This is how I use AI: Dr Thomas Wanner
Dr Thomas Wanner, senior lecturer in the University’s School of Social Sciences, shares how he’s integrated the use of ChatGPT into his courses to help students learn the skills to use gen AI in a critical, responsible and ethical way.
Dr Thomas Wanner, senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, has integrated gen AI literacy into his courses to help students learn how to use AI in a critical, responsible and ethical way.
How are you using AI in your course?
Students in my courses are required to engage with gen AI by using ChatGPT for their tutorial work and assignments. Before they do that, we have a two-hour tutorial about assignments and using ChatGPT in which we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using ChatGPT, what the other AI (academic integrity) means in relation to gen AI, and in what ways students have used gen AI for their learning and what they found helpful or not. We also discuss how ChatGPT can be used for the assignments (e.g. for brainstorming, structure or language help for an essay) and work on an example of a ChatGPT-created answer to an essay question.
I use the Padlet online collaboration tool in my courses which means all our discussions, student comments, and many resources about using gen AI for learning, are available on that Padlet and can be accessed by students anytime. We also use ChatGPT during the tutorials. For example, students can use ChatGPT to find a definition of key concepts, such as climate governance or climate justice. We then use the ChatGPT definition to discuss the concept and whether the answer is correct or not. In that way, students critically engage with the various aspects of the concept and at the same time they are critically engaging with ChatGPT and its answers.
After completing their major assignment (e.g. essay, report or policy brief), students write a reflective paper on how they have used ChatGPT for the assignment and include an appendix of the ChatGPT history and what they have used to improve their assignment. They also reflect on their own challenges using ChatGPT and whether the use of ChatGPT was helpful for their learning and for developing their critical thinking. This way, students critically engage with their personal use of gen AI.
What are the main reasons for using AI in this course?
I see gen AI as a tool that can enhance student learning and critical thinking rather than a threat that undermines both. For me, gen AI literacy is an important graduate attribute because students will use it in their future workplaces. No matter whether a teacher allows the use of gen AI or not, the students will use it anyway. I decided that I’d rather work with my students on developing their AI literacy by learning together how to use it ethically and responsibly, critically engage with the quality of AI output, and recognise the strengths and limitations of gen AI. Since 2023, I have introduced the use of ChatGPT into all my courses, including my first-year course DEVT 1001 Introduction to International Development because first-year students need to learn AI literacy from the start of their studies. I have decided to use ChatGPT because of its ‘conversational’ characteristics.
I want my students to understand that gen AI does not ‘understand’ what it provides in a chat; that it cannot do a critical argument or critical thinking; that critical thinking still is, and will remain, the human component of using gen AI; that we think and work more effectively and efficiently with its use, but that it cannot think and do the work for us. This is one of the most important messages I convey to my students: “Your critical thinking comes first and last when using ChatGPT.” It comes first by thinking of what the students want to achieve and creating the prompt to get help from ChatGPT and then last by thinking critically what to use and why from the ChatGPT answer.
How do you maintain academic integrity?
I ensure that academic integrity is maintained by working with students on the link between gen AI and academic integrity using many resources from the AI team (such as this PowerPoint), and the MyUni course Ethical use of AI. Of course, awareness about academic integrity does not prevent cheating and plagiarism by students, and it is very tricky to detect that. To counteract this, I have made the assignments more AI-proof by using an e-portfolio (I call it Padlet Portfolio because students use their own individual Padlet to complete and display their learning during the course) which contains real-time end of tutorial reflections and use of videos (using videos to answer the questions of the week). For the other major assignment, as stated above, students need to provide a reflective paper to show in what ways they have used ChatGPT and provide full ChatGPT history.
Did you encounter any problems, and how were they resolved?
Most students, based on their feedback in SELTs and in their reflective paper, welcomed the opportunity to openly use ChatGPT. But always one or two students in my courses were skeptical of using it because they think it discourages their critical thinking and/or were concerned about privacy and the use of their work in training future AI models. To address the first issue, I talk to the students about using it critically and that they can show in the reflective paper whether they think it has undermined their critical thinking. This has helped them to agree to use it. For the second issue, I make sure that all students know—as part of the ChatGPT training in the tutorial—how to set it to private so that it is not used for future models. Another problem for many of my students is the huge environmental footprint of using gen AI because all my courses are about environmental sustainability and that seems to be hypocritical for many of my students. After discussing the environmental impacts in the tutorials, highlighting the need to reduce the dependency of using the tool, and that gen AI can also help with future environmental solutions, we agree to use for the course, but students have the autonomy to choose how often and in what ways.
What tips do you have for other educators interested in using gen AI in their teaching?
I think there are two essential steps here for educators who are interested in using gen AI.
- Educate yourself: explore how gen AI could be helpful for your teaching and student learning. Do a training course about use of gen AI, read up about it, talk to colleagues who have been using it, join the Artificial Intelligence Community of Practice. You need to be knowledgeable and confident about the use of gen AI for teaching and learning before you encourage students to use it in your courses. You are not alone, we all feel out of our depth and are constantly catching up with gen AI. So, connecting with others is the most important step for getting into AI for teaching and learning.
- Educate your students and work with them about using gen AI: find out from your students what they think about using gen AI through a short quiz and discussion in class and where and how they would see it as beneficial for their learning in your course. Develop with them the guidelines on how to use it and on the assessment criteria.
There are many excellent resources at Adelaide University and elsewhere (see for example, Oxford University) which you can use for both these steps. I have used the AI Library guides and its AI Literacy Framework, and the MyUni course Ethical use of AI designed for students. The library also regularly gives training courses for how to use prompts effectively. For using ChatGPT for teaching, learning and assessment, I have found the guide by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) extremely valuable.