Artificial Intelligence & Instructor Wellness
Tuesday 7 May 2024, 1:00 p.m.
This webinar discussed strategies for mindfully implementing artificial intelligence (AI) as a teaching tool and managing students' use of AI as they complete course assessments and assignments. Our goal was to centre instructor wellness by creating space for participants to consider both the ethics and possible value of AI as an instructional collaborative tool in the processes of grading; course design and redesign; and student support resource generation. We also considered the impact that AI may have on instructor wellness with regard to ongoing concerns of student academic dishonesty or the negative impact that AI may have on student creativity or self-directed learning. By creating a space for instructors to learn about new applications of AI and share their own past experiences or current concerns about how AI may already be a component of the teaching and learning spaces they co-create with students, we empowered instructors to consider boundaries and next steps that enhance their wellness while teaching in the emerging age of AI.
About the speakers
Kaitlyn Farrell Rodriguez, Ph.D. (she/hers) is an Educational Consultant at the University of Texas at Austin Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). Her research focus on promoting both student and instructor engagement and wellness in and out of the classroom. She has a background in graduate student development, and her current work in educational development draws from her ongoing interdisciplinary research in the fields of literature, drama, performance studies, and women and gender studies. Kaitlyn has a passion for fostering growth in both instructors and students to support the ongoing development of more human-centered, equity-focused learning experiences.
Kaitlyn's own teaching at the UT-Austin has been recognized through both departmental and institutional levels [English Department Outstanding Assistant Instructor (2020); University of Texas at Austin William S. Livingston Award for Outstanding Graduate Instructor of Record (2021); and College of Liberal Arts Dean's Distinguished Graduate (2023)].
Matthew Russell (he/him) is an Education Consultant in the CTL and holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature. He works with faculty to support the use of technology in teaching and learning as well as help them design online and blended courses. In the CTL, he has developed the online instructional resource, "Architecting Online Courses" DDIG, as well as resources in the CTL Commons. At his previous institution, the University of Wisconsin, Matthew was a blended and online course design consultant, lecturer in Comparative Literature, and founding co-director of the UWM Libraries Digital Humanities Lab, where he developed numerous digital humanities and archival projects. Matthew currently teaches in the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas at UT-Austin and is developing resources around generative AI for teaching and learning as well as leading campus-wide efforts around sustainability education across the curriculum. He has presented at numerous conferences, delivered workshops, published research, and been awarded grants for the use of instructional technologies and strategies.