A four-part OPID Webinar series for systemwide faculty and instructors starting in Fall 2024. Webinars will be 90 -120 minutes long and live-streamed on Zoom.
Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning (2023), co-authored by José Antonio Bowen and Edward Watson, will be a common read throughout the Universities of Wisconsin this year. To support faculty and instructors, OPID is sponsoring a Zoom presentation by José Bowen followed by three workshops.
José Antonio Bowen has won teaching awards at Stanford and Georgetown, was Dean at Miami and Southern Methodist University and President of Goucher College. He has written over 100 scholarly articles and has appeared as a musician with Stan Getz, Bobby McFerrin, and others. He is the author of Teaching Naked (2012, the winner of the Ness Award for Best Book on Higher Education), Teaching Change: How to Develop Independent Thinkers using Relationships, Resilience and Reflection (2021) and Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning with C. Edward Watson (2024). Stanford honored him as a Distinguished Alumni Scholar (2010) and he has presented keynotes and workshops at more than 300 campuses and conferences in 46 states and 17 countries around the world. In 2018, he was awarded the Ernest L. Boyer Award (for significant contributions to American higher education). He is now a senior fellow for the American Association of Colleges and Universities and also does innovation and inclusion consulting for a wide variety of Fortune 500 companies.
Introduction to Teaching and Thinking with AI
Friday, Oct. 11, 2 pm to 3:30 pm – Zoom
This introduction will preview later topics and also give you a chance to frame how you think about AI. AI is rapidly changing how humans work, think and communicate: it could improve or destroy human relationships. AI is also changing how we think about average. If AI can produce consistent “C” work than we need to update our policies and grading. AI is even changing creativity. Courses, learning goals and curriculum will need to change in this new age.
To register you will need to use your UW email address. That address will need to be linked to your Zoom account to attend the meeting.
Workshop 1 – AI Literacy & Prompt Engineering
Friday, Oct. 18, 2 pm to 4 pm – Zoom
Both faculty and students needed a new digital literacy to apply the increased critical thinking needed in the internet age, and AI literacy is a critical new skill every teacher and graduate needs. The two largest complaints about AI responses are that they are either wrong or boring, but both are often the result of poor or bland prompting. AI prompts need to provide more human context and be more literal than the ones we tend to use with a search engine. Since AI uses natural human language, it also needs human-level communication precision.: asking your AI to slow down and think more carefully can greatly improve results! The features of better prompts– task, format, voice and context–are direct extensions of the critical writing and thinking skills we already teach and value. In this interactive workshop, you will learn how to find the right AI tool for your task and get to compare and practice with different AIs.
To register you will need to use your UW email address. That address will need to be linked to your Zoom account to attend the meeting.
Conversation with Jose Antonio Bowen – Teaching with AI Book Discussion
Friday, Dec. 13, 2:30 PM to 3:30- Zoom
This is an opportunity to have an informal, yet informative, conversation with the lead co-author of Teaching With AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning. You may pose questions or comments to Jose about current challenges facing higher education, teaching & learning, and generative AI.
Moderated by Valerie Barske, Co-Director of OPID’s Wisconsin Teaching Fellows & Scholars Program and Professor of History and Coordinator of International Studies and Peace Studies with teaching and service commitments in Women’s and Gender Studies at UW-Stevens Point
To register you will need to use your UW email address. That address will need to be linked to your Zoom account to attend the meeting.
Workshop 2- AI Grading, Detection and Policies
Wednesday Jan. 8, 11 AM to 1 PM- Zoom
AI is also changing how we think about average. If an AI can produce consistent “C” work than we need to update our policies around grading: why would an employer hire a “C” student if AI can do that level of work? Together, we will design new rubrics for an AI era that articulate how human ‘quality’ goes beyond AI. We will discuss what policies and practices improve motivation and decrease cheating, and why.
To register you will need to use your UW email address. That address will need to be linked to your Zoom account to attend the meeting.
Workshop 3- AI Assignments and Assessments
Tuesday, Jan. 14 11 AM to 1 PM – Zoom
All assignments are now AI Assignments. In the same way that the ease of finding information on the internet forced faculty to rethink what homework students did and how we wanted them to do it, we will all need an AI strategy for assignments and assessment. We will cover both ways to force students to write and alternative creative assignments that incorporate AI. Through a wide diversity of examples, we will also discuss how we can reduce cheating and rise standards.
To register you will need to use your UW email address. That address will need to be linked to your Zoom account to attend the meeting.
Questions?
Programming inquiries may be directed to:
Fay Akindes, Director of Systemwide Professional and Instructional Development, UW System, fay.akindes@wisconsin.edu, (608) 263-2684.
For technical support contact:
Erin McGroarty, Program Associate, Office of Academic Affairs, UW System, OPID@lists.wisconsin.edu, (608) 262-8778.