Approaches to Teaching With Generative AI

 

What It Is

ChatGPT, Google Bard, Microsoft Copilot, and similar tools are referred to as Generative AI (GenAI) because they can interact with humans in a natural and conversational style when generating sophisticated, original, and human-like text based on simple prompts from users.

Why It Matters

Understanding the opportunities and challenges presented by GenAI tools has become an increasingly important aspect of teaching in the digital age. As with most educational technologies, the successful exploration and decision to use or not use GenAI in an education setting is highly dependent on specific learning objectives, course context, and disciplinary considerations. Additionally, GenAI is a part of many professional applications and is likely to be a key aspect of career skills for all learners.

Teaching Applications

The Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation (STLI) recommends that instructors implement clear course expectations and learning goals to guide the responsible and ethical use of GenAI tools in their courses. The following practices will help establish the approach that works best for your class.

  • Become Informed
  • Whether mitigating the use of GenAI or effectively integrating it into your classes, Designing for Learners: GenAI in Teaching provides actionable strategies. This free short course guides instructors through understanding the fundamentals of GenAI, considering its ethical implications and how to discuss those implications with students, leveraging GenAI in teaching and learning, case studies of sample assignments, and constructing a GenAI teaching plan. W&M instructors email academy@wm.edu for a link to the free registration page. 
  • Communicate Expectations
    • • Communicate your reasoning for including, limiting, or excluding GenAI use in assignments. Understanding why an individual GenAI use policy exists can help learners adhere to it. This is especially important within disciplines as students gain a deeper understanding of how their major areas of study interact with GenAI.
    • • Be sure your syllabus includes a clear statement on permissible and/or non-permissible uses of GenAI and how that relates to academic integrity and the W&M Honor Code. Additionally, discuss the course consequences of any suspected unauthorized GenAI use.
    • • In class, discuss how GenAI tools may or may not be used in your course, but also why, given the learning objectives for the course, you are setting these rules. 
    • • Use STLI’s GenAI communication entry points resource to guide class discussions about responsible and ethical GenAI use.
    • • Lay the foundation for academic honesty by creating a culture of integrity and learning. Review the importance of academic integrity and the value of skills gained through the specific learning activities you have assigned. Consider using a framework like TILT to communicate this value to students explicitly and consistently in assignment and assessment directions.
  • Increase the Motivation to Learn and Opportunities to Show Mastery
    • • Consider the essential knowledge, skills, or dispositions you want to evaluate and any related advantages or disadvantages of GenAI use.
    • • Implement a variety of assessment approaches to provide multiple pathways for learning. Beyond writing assignments, consider traditional exams, take-home projects, oral presentations, digital projects, visual poster presentations, and lower-stakes in-class activities (e.g., discussions, group work, debates).
    • • Introduce your students to learning science so they understand how what you are asking them to do is integral to learning. Remind students that, though it is tempting, shortcutting can undermine knowledge acquisition or skill development. Introduce students to evidence-based learning strategies like retrieval practice, interleaving, and metacognition. Require students to reflect on their learning processes, gaps in understanding, and areas for growth.
    • • To encourage learning and reduce the incentive to use dishonest measures: 
      • • Provide frequent low-stakes opportunities for learners to show mastery.
      • • Decrease emphasis on a single performance.  Provide multiple and varied ways for students to show mastery of content throughout the course.
      • • Build confidence and competence by breaking larger assessments into smaller chunks so learners can build upon what they learn through feedback and revision.
      • • Emphasize intrinsic motivation through these pathways:
        • Time: learners connect course content to events, conversations, trends, or research they experience that semester. 
        • Place: Learners connect to something in the local community, whether that means their dorm, their campus, or the town. 
        • Personal: Learners consider how course content could be used to understand a specific experience in their lives.
      • • Provide opportunities for students to orally explain their work, process, or defend an argument, which strengthens their understanding while deterring GenAI misuse.
      • • When asking students to practice certain skills or generate secondary content, consider leveraging GenAI to assist in constructive ways. Examples include engaging an AI chatbot in a discussion to fine-tune an argument or generating graphics for an assignment where illustration skills are not part of the assessment.
      • • Consider having your students use a university-supported GenAI tool like Microsoft Copilot during a class activity. Allow students to experiment with prompt generation and the analysis of AI-generated content for strengths, weaknesses, and fallacies. As a group, discuss the opportunities afforded by this technology and how it can also be detrimental when used in certain ways (all context-specific).

Other Considerations

  • • Consider student variability and equity when deciding to use (or not to use) GenAI and other digital technology tools in your course. Do all students have equal access to the allowed or needed tools? Are those without access to these digital tools, for monetary or other reasons, at a disadvantage in the work that you have assigned them, or how it will be assessed? If so, how can you remove or reduce this barrier?
  • • The use of GenAI in higher education and society as a whole is still evolving rapidly. The opportunities available and challenges presented by AI are highly discipline-specific. Guidelines, ideas and best practices provided by professional organizations, education organizations, and your peers are great ways to remain informed in a manageable way.

Resources

Read: Mapping a Multidimensional Framework for GenAI in Education

Read: Framing Generative AI in Education with the GenAI Intent and Orientation Model

Read: Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Teaching Guide

Cite This Resource

Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation. (2025, July). Approaches to teaching with generative a.i.  [Teaching resource]. https://stli.wm.edu/generativeai

Updated 7/2025