15 A Note about AI & CRP
Considering generative AI in our classrooms and workplace through the lens of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy helps us focus our efforts. Below is some advice on creating an AI-ready & culturally responsive classroom. Adapted from the TLC Website.
Three Steps to an AI-Ready Course
1. Communicate course approach in a syllabus statement.
Avoid misunderstandings by including an AI-specific course statement on your syllabus. To ensure a comprehensive policy, consider:
- What, if any, acceptable uses AI has in assignment completion (e.g., during brainstorming? Or in the final product?)
- How to cite or acknowledge AI use
- Repercussions for misuse (e.g., will this be considered an automatic academic code violation? Will learners be asked to resubmit assignments? Is there a grade penalty?)
- Optional: AI limitations, ethics of, unreliability, and bias; how learners can expect you to make use of AI and AI detectors in class
- See this PCC AI Syllabus Statement Template for inspiration
2. Review grading & assessment practices to reduce anxiety and stress.
Incorporate practices that lower grade anxiety. For example:
- Build structured flexibility into due dates, for example by offering a set number of late submissions or through a range of due dates
- Allow more time for major assignments, whether as a general rule or by individual request
- Scaffold assignments with multiple draft and revision deadlines that offer you opportunities to give them feedback
- Redistribute the relative weight of major assessments to reduce the stakes of any one assignment
- Incorporate periodic reflection on work and assignment progress
3. Design with authentic learning contexts and assessments in mind.
Incorporate authentic assignments and assessments in your classroom. Authentic assignments are those which are tied to real-world contexts and require hands-on, iterative learning. You might also:
- Explore formats beyond traditional reports or essays, such as videos, presentations, podcasts, and websites
- Ask learners to demonstrate their process and reflect on their work
- Include AI use in the learning process. For example:
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- After learners have read and discussed assigned texts, invite them to work in small groups to ask ChatGPT questions about the readings and then assess and critique its answers
- After learners complete their own drafts of an assigned essay, invite them to request a draft of the assignment from ChatGPT. Facilitate a discussion in which learners analyze how the drafts compare, for better and for worse
- Assign learners to create an AI-generated essay from a prompt, then instruct them to heavily edit its output using “track changes” and margin comments in Google. Have students reflect on the changes they made, and why. Or, have learners grade an AI-generated essay based on the assignment’s rubric
Detection Systems for AI-Generated Content
GPT Zero, Hugging Face and/or GTLR claim to be able to detect the use of generative AI in text construction. Ongoing studies show that multilingual speakers and individuals who speak in forms outside Standardized English are disproportionately wrongly flagged.
Due to newness and high rate of false positives in current AI detection capabilities, and toward fostering a culture of care, we encourage you to and err on the side of goodwill with students and assignments flagged for AI use. Replacing hardline policy, we recommend attempting a dialogue with students who are suspected to be misusing AI, trust student voice over technological one, and consider allowing students who misuse AI during an assignment a chance to complete it appropriately.
For further reading:
- AI-Detectors Biased Against Non-Native English Writers
- Programs to detect AI discriminate against non-native English speakers, shows study
- AI Detection Tools Falsely Accuse International Students of Cheating
Things to Look For in an AI-Generated Essay
AI-generated text often uses phrases that sound polished but generic. Students growing their college writing skills often have a more developed voice but their word choice or phrasing is not as polished. Below are points to look for to identify the use of AI; please note that as with machine detection there is no universal way to determine if a student’s writing was generated by AI.
