Hello everyone! Welcome to the Introduction to AI for Teaching and Learning. My name is Laura Otero, and I am the developer of this course. To give you a snapshot of who I am, I am the Online Education Coordinator in the Center for Academic Technologies at CSU Monterey Bay, and a lecturer for the School of Computing and Design, where I teach writing and instructional design courses. I come from an instructional technology background rooted in faculty development. I have worked in the field of higher education for over a decade, and as you probably already know, there have been incredible changes in the last few years related to instructional technology that requires change management. The rise of artificial intelligence tools has been called paradigm-shifting, revolutionary, exciting and terrifying, and all of these things can be true at once. Here in the center for academic technologies, our goal is to support faculty as we all manage these changes together.
So that’s where this course comes in. This course is designed to introduce you to artificial intelligence tools by teaching you a bit about how they work. While we won’t go as deep into the weeds about what goes on under the hood of AI tools, we will focus on basic terminology, helping you understand how these tools work, and you will begin experimenting with these tools so you can use them to generate content like text and images and more. Then you will learn strategies for detecting AI-generated content, and you will learn to use AI-detection tools as well as honing and practicing your own ability to recognize AI-generated content without relying on technology. You will also explore resources that provide strategies for approaching students if and when the inappropriate use of AI tools is detected. Then you will use that knowledge to write your own AI use policies for your classroom. By the end of this course, you will gain resources that you can use to maintain your currency in this dynamic field.
So how does this course work? The answer is that it depends on your course facilitator. This has been designed as a fully online, asynchronous course, which means there were no required meeting times, but it may be that your course instructor has specific support offerings for you and your peers. You can learn more on the “About your instructor” page, which is linked at the bottom of this page.
This video that you are currently watching is embedded in the homepage, you can get back here any time by clicking on “Home” in the left course menu. You’ll find links on this homepage to the Q&A discussion, where you can post questions and comments as you work your way through the course. This forum is visible to everyone in this course, and the replies will be visible to everyone as well, so do consider that when deciding whether to email your instructor or posting anything in that forum. If you’d like to ask a private question, say about your grades or course feedback, use the Canvas Inbox feature instead to message your instructor by clicking on the Inbox icon in the global Canvas menu, further to the right of the course menu.
Another thing I want to bring to your attention is the format of the instructional materials. When you review the instruction pages for each of the modules, there will be an overview video as well as multiple required learning resources, followed by a section of optional resources.
The quiz questions will be based on items within the required resources, so do make sure you make the time to review all of these required resources. Although the quiz questions will not be based on the optional resources, some of those items may be extremely valuable or important for your subject matter, so make sure to take the time to glance at those at the very least and use your judgment and your time wisely. Some of these items are more remedial or for beginners, but many of these are for those who want to dive into the more advanced aspects of AI, so take a few minutes to review these optional items.
In closing, I want to thank you again for choosing to participate in this learning opportunity. I am so excited to share these resources with you, and I’m happy to connect with you all on LinkedIn so we can continue to learn from one another. You can find my contact information on the “About your instructors” page. So thank you again for participating! Enjoy your course.