Using AI for Teaching, Learning and Course Design

Generative AI can support many aspects of teaching and learning, from brainstorming lesson ideas to helping students evaluate information more critically. The most effective uses begin with a clear learning goal—not with the tool itself.

As faculty explore these tools, transparency is essential. When AI contributes to the development of course materials, activities, communications, or other instructional work, faculty can model the same responsible practices we expect from students by acknowledging how the tool was used. This does not require documenting every minor interaction, but it does mean being open when AI has meaningfully shaped content, ideas, or decisions. Modeling acknowledgment helps students understand that responsible AI use includes honesty, critical review, and accountability for the final product.

AI can provide a useful starting point, but it does not replace faculty expertise. Instructors remain responsible for reviewing AI-generated content for accuracy, accessibility, bias, and alignment with course outcomes. Faculty should also revise generated material to reflect their own disciplinary knowledge, teaching context, and relationships with students.

Using AI to support faculty work

AI can help faculty generate ideas, revise materials, and reduce the time spent on some routine course-design tasks. Possible uses include:

Plan lessons and activities

AI can help you:

• Brainstorm examples, case studies, or discussion questions
• Generate ideas for active learning
• Identify likely student misconceptions
• Develop alternative explanations of a difficult concept
• Create scenarios connected to disciplinary or professional contexts

Develop course materials

AI can provide a starting point for:

• Study guides and review questions
• Low-stakes practice activities
• Assignment directions
• Rubric criteria
• Sample responses
• Frequently asked questions

Revise for clarity and transparency

AI can also help revise existing materials to make them more understandable and supportive. For example, you might ask AI to:

• Simplify complex assignment directions
• Align an assignment with the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework
• Adjust the tone of a student message
• Suggest ways to make a task more accessible

AI-generated revisions should always be reviewed to ensure they preserve the original meaning and accurately reflect the course.

Using AI to support student learning

When AI use aligns with the learning goals, students can use it to generate ideas, evaluate information, revise responses, and reflect on their thinking.

Generate

Students might use AI to:

• Brainstorm topics or examples
• Explore possible approaches to a problem
• Develop practice questions
• Create an initial outline
• Generate questions about a reading or concept

Generating ideas should be a starting point rather than the end of the learning process.

Evaluate

Students can analyze AI-generated content for:

• Accuracy
• Bias
• Missing perspectives
• Quality of evidence
• Disciplinary appropriateness
• Fabricated or unreliable sources

Evaluation activities help students see that AI output should not be accepted automatically.

Revise

Students might improve an AI-generated response by:

• Correcting inaccuracies
• Adding scholarly evidence
• Applying course concepts
• Strengthening the reasoning
• Revising the tone for a particular audience
• Replacing general statements with discipline-specific detail

The learning comes from the decisions students make as they revise—not simply from producing a polished final product.

Reflect

Ask students to explain:

• How they used AI
• What the tool contributed
• What they changed or rejected
• How they verified the information
• What they learned through the process
• What they would do differently next time

Reflection makes the student’s thinking visible and reinforces their responsibility for the final work.

Teach AI literacy

Students may use AI before they fully understand how it works or where its limitations lie. Faculty can help students develop the habits needed to use these tools thoughtfully. Important topics include:

• AI-generated information may be inaccurate or incomplete
• Citations and sources may be fabricated
• Output may reflect bias or exclude important perspectives
• Different prompts can produce different answers
• AI tools do not evaluate truth in the way disciplinary experts do
• Private or protected information should not be entered into public tools
• Students remain responsible for the work they submit

AI literacy does not require a full course redesign. A short activity or discussion can help students practice evaluating AI output.

Write stronger prompts

Clear prompts generally produce more useful results. A prompt may include:

Role + Context + Task + Criteria + Constraints

For example:

You are helping revise an assignment for an upper-level university course. Rewrite the directions using the TILT framework. Preserve the original learning outcomes, clarify the purpose, task, and criteria, and use a warm but direct tone. Identify any information that is still missing rather than inventing details.

Effective prompts provide context, define the desired outcome, and describe what a successful response should include.

It is also useful to ask AI to:

• Explain its reasoning
• Identify uncertainties
• Provide multiple options
• Ask clarifying questions
• Check its response against specific criteria
• Revise its first draft

Review AI-generated content carefully

Before using AI-generated material with students, review it for:

• Factual accuracy
• Alignment with course outcomes
• Appropriate level of difficulty
• Bias or missing perspectives
• Reliable and verifiable sources
• Accessibility
• Tone and clarity
• Disciplinary accuracy

Avoid copying AI-generated content directly into a course without reviewing and revising it.

Protect student privacy

Do not enter personally identifiable information, grades, private student communications, or protected student work into public AI tools. Before asking students to use a particular tool, also consider:

• Whether an account is required
• What personal information does the tool collect
• Whether a paid version is necessary
• Whether the tool is accessible
• Whether students have a reasonable alternative
• Whether CMU supports the tool

When possible, use university-supported tools, such as the enterprise version of CoPilot Chat, and follow current CMU guidance on privacy, security, and accessibility.

Need help?

The Office of Curriculum and Instructional Support can help CMU faculty:

• Identify appropriate uses of AI for a course or assignment
• Develop AI literacy activities
• Revise assignments using TILT
• Create prompts for course planning and teaching tasks
• Evaluate AI-generated instructional materials
• Consider accessibility, privacy, and student access