Use AI Responsibly: A Step-by-Step Guide for Instructors – Help Center

While Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers exciting possibilities for enhancing teaching and learning, it is important to understand both its potential and its limitations. This guide will empower you to harness AI responsibly and ethically in your classroom.

AI's Potential in Education

AI has a lot of potential for innovation in education, transforming traditional teaching methods and offering opportunities to improve educational outcomes for both students and teachers.

Use Cases

Explore some interesting ways AI is being used in education.

Personalized Learning	To tailor learning experiences to individual student needs, helping them progress at their own pace. To create quizzes that adjust difficulty based on student performance. To suggest resources and activities tailored to each student's interests, strengths, and weaknesses. To answer questions and guide students in real-time.
Intelligent Tutoring	To provide immediate feedback and support, freeing up instructors to focus on other tasks. To provide feedback on grammar, structure, and content of student writing. To guide students through experiments and provide feedback on their results. To analyze student code and offer suggestions for improvement.
Course Design and Development	To assist in the creation of engaging and effective learning materials. To generate practice problems and assessments aligned with learning objectives. To identify areas where existing course materials may be lacking and suggest improvements. To provide insights into how students interact with course materials to help refine teaching approaches.
Streamlined Tasks	To automate repetitive tasks like grading and administrative work, giving instructors more time for meaningful interactions with students. To grade multiple-choice and short-answer questions, saving instructors time. To draft emails to anonymized students with tailored information and updates. To help schedule meetings and appointments with students.
Data-driven Insights	To analyze vast amounts of data to identify patterns and trends, informing instructional decisions. To identify students who may be at risk of falling behind and suggest interventions. To provide visual representations of student performance and engagement data. To suggest relevant resources and activities based on student data.

Navigating the Limitations of AI

While AI can offer many benefits, it is important to be aware of its limitations:

Reliability

AI models can sometimes produce inaccurate or misleading information, known as hallucinations.

Content generated by AI requires careful fact-checking from both instructors and students.

Bias

AI can inadvertently perpetuate biases present in the data it's trained on, potentially leading to discriminatory outcomes.

It's essential to critically evaluate AI-generated content for potential bias.

Overreliance

While AI is a powerful tool, it should not replace human judgment and critical thinking in education.

Instructors should use AI as a supplement to, not a substitute for, their own knowledge and expertise.

Explore some additional risks of working with generative AI: AI Risk Atlas (IBM).

A Checklist for Responsible AI Use

To ensure you are using AI ethically and responsibly, follow this checklist:

Step One: Follow Institutional Guidelines

Safeguard Student Privacy and Institutional Data

When using AI tools, it's crucial to prioritize data privacy and security. Avoid inputting any personally identifiable information (PII) or sensitive student data, such as names, email addresses, and grades into AI tools.

Follow UCLA Extension's guidelines for protecting student privacy and institutional data. This not only safeguards sensitive information but also ensures compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), maintaining the trust of our students.

Understand Generative AI and Intellectual Property

It is important to understand how using generative AI to create new or revised content can affect intellectual property rights and copyright. For more details, please consult our guide on the nuances of AI-generated content and ownership.

Step Two: Review all AI Outputs

Fact Check

Verify the accuracy of AI-generated content that you’re planning to share in your course with reliable sources, such as academic journals, textbooks, news sites, and government websites. Think of AI as a helpful brainstorming partner, rather than a definitive expert.

Reliable Sources

If AI provides historical facts, verify information with sources like:

Encyclopedias: Britannica, EOL, Oxford Research, World Factbook
Academic Journals: Google Scholar, JSTOR, DOAJ, PubMed, Project MUSE
Digital Library Databases: UCLA Library, Internet Archive, DPLA, WDL, Project Gutenberg

If AI makes scientific claims, cross-reference them with sources like:

Peer-reviewed Research: NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, Clarivate
Government Organizations: CDC, NIH, WHO, FDA, EPA, NASA
Credible Sites: ScienceDaily, Nature News, Scientific American

If you're using AI to summarize articles, compare them against official news sites:

International News: AP, Reuters, BBC News, The Guardian, The Economist
National News (United States): New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, NPR

Trace the Source

As a best practice, proactively seek citations from AI tools to verify the accuracy and credibility of the generated content. This practice also helps you assess potential copyright concerns and the extent to which the AI tool has paraphrased or directly quoted original sources.

