Details from the Board of Trustees meeting on Feb. 13
By: Norman Corrion
UNIVERSITY CENTER – The Feb. 13 board meeting had a large focus on AI, online learning and how to assess students when the right answer is no longer good enough.
English professors Ray Lacina and Trish O’Connor presented their efforts to investigate AI’s impact on the classroom. Lacina and O’Connor received an Endowed Teaching Chair award for this effort and are continuing their investigation.
This effort is focused on three aspects of AI: leveraging it in the classroom, mitigating issues and employability skills. O’Connor noted the provided guidance on AI policies is essentially do whatever they want provided its clear and in writing but noted that lack of consistency may be problematic for some.
When it comes to tools to detect AI Lacina said, “It gives you a likelihood something is written by AI. There are frequent false positives.” To combat the misuse of AI, Lacina and O’Conor explain that creative assignments incorporating the voice of students can be helpful as AI lacks creative thinking. Lacina also highlights that starting with an in-person assignment can help get a feel for a student’s style for future reference.
Lacina and O’Conor highlight the usefulness of AI when it comes to generating ideas, improving vocabulary and grammar. There was discussion around prompt engineering, the ability to design and input information into AI to get expected results. The discussion highlighted prompt engineering as a skill students will need in the future, leading to a brief discussion on a new writing class at Delta that will involve AI.
Math professor Tom Wells presented next, and focused on the changes required due to online learning.
“We jumped into the deep end with online instruction with COVID-19,” Wells says.
Wells discussed the online learning consortium, a faculty development tool he felt revolutionized his online teaching. He was introduced to many online tools that were beneficial.
He also presented on how to assess students in online learning without a testing center. Wells mentioned that with AI and online learning “it’s really easy to cheat” and he concluded Delta needs a new way to assess students.
“We have to be able to watch them think and assess their thinking,” Wells says.
Wells highlighted multiple “live” methods to see a student’s critical thinking and what they do or don’t know. The methods all involve discussion and getting into the thought process of the student. An example was discussing one of the student’s completed problems and asking what if one thing changed to see the student’s response.
Another area of focus was the social aspect of the online classroom, and making sure there was interactions. One example was an introduction video which a student recorded in their favorite room with their favorite background music.
The Trustees also approved the purchase of three items relating to technology. They approved: the purchase of a site mapping tool for critical incidents, the purchase of a new CNC machine, and a contract for renovation to the IT and computer science wing.The president’s report and many of the board members shared achievements for the month, which can be found online in the meeting minutes. The board meetings are open to the public and provide an opportunity for public comment. The next board meeting is on Tuesday, April 2, at the Downtown Midland Center.
