Students Creating with AI

In some cases, faculty are encouraging students to experiment with building things using AI. Sometimes students work with a traditional course output, testing, for instance, how well AI can produce academic writing. In other cases, students make something that goes beyond what they would traditionally have produced in a course: an interactive game, a web-based essay, a database, or an interactive timeline. AI helps them overcome technical hurdles that previously would have been insurmountable. When we design these activities with faculty, we preserve a desirable difficulty aligned with the course’s objectives. Just as the challenge of writing a paper helps students develop and articulate their ideas, creating with AI should give students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of course material and bring their ideas about it to full articulation.