AI and Chatbots Teaching Considerations

by | Jan 27, 2023 | Assignments, Course Content, Course Design, Educational Technology, Engagement, Home, Tech Tools

Updated 9/22/25

Research and articles about artificial intelligence (AI) and chatbots such as Chat GPT have exploded onto the higher education scene, along with much concern and fascination. ATUS instructional designers developed the following considerations based upon our continual evaluation and exploration of AI.

Along with this document, review the following resources by the CII & ATUS:

Rethinking Practices to Discourage Use of AI Generation Services

Reiterate the purpose of writing and assessment.

Imagine how writing and access to information will evolve in the face of AI innovations in the next 10 years and work with students to find value in human-produced writing AND AI-produced writing.

  • Require expressions of purpose and context in writing, having them explain why things matter to them.
  • Incorporate critical AI literacy to recognize its weaknesses and human strengths.
  • Tie course content to ethical concerns or to examples from students’ personal lives and
    their own growth.

Consider re-envisioning your assessment—and be sure students know why you are having them write an essay and show their thinking—not that of a robot—and to share a reflection of their authentic learning.

Ask students to show what meaning they are getting out of the work as opposed to just what the correct answers are. Make sure your questions are framed to show the intent of the paper and how it relates to this time, place, and to the students personally. AI can still do this, but it won’t do as good of a job. Getting students to care about their responses matters in this.

Disincentivize cheating.

When students are desperate or confused, they are more likely to cheat. Provide a framework for success and ensure workload is appropriate. As we describe below, include explicit AI use guidelines in your syllabus—and on every assignment and quiz. Explain why original work is important to you, for this class, and for them.

Use proctoring for high stakes exams.

Online exams are not the best choice for high stakes exams. While in-person exams using Scantron bubble sheets, Bluebook notebooks, and human proctors scanning the room may not be your cup of tea, online proctoring tools also have serious implications for privacy, inequities, anxiety, and accessibility. That said, check with your Testing Center to see what options are available while balancing these considerations. Western is evaluating the use of lock-down browsers for taking online exams in Canvas while also meeting accessibility guidelines. 

Reevaluate the use of class time for assessment.

When feasible, incorporate in-class activities that are a little “old school.” These can be more difficult to grade and can present accessibility concerns for students with certain accommodations, but can provide a writing sample for how each student writes or speaks without AI assistance. Emphasize frequent, short writing vs. lengthy in-class papers.

Consider using the flip model of instruction which places application, writing, collaboration, and problem-solving work during class time and one-way distribution of information (usually via video or text) as homework. 

This is a great time to re-think and modernize your course goals. In light of this age of AI, consider what is important for your students to know and be able to do in the next class they take in the field or in their future profession.

Explain the bias problem.

The LLMs (Large Language Models) used by AI have the potential to amplify and replicate datasets not caught by filters that are stereotypical, biased, racist, sexist, etc.

Adapt as technology adapts.

Today, many chatbot-based AI have a timeframe they are locked to with their data set. This can mean that an AI may not be incorporating current-day events and information or able to read into video captions as datasets; however, this is changing very quickly. Some ChatBots can read real-time information and are better able to incorporate data from video and audio transcriptions into their outputs. 

Many of the freely available and widely used chat-based AIs still run on static training datasets with a cutoff date. That means they won’t always have the latest events, updates, or context in their replies. But this a quickly evolving area in AI development, and several of the monetized, professional, or specialized models are able to pull from live data, such as webpages, social media, and livestreams. These more advanced AIs can not only pull in real-time information from public websites, but also from targeted sources like websites and databases—even those requiring an account login. Most AI, free or monetized, are able to process or generate transcripts from video and audio. For static media, integrated computer vision in most AI models, can read and interpret photographs containing text or understand the scene of an image. All of this makes AI far more adaptable, capable of producing responses that feel less canned and what can be presumed as more thoughtful, depending on what additional data is hooked into it. 

Design Considerations

Provide clear academic honesty/privacy expectations.

Refer to WWU syllabi policies and your own statements in your syllabus and assignments. Provide a statement such as one of the following:

  • “Use of an AI text generator when an assignment does not explicitly call or allow for it without proper attribution or authorization is plagiarism.”1
  • “Collaboration with ChatGPT or other AI composition software is not permissible in this course/assignment.”2
  • “Please obtain permission from me before collaborating with peers or AI chatbots (like ChatGPT) on assignments for this course.”2
  • “If using third-party AI or chatbot applications for permissible course activities, you need not make any personally-identifying information available on a public site. Do not post or provide any private information about yourself or your classmates. Your coursework will not require you to disclose any personally identifiable/sensitive information.”3
  • “I expect you to use AI tools, such as ChatGPT and image generation tools, in this class. In fact, some assignments will require it. Learning to use AI is an emerging skill. … Be aware of the limits of ChatGPT: 1) If you provide minimum-effort prompts, you will get low quality results. You will need to refine your prompts in order to get good outcomes. This will take work. 2) Don’t trust anything it says. If it gives you a number or fact, assume it is wrong unless you either know the answer or can check in with another source. Generated content could be biased or promote stereotypes; carefully review. You will be responsible for any errors or omissions provided by the tool. It works best for topics you understand. 3) AI is a tool, but one that you need to acknowledge using. Please include a paragraph at the end of any assignment that uses AI explaining what you used the AI for, the date you used it, the tool you used, and what prompts you used to get the results. Failure to do so is in violation of the academic honesty policies. 4) Be thoughtful about when this tool is useful. Don’t use it if it isn’t appropriate for the case or circumstance.”4

