Assignments! Engage students and boost learning outcomes through real-world email scenarios. Explore this innovative approach now. Date of publishing: August 16, 2023 How’s your email inbox looking today? This can be a stressful question! We each have different ways of addressing projects but the reality is that email often plays a huge role in how we manage our to-do list. How do we prepare students for this career reality? Simulating a project via an inbox is a way to make a case study more authentic. Case-based learning helps students address a complex problem. Students often work in small teams each with a different role…
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Prompting Generative AI to Help You Plan for Your Class Quickly
Having a good teaching assistant (TA) can be so important. While anyone needs clear direction to grade an essay with the same criteria you use, it is incredibly helpful to have someone help carry the teaching load. It turns out that Generative AI (like Microsoft Copilot) doesn’t just force you to redesign your assessments for academic integrity reasons – with good prompting it can even help you do that redesign. It just needs the clear direction and oversight you typically give a human TA. Learning to prompt can save you time Prompting AI is the process of giving clear parameters for what you want. When you start chatting with an…
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Recommendations for Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence
These recommendations were provided in June 2023 in response to a request from Deans to provide guidance to the campus community with respect to ChatGPT – a generative artificial intelligence tool that can produce content that is difficult to distinguish from that produced by humans. Some links and terminology were updated in July 2023 and in October 2023. Advice in this area is evolving and questions and suggestions are invited for future updates of this resource (contact susan.bens@usask.ca). * On May 1, 2023, the European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI) published recommendations on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in education. The ENAI recommendations are summarized, paraphrased, re-ordered, and grouped below,…
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Need to learn more about ChatGPT?
Are you looking for a comprehensive and digestible introduction to Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)? GenAI is the term in use now for the category of machine learning tools that ChatGPT falls under. A new module titled “Understanding Generative AI” has been added to the academic integrity tutorial. It is a recommended resource for both student and faculty. Check out this resource by Sidney I. Dobrin and download the free 37 page pdf booklet that provides a helpful overview of the technology, speaks to the academic integrity and misconduct challenges, and suggests strategies for the new context. In the section on pp. 18-19 under the heading “Assignment Design in the…
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Wellness-Centric Course Design Toolkit
Is it possible to design a course with WELLNESS in MIND? We have the unique opportunity to shape the holistic well-being of our students, fostering an environment that supports their personal growth and success. With the fall semester of 2023 on the horizon, it is essential to consider a fresh approach. Introducing Wellness-Centric Course Design, a comprehensive guide that provides a wealth of suggestions encompassing all aspects of course development, with a particular emphasis on prioritizing the well-being of our students. Recognizing the wide variability in class size, course content, learning objectives, and individual teaching style, this tool is intended to present a range of options to create the conditions…