Teaching and Thinking with AI

Webinar Series

June 12, 17, & 24, 2024

The CSU is offering a series of webinars on Teaching and Thinking with A.I. this month, June 2024, led by José Antonio Bowen. The series will be repeated in Fall 2024. The webinars are two-hours and are highly interactive. Recordings will be available on demand to CSU faculty, staff, and administrators for a limited time.

Register separately for each webinar at the link below to attend. Visit Systemwide Generative AI Resources to learn about other online resources, systemwide activities, and recent publications available across the California State University.

AI Literacy & Prompt Engineering

June 12, 2024 -- 10am PST (120m)

Both faculty and students need a new digital literacy to apply the increased critical thinking needed in the internet age, and AI literacy is a critical new skill every teacher and graduate needs. The two largest complaints about AI responses are that they are either wrong or boring, but both are often the result of poor or bland prompting. AI prompts need to provide more human context and be more literal than the ones we tend to use with a search engine. Since AI uses natural human language, it also needs human-level communication precision.: asking your AI to slow down and think more carefully can greatly improve results! The features of better prompts-- task, format, voice and context--are direct extensions of the critical writing and thinking skills we already teach and value. In this interactive workshop, you will learn how to find the right AI tool for your task and get to compare and practice with different AIs.

AI Grading, Detection and Policies

June 17, 2024 -- 10am PST (120m)

AI is also changing how we think about average. If an AI can produce consistent "C" work, then we need to update our policies around grading: why would an employer hire a “C” student if AI can do that level of work? Together, we will design new rubrics for an AI era that articulate how human ‘quality’ goes beyond AI. We will discuss what policies and practices improve motivation and decrease cheating, and why.

AI Assignments and Assessments

June 24, 2024 -- 10am PST (120m)

All assignments are now AI Assignments. In the same way that the ease of finding information on the internet forced faculty to rethink what homework students did and how we wanted them to do it, we will all need an AI strategy for assignments and assessment. We will cover both ways to force students to write and alternative creative assignments that incorporate AI. Through a wide diversity of examples, we will also consider how we can reduce cheating and raise standards.

REGISTRATION: Register for individual sessions here. To attend, join from a CSU Zoom account. 

CONTACT: For questions, please email csuitl@calstate.edu