TEACHING IN THE AGE OF AI

A faculty working group is tackling important questions about AI tools in the classroom.

By University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences By David Menconi

It’s fast becoming a back-to-school ritual: figuring out what new tricks the latest version of artificial intelligence can do. AI is already moving so fast that it doesn’t take long for knowledge of its capabilities to be rendered obsolete.

“Education really has become complicated,” said April Mann, director of the Writing Center and a distinguished senior lecturer in the Department of Writing Studies at the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences. “It seems like each semester we have to recognize AI’s new capacities since the last time. We have to learn to deal with what we can do as it upgrades constantly.”

The AI and Writing Tools in the Classroom faculty working group shares insights with other faculty members during a workshop series presented by the Center for the Humanities. Photo credit: Center for the Humanities

While AI is already ubiquitous, it brought on a crisis in education long before other fields, leaving some professors fighting back by mandating in-class writing assignments only. But Mann is leading the search for alternative approaches, co-founding AI and Writing Tools in the Classroom, an ongoing faculty working group.

“The working group has played a vital role in helping faculty members manage the challenges and opportunities created by the rise of AI,” said Leonidas Bachas, the college’s dean. “It’s a valuable resource for faculty members across the college who are grappling with how best to incorporate this technology into their courses.”

Mann and the group’s co-founder, Adina Sanchez-Garcia, associate chair and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Writing Studies and a distinguished senior lecturer, lead a group of up to 25 faculty members from across the college. Faculty members from departments including geography and sustainable development, history, modern languages and literatures, psychology, sociology, and theatre arts have taken part over the past four semesters. During the 2023-2024 academic year, the group also shared insights with other faculty members in a workshop series presented by the Center for the Humanities that focused on AI, teaching, and humanities-based writing.

“The group is a place for everyone to think through ideas about what to do,” said Sanchez-Garcia. “It provides a space to test things out and get feedback. There are a lot of different levels. Some professors are all-in; others are just dipping a toe.”

Students participate in a virtual reality community engagement activity at University of Miami Hillel that was organized as part of Shai Cohen’s Sephardi and ChatGPT class.

One member of the working group who has enthusiastically embraced this technology is Shai Cohen, a senior lecturer in the Michele Bowman Underwood Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. Cohen uses AI tools in and out of the classroom on projects like collaborating with UMverse to create an avatar of the renowned rabbi and philosopher Maimonides and building a Maimonides chatbot.

“We took it out into the communities, and it was extraordinary to see people—ages 10 to 70—engaging with a virtual 12th-century philosopher in real time,” said Cohen, who taught a new course last spring titled Sephardi and ChatGPT: AI as a Digital Frontier in Cultural Heritage. “At this stage, AI isn’t just a novelty—it’s becoming a core part of how we teach, learn, and work. Understanding it gives students and professionals a major advantage.”

Although the potential for students misusing AI is a legitimate concern, AI also creates positive opportunities. Mann pointed out that it can serve as an equity tool to level the playing field for non-native English speakers—and it can also help beat writer’s block by assisting with outlining or brainstorming as a starting point.

“AI literacy is important because it’s not going away,” said Mann. “But in the Writing Center, we think of writing as technology for thinking, and that’s not something to hand over to machines. We want to keep our students coming up with their own thoughts and ideas, then use AI as an assistant to help them achieve their academic potential.”