The AI-TELL Academy provided opportunities for faculty to learn how to utilize artificial intelligence in classroom settings. Credit: Danielle Blake/Penn State. All Rights Reserved.
By Tucker Leighty-Phillips
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education hosted a three-day faculty summer academy on effective use of artificial intelligence in the engineering classroom from June 2-4. The AI academy, Artificial Intelligence for Teaching Excellence and Lifelong Learning (AI-TELL), was held for a cohort of faculty across the College of Engineering and focused on navigating the evolving landscape of teaching and learning in the age of artificial intelligence.
“We say lifelong learning because AI is such an evolving landscape,” said Ibukun Osunbunmi, assessment and instructional support specialist and assistant research professor in the Leonhard Center. “We wanted to create a co-learning space where interested faculty could ask questions, assess parameters and learn how to maximize tools to enhance the student learning experience.”
Osunbunmi and his colleagues organized the three-day workshop because they wanted to provide a wide-ranging, immersive opportunity for faculty to gain hands-on experience in understanding and utilizing AI.
“A brief workshop wouldn’t be sufficient,” said Stephanie Cutler, director of assessment and instructional support and associate research professor in the Leonhard Center. “We wanted to provide faculty a chance to dive in, create class materials, gain experience working with AI tools and walk away with things they could use in their classes.”
Workshops included a session on prompt engineering, human-centered AI integration, designing AI-resilient and AI-integrated assignments and more.
“We sent out a survey to know what questions faculty had, so our programming was a reflection of survey responses, feedback we’ve received and one-on-one conversations we’ve had with faculty about AI,” Osunbunmi said.
Osunbunmi, who has extensively researched and presented on artificial intelligence in engineering education, led the Leonhard Center team of Cutler, Sarah Zappe, and Bono Shih in designing and developing the AI-TELL Academy’s programming around common recurring questions raised during faculty consultations.
The team wanted to develop presentations and discussions to help incorporate AI use into teaching in a way that still puts the students at the center of teaching and learning, rather than the AI tools.
“A student who cannot do an exercise, solve a problem or do an engineering task without artificial intelligence will not be able to evaluate if an AI outcome is good or not,” Osunbunmi said. “We discussed the times when you might want to design AI into the curriculum and when you might want to exclude it to ensure students have necessary fundamental knowledge. We want to ensure that artificial intelligence does not result in artificial understanding.”
“Good teaching is still good teaching,” Cutler said. “You’re just using different, new tools that can change a lot of how teaching is performed.”
The workshop emphasized lifelong learning in its programming, due to the need to stay informed on developments in artificial intelligence.
“AI is not what it was last year,” Osunbunmi said. “And what AI is today is not what it will be next year.”
Osunbunmi and Cutler both recognized the faculty for being enthusiastic and motivated to learn over the three-day span, with a focus on gaining tangible skills to support their teaching.
“Confronting the challenges associated with AI in academia can be daunting,” wrote Jared Butler, assistant professor in the School of Engineering Design and Innovation, in a post-event survey. “While most of us are still unsure of what the future holds in this sphere, the next steps feel steady and promising.”
The team also expressed gratitude to Lori Miraldi, Michael Alley, Madison Peterson and Kacy Smith for their contributions to the AI-TELL Academy, as well as Jennifer Wright for leading a session.
To support those interested in utilizing AI in the classroom, the Leonhard Center has created a website with a series of compiled resources, including video modules on acceptable AI use for students, developing AI syllabus policies and AI-integrated teaching demonstrations. The Leonhard Center also welcomes questions from those looking to learn more about AI-integrated teaching, which can be submitted through its website.
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