CBS Faculty Guide to Generative AI Integration
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are rapidly transforming education and the workplace, making it essential for educators to thoughtfully integrate these technologies into their teaching practices. By leveraging generative AI, educators can enhance student engagement, critical thinking, and problem-solving, while also addressing challenges related to academic integrity and AI-generated work. The CBS Faculty Guide to Generative AI Integration provides actionable strategies for setting learning outcomes, designing generative AI-based assignments, and creating policies that promote responsible use. With this guide, faculty can make informed decisions to align generative AI integration with course objectives, foster digital literacy, and prepare students to navigate emerging technologies with confidence.
Generative AI Integration Checklist
This comprehensive checklist offers CBS faculty step-by-step guidance on how to thoughtfully incorporate generative AI into their courses, from initial planning and tool selection to implementation and ongoing evaluation. Designed to ensure alignment with course objectives, the checklist helps faculty strategically leverage generative AI as a tool to complement—not replace—student engagement, critical thinking, and analysis. By following these steps, faculty can effectively integrate this emerging technology in ways that enhance learning outcomes, foster deeper understanding, and maintain the integrity of student-driven work and participation:
- Planning: Learning outcomes, syllabus preparation, tool selection
- Preparation: Testing, pedagogical design, alternatives
- Student Assessment: Evaluation, rubrics
- Implementation: Demonstration, roles, documentation, system design
- Evaluation: Impact assessment, metrics
- Insights: Feedback
Explore the CBS Faculty Guide to Generative AI Integration Checklist
Rethink Your Teaching Approach
Give some thought to incorporating generative AI-based tools into your teaching approach. Reflect on how these tools could enhance student learning and help students develop the skills necessary to engage thoughtfully with these technologies in their personal and professional lives. Consider how critically engaging with generative AI tools helps students develop digital literacy skills, such as evaluating the accuracy of information sources and interrogating what constitutes effective writing.
Communicate Expectations (Syllabus Language)
We cannot ignore the fact that AI tools exist. All CBS faculty must acknowledge the availability of generative AI tools and explain expectations for students in the course syllabus. Explain your learning goals and clarify whether such tools are permissible in the course or for particular assignments. Also, specify the extent to which their use may be limited, such as brainstorming, ideation, editing, debugging, or other purposes. In addition, outline how students should document and reference their use of these technologies. If using generative AI tools is prohibited, discuss what steps you will take if you find out that a student has submitted AI-generated work.
Sample Syllabus Language
- If you want students to limit their use of generative AI tools,
- Students in this course may only use Generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, for idea generation and must include a citation describing any usage. Using these tools to generate responses to assignments violates CBS's Honor Code, and I will report suspected instances of plagiarism. Please contact me if you have any questions about this policy.
- If you will encourage students to use generative AI tools,
- You may use Generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, for your work in this course, but only in the ways I have specified in the assignments. When you use any of these tools, you must include a citation describing how you used them to generate your response to the assignment. Please contact me if you have any questions about this policy before submitting.
- Sample citation format: "Description of chat" prompt. Name of AI tool, Company, Date of chat, URL.
- Using this format, one citation might look like this: "Examples of harm reduction initiatives" prompt. ChatGPT, OpenAI, 4 Mar. 2023
Integrate into Assignments
Create tasks requiring students to link the subject matter, classroom discussions, and the students’ lived experiences. Establishing connections among diverse knowledge sources is more challenging for AI-powered tools.
The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning's Considerations for AI Tools in the Classroom is a comprehensive guide with tips on rethinking assessments. These include:
- Scaffold Activities and Assignments: Break down larger assignments into subtasks, creating opportunities for students to check in and receive feedback. The cyclical feedback and revision process in multistep assignments makes using tools like ChatGPT challenging.
- Design Authentic Assessments for Learning: Authentic assessments prevent the use of tools like ChatGPT by asking students to apply course concepts to a "real world" situation or problem, infusing their own experiences and reflections.
- Incorporate Generative AI Tools into Assignment Design: Depending on the goals and objectives, instructors might consider incorporating AI tools in their assignment design to provide students with opportunities to practice and foster the digital literacy skills they will need for the future.
Design Instructional Materials
Educators can also benefit from using generative AI tools to short-cut the ideation phase when planning course content or assessments. Below are some sample prompts for designing assessments. Try these prompts in ChatGPT (adapted from Revolutionize Your Instructional Design Workflow with ChatGPT: The Ultimate List of Prompts).
- Suggest an assessment method that would be appropriate for evaluating [type of learning objective].
