13 ways you could integrate AI tools into teaching

For a session I am facilitating with our Natural, Mathematical and Engineering Sciences faculty I have below pulled together a few ideas drawn from a ton of brilliant suggestions colleagues from across the sector have shared in person, at events or via social media. There’s a bit overlap but I am trying to address the often heard criticism that what’s missing from the guidance and theory and tools out there is some easily digestible, accessible and practically-focussed suggestions that focus on teaching rather than assessment and feedback. Here my first tuppenceworth:

1.AI ideator: Students write prompts to produce a given number of outputs (visual, text or code) to a design or problem brief. Groups select top 2-3 and critique in detail the viability of solutions.  (AI as inspiration)

2. AI Case Studies: Students analyse real-world examples where AI has influenced various practices (e.g., medical diagnosis, finance, robotics) to develop contextual intelligence and critical evaluation skills. (AI as disciplinary content focus)

3. AI Case Study Creator: Students are given AI generated vignettes, micro case studies or scenarios related to a given topic and discuss responses/ solutions. (AI as content creator)

4. AI Chatbot Research: For foundational theoretical principles or contextual understanding, students interact with AI chatbots, document the conversation, and evaluate the experience, enhancing their research, problem-solving, and understanding of user experience. (AI as tool to further understanding of content)

5. AI Restructuring: Students are tasked with using AI tools to reformat content into different media accordsing to pre-defined principles. (AI for multi-media rreframing).

6. AI Promptathon: Students formulate prompts for AI to address significant questions in their discipline, critically evaluate the AI-generated responses, and reflect on the process, thereby improving their AI literacy and collaborative skills. (Critical AI literacy and disciplinary formative activity)

7. AI audit: Students use AI to generate short responses to open questions, critically assess the AI’s output, and then give a group presentation on their findings. Focus could be on accuracy and/ or clarity of outputs. (Critical AI literacy)

8. AI Solution Finder: Applicable post work placement or with case studies/ scenarios, students identify real-world challenges and propose AI-based solutions, honing their creativity, research skills, and professional confidence. (AI in context)

9. AI Think, Pair & Share: Students individually generate AI responses to a key challenge, then pair up to discuss and refine their prompts, improving their critical thinking, evaluation skills, and AI literacy. (AI as dialogic tool)

10. Analyse Data: Students work with open-source data sets to answer pressing questions in their discipline, thereby developing cultural intelligence, data literacy, and ethical understanding. (AI as analytical tool)

11. AI Quizmaster : Students design quiz questions and use AI to generate initial ideas, which they then revise and peer-review, fostering foundational knowledge, research skills, and metacognition. (AI as concept checking tool)

12. Chemistry / Physics or Maths Principle Exploration with AI Chatbot: Students engage with an AI chatbot to learn and understand a specific principle. The chatbot can explain concepts, answer queries, and provide examples. Students (with support of GTA/ near peer or academic tutor) compare the AI’s approach to their own process/ understanding. (AI chatbot tutor)

13. Coding Challenge- AI vs. Manual Code Comparison: Coding students create a short piece of code for a specific purpose and then compare their code to a pre-existing manually produced code for the same purpose. This comparison can include an analysis of efficiency, creativity, and effectiveness. (AI as point of comparison)

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