We’re launching a new semi-regular feature to keep you informed about how artificial intelligence (AI)—especially generative AI (GenAI)—is shaping teaching and learning at Carleton and beyond. We’ll share practical strategies, instructor stories and timely developments that support thoughtful, intentional and student-centred pedagogy throughout this rapidly shifting AI landscape.
As we continue to explore our four-pronged approach to building an AI strategy for your course, this month’s focus is on prong No. 3: 1+ GenAI activity.
If you missed previous posts, catch up on prong No. 1: AI policies and syllabus language and prong No. 2: The AI talk.
1+ GenAI Activity – Intentional Integration That Supports Learning
After setting expectations through syllabus language and “the AI talk,” many instructors are choosing to integrate at least one intentional GenAI activity into their course. Some are choosing to integrate a GenAI activity with their AI talk! This doesn’t mean redesigning your entire curriculum—just identifying a moment where GenAI could enhance student learning, metacognition or engagement.
A few ideas to get started:
- Critical analysis: Let students compare AI-generated content with human-authored material and identify strengths, weaknesses and biases.
- Prompt engineering as a skill: Ask students to craft a GenAI prompt that would help them study for an upcoming test or revise an assignment draft.
- AI as a misconception generator: Provide students with an AI-generated response to a question in your field that contains subtle errors or oversimplifications. Their task: identify the inaccuracies, explain why they’re incorrect and correct them using course concepts or readings.
If you’ve already set boundaries with your students, offering a guided opportunity to use AI in service of learning can reinforce ethical practices and deepen understanding.
We explore each of four prongs to the AI Strategy in our Hands-On AI (HOAI) workshop series. Instructors who complete six hours or more of HOAI programming and submit their AI strategy for feedback receive a letter of completion recognizing their commitment to thoughtful, responsible and ethical AI integration in education. Throughout the summer, we’ve hosted intensive sessions to help instructors build their strategies, and there’s another AI Retreat happening on Sept. 17!
Stay tuned for next month’s focus, where we’ll spotlight the next prong of the AI strategy—rethinking assessments—to help you design for depth, not detection.
Tool Spotlight: Carleton’s New Virtual Agent
Want to see how Carleton is using GenAI in real time? Check out the new virtual agent, now piloting on the Finance and Administration website. This AI-powered chatbot is designed to answer common questions about HR, finance and more—using information directly from Carleton’s websites.
It’s a simple, familiar interface—and a great example of how GenAI tools can be trained and deployed in specific, intentional ways.
This chatbot isn’t just for testing—it’s part of a live campus-wide pilot. As educators, it also opens the door to great classroom conversations:
- How can AI-powered agents support or limit access to information?
- What kinds of tasks are they best suited for?
- What would it look like to build a GPT trained on course materials?
Considering creating a custom chatbot for your course? Come chat with us first!
Have something to share or a question about AI?
We want to hear from you! Reach out to our team with your ideas, challenges or success stories.