- Help me design an assessment that aligns with [specific standard] and measures [specific learning outcome].
- Create a rubric for [assessment type] that measures [learning outcomes].
- Provide examples of formative assessments I could use in [type of learning environment].
- Can you suggest different assessments that align with [instructional topic] and are appropriate for [target audience]?
- I want you to act as an assessment expert and help me design an assessment that accurately measures the [learning objective] for [target audience].
Detect AI-Generated Work
Research is underway to develop robust methods for detecting prose generated by AI tools. Despite the lack of evidence regarding their effectiveness, some generative AI plagiarism-detection tools are now available, such as Turnitin, which can be found in Canvas's Assignment tool. Recently, Turnitin announced that their software can detect some forms of AI-generated writing. Despite this, the company cautions that their assessments may not always be accurate, so penalizing students solely based on Turnitin’s assessments is not advisable. It is also more challenging to detect plagiarized content when tweaked, as it is with all plagiarized work. False positives and false plagiarism flags are also concerns. We will continue to monitor these tools as they evolve.
Report Academic Integrity Concerns
If you prohibit using generative AI tools in your course and suspect that a student has engaged in academic misconduct, you are encouraged to make a report. The CBS Honor Code outlines the Reporting and Disciplinary Process.
Leveraging Generative AI for Teaching and Learning
Discover how generative AI can transform teaching and learning with the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) video series. This series is designed to inspire faculty to integrate generative AI into course design and classroom activities. This series offers practical demonstrations of ChatGPT-4o, showcasing how it can be used for brainstorming, assessment design, and enhancing student engagement.
Each video includes clear, step-by-step examples of prompts and use cases, with additional resources provided in the video descriptions. Whether you're new to generative AI or looking for advanced strategies, this series provides actionable insights to help you confidently incorporate generative AI into your pedagogy.
Explore the full playlist and see how generative AI can support innovation in your teaching.
Classroom Activities with Generative AI
Quick Ideas for the Classroom
Generative AI offers innovative opportunities to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom. The Samberg Institute has compiled a few practical ideas for incorporating generative AI into your courses, from brainstorming product development to analyzing ethical dilemmas and conducting market research. These activities are designed to engage students in critical thinking, real-world application, and collaboration while effectively leveraging AI tools
For additional inspiration and examples of how faculty across Columbia University are integrating AI into their teaching, visit this resource from the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Reach out to samberg@gsb.columbia.edu with any questions or to discuss additional ideas.
Generative AI as Case Consultant (Chatbot)
Learning supported: Critically evaluate generative AI input, articulate ideas about generative AI output
- Analyze business case
- Challenge assumptions with generative AI
- Evaluate and compare generative AI suggestions
- Group and class discussion
Think-Pair-Share (Poll Everywhere & Chatbot)
Learning supported: Synthesis of generative AI output with own analysis, crafting purposeful prompts
- Poll students individually
- Explore with generative AI in pairs
- Repoll to compare responses
- Facilitate class discussion
AI in Industry
Learning supported: Explore real-world applications of AI, discuss industry trends
- Introduce AI in a relevant industry
- Provide a Real-World Example
- Facilitate key discussions
- Connect to course themes
Generative AI for Market Research (Chatbot)
Learning supported: Leverage generative AI to gather insights, validate market trends
- Provide a market research scenario
- Use generative AI to collect data and compare it with student-generated insights
- Identify gaps or limitations in AI-generated data
- Facilitate class discussion on findings
Generative AI for Ethical Dilemmas (Chatbot & Debate)
Learning supported: Analyze ethical considerations, critique AI-generated perspectives
- Present an ethical dilemma related to generative AI use
- Students engage generative AI to explore different sides of the dilemma
- Organize a class debate based on generative AI insights and personal views
- Synthesize key arguments through group reflection
Generative AI in Product Development (Chatbot & Brainstorming)
Learning supported: Ideation, critical thinking, and iterative refinement
- Introduce a product development challenge
- Use generative AI to brainstorm product ideas and features
- Students refine AI-generated ideas based on real-world constraints
- Conduct a peer-review session to assess the quality of suggestions
Faculty Spotlights
Through these Faculty Spotlights, discover how CBS faculty are transforming the classroom with innovative AI-driven teaching. These inspiring videos showcase how faculty are leveraging generative AI to spark creativity, deepen learning, and engage students in new ways.
Gain valuable insights into their inventive strategies, the challenges they’ve overcome, and the successes they’ve achieved by integrating cutting-edge technology into their courses.
Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) Faculty Spotlights showcase the work of provost-funded grant recipients.