AI joins the curriculum – A game changer for students and teachers?

As AI technologies, particularly generative AI, started to proliferate, it was a matter of time before educational organizations took notice and introduced them into their syllabuses, with one prominent example being Towson University in Towson, Maryland, and its AI Task Force.

Specifically, operating under the Faculty Academic Center of Excellence, the Task Force has created sample text with recommended language for professors to use in their syllabi as they see fit for the current AI era, per a report by local newspaper The Towerlight on February 19.

Commenting on the reasoning behind the implementation of AI in the curriculum, Task Force member and Anthropology Professor Samuel Collins explained:

“Clearly in the computer sciences, AI usage might be much more common and even encouraged in classes. (…) Whereas in, you know, some English 102 writing class, the opposite might be the case.”

As it happens, the Task Force’s sample syllabus envisions two main approaches to AI – if faculty allows some AI in class or none at all – and the teachers can now define whether they support the use of AI in each particular assignment as well.

Pros and cons of AI in the curriculum

In terms of generative AI’s usability in various classes, Professor Collins said it “does a really bad job at anthropology” when completing assignments, but his experiments have nonetheless shown him that it’s quite useful as a brainstorming tool.

At the same time, FACET member and Education Professor Liyan Song allows AI in her classes as long as students share their conversations with the tool. She and her students learned AI’s strengths in general information gathering and its flaws in deeper knowledge on specific topics and as she recalled:

“I also asked them to write a reflection on the experience, to see how useful or not they have found the AI tool.”

Another early adopter of AI policy is Professor of Mass Communications Sushma Kumble, who studies machine learning and has talked to her students about the effect of AI on the job market:

“AI does not need weekends. (…) And so you want to make sure that you are now getting ahead and being smarter than AI and not using that as a tool to pass your courses.”

Meanwhile, generative AI has recently demonstrated its weaknesses in specific subject matter such as the law, where it created multiple fake court cases for a Canadian couple who sought its assistance in finding legal precedents for a condo dispute, reflecting the need for a wider education in the AI field.

All things considered, Towson University is taking a proactive yet careful approach to the still new technology, equipping their teachers and students with the knowledge and expertise necessary to become and remain competitive in the education and job market.