There are many nuances for including or excluding AI in a course. For additional ideas, see:

Make it focus on higher-level learning.

  • Write prompts that require students to analyze or apply concepts to novel situations.
  • Prompt students to create original or innovative solutions and to personalize their reflective work.
  • Require that writing be cohesive and that it have a context that flows throughout the piece.
  • Since writing is a recursive process, ask students for a reflection on how their writing evolved, possibly including drafts submissions prior to final submission of a paper.
  • Consider projects that are multi-modal or collaborative.

Make it customized.

  • Ask for process. Value multiple drafts, notes, showing work. Incentivize showing the learning process/struggles.
  • Ask for examples specific to in-class discussions and the experience of the current course.
  • Ask for current/personal…events, news, research, primary research, reflections, and connections to their personal, lived experiences.
  • Have students annotate existing content or keep a concurrent journal about their writing to show their thinking. 

Test your prompts and be watchful.

  • Evaluate your assignment prompts for the potential of AI misuse using this AI Misuse Rubric Guide.
  • Test your prompts in AI generators. Learning what the output looks like can help you identify it when you see it in student work.
  • Watch for style and citation inconsistencies.
  • Underscore consequences of plagiarism via generative AI. AI-written work may result in flags by plagiarism detectors. 

Using AI and Chatbots as a Learning Tool

Customize learning.

  • Use as “online tutors,” with pre-tested prompts, to ensure equitable starting points in terms of prerequisite knowledge.
  • Use as an extra challenge after engaging in a writing prompt to get virtual feedback.
  • Use as a debate partner to take a side on a topic to provide potential alternative viewpoints and spur discussions.

 

Customize writing assignments.

If you want to do a blended approach to allow students to use AI for ideation and brainstorming, be very clear about this and consider the following tips.

  • Require that they submit both the AI-generated work and their human-written end product.
  • Grade the process rather than just the product. Instead of assigning one paper, students do quick-writes or “sprints” during class and use those submissions to lead up to a bigger essay or presentation. Having the drafts gives students incentive to pull it together more easily into meaningful work and this gives you a sample of their writing and thinking. It can be typewritten, even on their phone and through Canvas.
  • If students do a presentation as their end product, it can be during class or—if class time is not a viable option—students can submit recorded presentations via Panopto in Canvas.
  • Be cognizant of students’ accessibility needs and accommodations.

Incorporate AI within editing.

  • Have students incorporate an AI quote into writing, cited as 3rd party AI content. See APA, MLA, and Chicago style guides for guidelines on AI citations.
  • Have students create an effective prompt for an AI generator and then use “track changes” to show that the generated text has been heavily edited.
  • Have students use AI as a way to break “writer’s block,” provide feedback on written copy or code, have it act as a primer to start writing, to help create a title with rephrase tools, or do a citation search for additional references. 

Analyze.

  • Have students grade an AI-generated essay, providing feedback and analysis.
  • Have a chatbot generate several conclusions to a conundrum or set of data, possibly using different voices/tonality and analyze them during class discussions. 

Create. 

  • Have students write an effective prompt to create an AI image, video, or podcast to represent their thinking.
  • Make creative and inclusive AI imagery for use within presentations (remember citations when used).
  • Explore ways to use AI within virtual labs or virtual language partners for supported foreign languages.
  • Have groups/pairs gather AI-generated topics, fact-check, add to, and share out to class.

Recognize AI as a study aid.

  • Students have been using online flash card tools, such as Quizlet, for years. Now with tools such as Google NotebookLM that can source content from select documents and web pages to create study guides, and tools like ChatGPT Study Mode that can guide the user through a process one step at a time, you could imagine new ways of allowing AI to prepare students for more challenging work.
  • Ask students how they use AI tools to enhance their learning and discuss the pros and cons of these methods with them. 

Footnotes 

  1. Practical Responses to ChatGPT, Montclair State Univ.
  2. AI Guidelines, Yale Poorvu Center for T&L
  3. Teaching Handbook: Academic Integrity, Center for Instructional Innovation, WWU
  4. ChatGPT and the Future of Writing Instruction, WRITE Center

Resources

 Key articles used to summarize the above considerations: 

Relevant WWU Pages