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AI Commons Bulletin 3/12/2025

🔊 MSU IT Announces ChatGPT and Gemini “Coming Soon”
The new AI page on tech.msu.edu teases that Gemini and ChatGPT are “coming soon” But it is unclear if the applications will be available for purchase or if the campus community will have free access of the latest foundational models.

Learn More: https://tech.msu.edu/technology/ai/

✍️ Departments at Johns Hopkins Integrated AI into their Curriculum Development Process
It’s like experiential learning for faculty – integrate AI into a standard task that you need to do anyway. Also has a list of very concrete bite-sized learning objectives for learning to use AI, like: name 3 chatbots, start a chat, list 3 ways to make a better prompt.

Learn More: Khamis, N., et al. (2025). More intelligent faculty development: Integrating GenAI in curriculum development programs. Medical Teacher, 1–3.

⚙️ AI Tools Are Being Used for All Stages of the Scientific Research Process
This working paper gives quite in-depth description of several AI tools being used for each of step of the research cycle: (1) lit review, (2) generating research ideas, (3) conducting experiments, (4) generating multimodal content, and (5) conducting peer-review. Recommended to get a good lay of the land.

Learn More: Eger, S., et al. (2025). Transforming Science with Large Language Models: A Survey on AI-assisted Scientific Discovery, Experimentation, Content Generation, and Evaluation.

📈 Grammarly Acquires Coda: From Writing Assistant to AI Productivity
Grammarly, popular with students and educators as a writing assistant software, just purchased the AI productivity company Coda. While Grammarly has previously positioned itself as a teaching tool for writing, this acquisition signals a move towards an AI productivity platform.

Learn More: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/company/grammarly-acquires-coda/

Bulletin items compiled by MJ Jackson and Sarah Freye with production assistance from Lisa Batchelder. Get the AI-Commons Bulletin on our Microsoft Teams channel, at aicommons.commons.msu.edu, or by email (send an email to aicommons@msu.edu with the word “subscribe”).

AI Commons Bulletin 2/24/2025

🚫 No More Guidance from USDE
Beyond the AI guidance for schools and the toolkits for educators and developers, the entire Office of Educational Technology website is gone. tech.ed.gov now directs to the USDE website.

Learn More: https://www.ed.gov/

📽️ Try This: Create AI Video for YouTube
Short videos can be useful tools for teaching something, or that students can use to demonstrate something. YouTube now offers tools to use AI to generate video based on a text prompt.

Learn More: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/heres-how-you-can-create-ai-videos-in-youtube-shorts-thanks-to-google-veo/

🤔 AI Operator Can Take e-Learning Courses For You
OpenAI’s Operator tool can take an online course, which means it’s time to rethink asynchronous course design.

Learn More: https://benbetts.co.uk/the-fall-of-click-next-e-learning-what-operator-means-for-training/?ref=2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com

✍️ Should We Invent New Words to Talk to AI?
Want a fresh way to discuss AI literacy? These authors argue we need new words—not just human vocabulary—to grasp AI. Encourage students to create neologisms for human concepts AI should learn or machine ideas we must understand. What might they invent?

Learn More: Hewitt, Geirhos, & Kim, (2025). We Can’t Understand AI Using our Existing Vocabulary.

Bulletin items compiled by MJ Jackson and Sarah Freye with production assistance from Lisa Batchelder. Get the AI-Commons Bulletin on our Microsoft Teams channel, at aicommons.commons.msu.edu, or by email (send an email to aicommons@msu.edu with the word “subscribe”).

Messaging your students early in the semester is essential. For initial communication use the "email student in a class" tool on the RO site to ensure you're contacting 100% of your students via their preferred contact information. It's especially important that you communicate A) where class will convene, B) when class will convene, C) what your expectations for the first 3 weeks of class are, and 4) a brief introduction of yourself. It is also wise to attach a copy of your syllabus to this note, if you see fit.

This tool provides the highest level of certainty that you will be communicating with the most accurate roster of your students, and that the message will be delivered to their preferred email address. Once you meet as a class and have time to establish communication norms you can communicate using whatever tool is best for your class.

The tool can be found in Instructor Systems on the registrar's site (reg.msu.edu). You'll need to login with your MSU ID to access the tool.

 

Massive changes have occurred recently with regard to artificial intelligence (AI) and the ability of the public to generate novel text and images using AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT). Many in education are concerned with what this means for assessing student understanding: if a student can generate a novel, accurate essay on almost any topic, how will you assess learning from short-answer and essay assignments?

On 02/01/2023, a campus collaboration of the APUE STEM+ Ed@State, Enhanced Digital Learning Initiative (EDLI), Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation (CTLI), MSU Libraries, and MSU IT EdTech, hosted the "Symposium on AI in Education and Academic Writing". During the symposium, the basics of how AI works were shared and attendees had opportunities to play with some AI tools. The event provided opportunities to hear how faculty are addressing these challenges, discuss concerns and opportunities with colleagues, and reflect on individual teaching philosophies in the time of artificial intelligence (AI).

Recorded Webinar on Generative AI and Teaching at MSU:
Event: An Introduction to Teaching and Generative AI
Facilitators: Stephen Thomas, Jeremy Van hof, and Jake Kasper

https://mediaspace.msu.edu/media/Introduction+to+teaching+with+generative+AI/1_7sww2tmu link

Part 1
The first hour will be focused on general concepts and implications of generative AI (genAI) to your current course. This workshop will introduce you to the concept of genAI and Large Language Models (LLM). We will look at what can be done with them, how students might use them, and how you might think about them in your classroom. You will be given a chance to reflect and discuss how these tools might interact with your assignment prompts and how you might think about your assessment structure.

