{"id":248,"date":"2023-06-07T11:35:20","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T10:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pcrest.com\/blog\/?p=248"},"modified":"2023-06-07T11:36:54","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T10:36:54","slug":"course-design-with-ai-in-mind-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/07\/course-design-with-ai-in-mind-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Course Design with AI in Mind (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019re hardly the first to tackle this subject and we won\u2019t pretend to have all the answers. But there are a few things we\u2019re relatively sure of, the most critical of which is that active learning, whether you call it Process Education, POGIL, a flipped classroom, or student-centered, is a far less welcoming environment for student use of AI than a lecture + homework approach. In active learning, students do the bulk of their exploration and inquiry within the classroom, preferably as part of a cooperative or collaborative group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In so many of the courses that seem to be rife with students cheating by using ChatGPT (or another AI), the focus is on disciplinary content and students demonstrating they have absorbed that content by writing a research paper or essay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a student-centered course, the focus is on students learning and, in POGIL or Process Education courses, specifically on learning <em><strong>how <\/strong><\/em>to learn, even as they learn disciplinary content. According to Rina Bliss, professor of sociology at Rutgers University, <strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\">\u201c\u2026while AI can assist in getting information to a learner, it cannot do the thinking for them \u2014 it cannot help them truly learn.\u201d<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Bliss goes a step further, touching on specific approaches to teaching and learning that not only decrease the utility of AI, but increase student learning:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-vivid-red-color has-text-color is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">In education, there has been a movement toward social-emotional and problem-based learning as springboards for academics \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2022\/04\/12\/social-emotional-learning-is-important-book-learning\/?itid=lk_inline_manual_23\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2022\/04\/12\/social-emotional-learning-is-important-book-learning\/?itid=lk_inline_manual_23\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">and with good reason<\/mark><\/a>. Research shows that students across age groups and skill levels learn better and retain information longer when they are offered the opportunity to see how the material they\u2019re learning connects to their lives outside the classroom. So educators attempt to spur interest in subjects and acquisition of skills by turning learning moments into communal problem-solving events. When we combine analytical learning with social-emotional learning, students become proficient in the material we want them to know and get more excited about the learning process.<\/p>\n<cite><a href=\"https:\/\/wapo.st\/45bUb8B\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/wapo.st\/45bUb8B\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">AI can\u2019t teach children to learn. What\u2019s missing?, Washington Post April 11, 2023<\/mark><\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In terms of activity and curriculum design, so much of this is about <strong>the Why statement<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Step 1 of the Learning Process Methodology (which is the heart and soul of our activity and curricula design) is, \u201cWhy?\u201d <strong>This is because the motivation to learn depends upon the relevance of learning to personal, educational, career, and life experience and goals.<\/strong> The \u201cWhy\u201d statement in a learning situation makes clear not only why learning about a given topic is important, but perhaps more importantly, how it is relevant to the needs, interests, or concerns of the students. For a strong \u201cWhy\u201d statement, it is critical to think beyond immediate needs and the perspective of the instructor. Instructors are almost always aware of the relevance required by a \u201cWhy\u201d statement, as not only have they designed the curricula, activity, and\/or learning experience, they also have life and professional experience beyond that of their students. But students don\u2019t have the benefit of these perspectives. Asking them to give their time and attention to something for their own good not only isn\u2019t motivating; it comes across as condescending. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The philosopher S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard puts it nicely,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-vivid-red-color has-text-color is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">If one is truly to succeed in leading a person to a specific place, one must first and foremost take care to find him where he is and begin there. This is the secret in the entire art of helping. Anyone who cannot do this is himself under a delusion if he thinks he is able to help someone else. In order truly to help someone else, I must understand more than he\u2013but certainly first and foremost understand what he understands. If I do not do that, then my greater understanding does not help him at all.<br><\/p>\n<cite>S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/books\/edition\/Kierkegaard_s_Writings_XXII_Volume_22\/MCbLCQAAQBAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=Kierkegaard%E2%80%99s+Writings,+Volume+22&amp;printsec=frontcover\" target=\"_blank\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">The Point of View On My Work As An Author<\/mark><\/a> <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This isn\u2019t a fool-proof recipe for keeping students from using an AI to complete their assignments and write their papers. But it does make the point that if we want students to learn, we have an obligation to find ways to start from a place of empathy (shared feeling\/understanding) and proceed from there. If what students are tasked with learning matters <strong>to them<\/strong> and is of interest <strong>to them<\/strong>, they will be invested in learning. This makes the likelihood of them withdrawing from learning and instead using an AI to complete tasks for them remote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the food is good, kids don\u2019t feed it to the family pet when no one\u2019s watching\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If a show or film is interesting and engaging, people don\u2019t reach for their phones\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\">If what students are learning matters to us,<\/mark><\/strong><br><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\">we have to make sure it matters <em>to them<\/em>.<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019re hardly the first to tackle this subject and we won\u2019t pretend to have all the answers. But there are a few things we\u2019re relatively sure of, the most critical&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80,59,79],"tags":[81,82,14],"class_list":["post-248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-expectations","category-motivation","tag-ai","tag-helping","tag-strategies","post_format-post-format-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CERTIFIED.png?fit=761%2C745&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions\/255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}