Try It Yourself

Include the following enhancements to your AI prompts:

"Provide evidence from pedagogical research with proper citations."
"Include in-text citations and a reference list of credible sources used."
"Cite relevant assessment theories and best practices."
"Verify the accuracy of information using multiple credible sources, providing citations for all."
"Cite relevant sources including news articles, peer-reviewed articles, academic publications, and expert opinions."
"Include relevant direct quotes with proper attribution."

Edit and Personalize the Content

Always edit content to match your unique voice, tone, and teaching style. Copying and pasting AI-generated content verbatim can be considered plagiarism. Remember, AI-generated content is not your intellectual property. It's derived from a diverse range of sources, and ownership belongs to all original authors of those sources.

Editing Strategies

Consider the following when customizing AI-generated content:

Purpose: Determine the goal of the content (i.e., to inform, persuade, or entertain) and edit, as needed.
Audience: Keep your audience (i.e., your students) in mind as you edit. What is their knowledge level or expectations? Remove irrelevant or unrelated information.
Voice: Adjust the language to match your desired voice and tone. Make it sound more human and engaging.
Clarity: Simplify complex sentences, eliminate unnecessary wordiness, and ensure ideas flow logically and smoothly.
Personal Insights: Add your own unique insights and perspectives to make the content more original and meaningful to students.
Examples: Use real-life examples, anecdotes, lessons learned, or case studies to illustrate your points and connect with your students.
Grammar and Punctuation: Proofread for any errors. AI tools can sometimes make grammatical mistakes.
Location: Where will the content be published (e.g., in Canvas)? Consider formatting content to align with the platform. Use headings and subheadings to organize content and make it easier for students to scan.

Eliminate Bias

Ethical use of AI-generated content requires thoughtful consideration of its potential effects on students. Ensure that the content you choose is accurate, free from bias, and represents the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and abilities of your learners.

Practical Examples

Consider the following when revising AI-generated content:

Content Creation: When using AI for content creation, ensure content reflects diverse perspectives and avoids stereotypes.

Prompt: "Review this lesson plan on [topic]. Identify any biases, stereotypes, or gaps in representation. Suggest revisions to ensure the content is inclusive and representative of diverse perspectives."

Content Curation: When using AI for content curation, scrutinize for biases, inaccuracies, and inappropriate material.

Prompt: "Analyze this collection of AI-curated educational resources for [subject/student/grade level]. Identify representation gaps and recommend additional resources for a balanced and inclusive selection."

Rubrics: When using AI to generate rubric samples, ensure fairness.

Prompt: "Create a rubric for [assignment type]. Avoid potential biases and ensure equitable assessment for all learners."

Step Three: Be Transparent about AI Use

Disclose AI Usage

Transparency is key to maintaining academic integrity. Always disclose the use of AI-generated content in your course. Inform your Academic Department if you are using AI to assist in designing, developing, and teaching your course.

Your Department will share disclaimers that you can include in your syllabus and connect you with a learning designer if needed.

Sample Syllabus Language

"In an effort to provide a rich and engaging learning experience, some course materials (such as [list examples]) may have been generated or enhanced with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. All AI-generated content has been thoroughly reviewed for accuracy and relevance to the course objectives and outcomes.

Any external sources used by these tools are fully cited in the course materials. The use of AI is intended to supplement, not replace, your own learning and critical thinking skills. If you have any questions about how AI has been used in this course, please feel free to ask.

Attribute AI Generated Content

When citing AI-generated content, follow UCLA Extension's established guidelines or consult your Academic Department for specific recommendations.

APA Citation Example

There are several positive reinforcement techniques for classroom management, including specific praise, tangible rewards, and recognition of desired behaviors (OpenAI, 2024). These emphasize the need for consistency and work to maintain student motivation and engagement.

Reference

OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Mar 23 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

The integration of AI in education is an ongoing journey. By understanding AI's potential, acknowledging its limitations, and adhering to ethical principles, we can create a more inclusive and impactful learning experience for all students.