Part 2
The second hour will be more open for exploration of tools and specific examples of curriculum. Examples will be given for incorporating genAI into disciplinary objectives and what additional genAI skills might be added to course goals. As part of this discussion, we can examine three genAI tools: ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Khanmigo.

For more genAI resources from across campus, visit: https://edli.commons.msu.edu/2023/08/16/generative-ai-resources-msu/

AI Commons Bulletin 1/15/2025
Human-curated news about generative AI for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

🧬 Use Case: A Structured Framework Requiring ChatGPT Use
Graduate students used ChatGPT for a project, following specific steps and justifying their choices. The assessment emphasized critical thinking. Students appreciated the structured framework, which helped them learn ChatGPT’s use and weaknesses effectively.
Learn More: https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2024.2421997

🔍 Explore a Self-Directed Learning Bot

Did you know you can create a customized version of ChatGPT for your students? An example is LearnGuide, created to add self-directed learning to a problem-based learning (PBL) medical curriculum. Students learned as well as or better than those who did not use the tool.
Learn More: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-oZ8zdPaKp-learnguide

✏️ Writing Improved When Assisted by AI

Subjects wrote stories with ChatGPT-3’s assistance. Those who modified AI suggestions produced higher-quality, less biased writing than those who accepted or rejected them outright. Researchers attribute this to higher-order thinking during modification.
Learn More: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2412.07200

🚫 Why Academics Don’t Use AI

A survey of UK academics found half did not use AI tools in their work because:
They didn’t know how to use AI or if it was allowed
Ethical issues relating to how AI works
Lack of time and interest
They prefer to do work themselves
Reject AI as dehumanizing
AI is inaccurate and can’t be trusted
Learn More: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-024-00524-x

Bulletin items compiled by MJ Jackson and Sarah Freye with production assistance from Lisa Batchelder. Get the AI-Commons Bulletin on our Microsoft Teams channel, at aicommons.commons.msu.edu, or by email (send an email to aicommons@msu.edu with the word “subscribe”).

AI Commons Bulletin 3/10/2025

📖 Want a Playbook for Envisioning How AI Changes Your Curriculum?
A concise summary of a biomedical engineering educators’ summit on integrating AI into curricula. It covers aligning AI with industry shifts, using AI in courses, and tackling challenges like accreditation and curriculum overload through Q&A and strategic discussions.

Learn More: Khojah, R., Werth, A., Broadhead, K.W. et al. Integrating Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools and Competencies in Biomedical Engineering Education. Biomed Eng Education (2025).

💯 Estonia to Give All Students ChatGPTedu
Estonia, one of the top countries for ChatGPT usage, is aiming to provide all 10th and 11th grade students with ChatGPT Edu by September 2025, eventually expanding to all 200,000 students in the country.

Learn More: https://openai.com/index/estonia-schools-and-chatgpt/

💰 MSU Tech Store Now Has Full Copilot License for Purchase
MSU Tech Store now offers the full suite of Microsoft Copilot for purchase. The current price is $168 per license through August 2025. This includes access to Copilot within existing applications like Word, Teams, and Outlook.

Learn More: https://techstore.msu.edu/

🤖 Some Concrete Examples for Using and Assigning AI in a Database Course
Examples of using AI to create mini-cases, quiz questions, and slides, plus assignments analyzing AI-generated data and solutions. Students valued the experience, though its impact on critical thinking and problem-solving varied.

Learn More: Zhang, X. (2025). Teaching Tip Incorporating AI Tools Into Database Classes. Journal of Information Systems Education, 36(1), 37–52.

Bulletin items compiled by MJ Jackson and Sarah Freye with production assistance from Lisa Batchelder. Get the AI-Commons Bulletin on our Microsoft Teams channel, at aicommons.commons.msu.edu, or by email (send an email to aicommons@msu.edu with the word “subscribe”).

The more educators can treat students as professional learners by providing them with reliable, timely, and accurate information about their progress in a course, the more likely it is that students will persist, thrive, and ultimately succeed in their educational journey.

The typical learning experience in American high schools is an in-person experience that is infused with online tools. Students are regularly required to engage with learning content in online platforms, and they have constant access to their grades, class announcements, and course materials via online and mobile platforms. Given that this is the most common learning experience students have prior to beginning at MSU, it follows that establishing a digital learning environment that mirrors the students’ known processes will create a more seamless transition into the MSU learning ecosystem.

An effective way to support student learning is for educators to use the learning management system as a student-centered academic hub for their course. At MSU, that means using D2L in specific, targeted ways that are intentionally geared toward meeting most students’ needs. In addition to optimizing the students’ experience, this intentional deployment of the learning management system serves to streamline much of the administrative load that is inherent in teaching, thereby simplifying many of the time-consuming tasks that often dominate educator’s lives. Accomplishing this need not require a comprehensive deployment of D2L in your course. In fact, using the LMS in four or five critical ways, and perhaps modifying your practices slightly to facilitate that use, can make a significant difference in students’ perceptions of your course.
1) Use the Grade Book
2) Post a syllabus and a clear schedule
3) Use the announcements tool
4) Distribute materials via D2L
5) (optionally) Use the digital drop box

Click the PDF below for more context on how these five simple steps can maximize the students' experience in your class, and streamline your teaching workflow at the same time.