Course Description
EDUC 439/639: AI in Education
Introduces participants to the growing importance and use of AI in Education. Explores generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini along with their migration into mainstream apps via integration frameworks such as Microsoft Copilot and Apple Intelligence. Surveys applications of AI from educational technology vendors such as Khanmigo from Khan Academy. Reflects on the implications of AI for the future of teaching and learning. Participants create a project based on the AI tools of their choice and share their findings with the class.
Course Modules
This course is organized into a series of modules that are presented to you via the Web. The modules are attached to a collabsible menu that organizes the modules in roughly the same order in which they will be discussed in class. You need not complete these modules in this prescribed order, however. Rather, you can work through the course at your own pace, skipping modules that do not interest you, and spending more time on those that do.
Assignments
Your grade in this course will be based on your performance on a series of assignments that appear on this online syllabus. At any time, you can view the assignments. This list of assignments provides you with a snapshot of what you need to do in this course. All the rest is optional. It is totally up to you how much of the other material you will want to complete. Your instructor will help guide you, depending on the topics you choose to pursue.
Grading
You will receive grades on four kinds of activities. First, there are communication assignments designed to create a proactively supportive relationship between you and your professor. Second, there are graded discussions that involve you in cooperative learning with your fellow classmates. Third, you will make a presentation about an AI tool or issue that you feel passionate about. Fourth, you will create a final project that you make with an AI tool on a topic of your choice.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Explain how AI Chatbots generate responses to what you ask by transforming knowledge in a large language model comprising billions of nodes multiply linked in a neural network pre-trained on large databases such as the entire Wikipedia or the Common Crawl.
- Explore the capabilities of ChatGPT and Gemini, which is Google's answer to ChatGPT.
- Study how educators are using AI Chatbots and consider how you think AI should be regulated or not moving forward.
- Realize how unreliable it is to expect that student use of AI can be automatically detected.
- Explore a growing repository of research on teaching and learning with AI.
- Exchange ideas with your fellow classmates on topics related to AI in PK-12, the college classroom, and lifelong learning.
- Use an AI tool to create a project of interest in your personal or workplace context.
- Understand the societal issues posed by AI tools and chatbots.
- Know how to stay current with emerging technologies as artificial intelligence continues to roll out.
