Center for Faculty Excellence creates AI-related event series for BGSU learning community

CFE will play host to AI workshops, talks and panel discussions during 2023-24 academic year

By any measure, Generative Artificial Intelligence is a game-changer within academia.

But how, where, why – or why not – AI might be used within a college classroom depends on a myriad of factors that are unique to each academic discipline and often to individual classes or instructors. 

To aid the Bowling Green State University community in navigating this new frontier, the BGSU Center for Faculty Excellence will offer a series of workshops, talks and panel discussions during the 2023-24 academic year.

While AI cannot be neatly applied everywhere, defining and understanding its use will be a topic of discussion for courses of all shapes and sizes.

As faculty plan activities and make alterations to already existing course design, knowledge of where AI fits into the picture will be imperative. Additionally, many students will encounter Generative AI in a variety of professions.  

Both faculty and student perspectives will be included in the CFE AI event series, which will explore topics such as changes to curriculum and classroom policies, redesigning learning activities, ethical considerations when using AI, addressing AI with students and the use of AI for research and creative activities.

"With large-scale access to generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, campus discussions are needed to enhance understanding of artificial intelligence and its implication on teaching, learning, research and creative activities," said Dr. Joe B. Whitehead Jr., provost and senior vice president for Academic and Student Affairs. "To this end, the Center for Faculty Excellence has organized a series of workshops to facilitate campus discussions to enhance stakeholder understanding of AI and its potential impact on the student and faculty experience. I look forward to this series contributing to the discussion of AI at BGSU and higher education in general.”

The first event in the series will feature a talk by BGSU alumnus and current Michigan State University professor Dr. Bill Hart-Davidson ’92 ’94, who will discuss how the widely available nature of Generative AI like ChatGPT can change teaching and learning. 

Hart-Davidson, whose research expertise includes writing in digital spaces, will explore what these models can do, how they might change academic settings and how learning activities could include them.

The session will begin at 11 a.m. on Aug. 31 in Room 228 of the Bowen-Thompson Student Union, and a Zoom option will be available for those who cannot attend in person.

A panel discussion about faculty and instructors will take place via Zoom from 10:30-11:30 a.m. on Sept. 26. During the session, the panel will cover ways to use Generative AI in the classroom, suggestions for broaching the topic with students and recommendations for familiarizing one’s self with the technology. 

The next event in the series, scheduled to take place via Zoom from 10:30-11:30 a.m. on Oct. 26, will be a panel discussion on student perspectives of AI that will discuss ways in which students and faculty might use Generative AI and the ethical issues that come with doing so.

To conclude the fall semester, CFE will play host to a panel discussion of BGSU faculty from multiple disciplines regarding the ethical considerations that come with AI’s use in academic settings and discuss how various academic journals have devised policies on the use of Generative AI in research. The event, to take place via Zoom, is scheduled for 10:30-11:30 a.m. on Nov. 30. 

Registration, which closes one business day before each event, is required. Additional information can be found here.