Center for AI Learning and Community-Engaged Innovation

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The University of Baltimore's Center for AI Learning and Community-Engaged Innovation (CAILI) equips faculty, students, and the Baltimore community to responsibly engage with generative AI and artificial intelligence through ethical, equitable, and interdisciplinary learning, research, and innovation. Through meaningful collaboration and community partnerships, CAILI fosters AI fluency, drives social mobility, and applies technology to solve real-world challenges.

Explore AI. Learn together. Innovate responsibly. Serve the community.

The charge for UBalt's Center for AI Learning and Community-Engaged Innovation is hard-coded within our name: We seek opportunities and partnerships to enhance AI's potential to foster effective teaching and learning, and to do so in ways that pairs new thinking about technology with proven methods of providing instruction. No platform should be about itself. No modality should live beyond testing. At CAILI, we're mapping out a future where student and teacher are fully vested in exploring the topic at hand. This is the culmination of the University's work and its initiatives in AI—thought leadership, research, outreach, and more—over a period of years.
Baltimore skyline at night

AI in Everyday Life

HOW DO WE MAINTAIN OUR HUMANITY IN THE MACHINE AGE?
Artificial intelligence is part of modern life. Every day, we engage with virtual assistants, tech platforms, and digital processes that feature AI as a key component of their viability. Machine-based learning, in which a platform expands its capabilities based on its interacxtion with human beings and other machines, is a key part of our consumer-based society.

Our personal data—who we are, what we like and don't like, and where we want to go—are part of a stream of information that empowers this intelligence. While it's smart to maintain data privacy in our everyday lives, we've already embraced the concept of a basic connection between people and machine. What we do with that knowledge is the question. And that's a driver for CAILI.
Typical law school class

Artificial Intelligence at UBalt

What is the University's role in exploring this rapidly evolving field of inquiry?
The University of Baltimore is at the forefront of AI integration in education, fostering faculty innovation, student engagement, and ethical AI literacy. We support faculty in navigating the changing AI landscape through resources, research, and community-driven initiatives.

Striking the balance between traditional teaching and learning methods and the new horizons suggested by technology—that's our goal. It's important to say that we aren't doing this work within an "academic bubble." We're interested in partnering with the public and private sectors, with entitites small and large, to ensure that our perspective is as wide as possible.

In a word, we—K-12, colleges and universities, the workplace, and society at large—have to get this right. The University of Baltimore is up and running on these issues; it's the full-time job of our center. And we're not shy when it comes to working with you.

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AI and ChatGPT in the Classroom

There are several areas to consider when thinking about AI in the classroom including but not limited to the syllabus, the classroom policies or integrating or deterring the use of AI, assignment creation, and assessment. Faculty from across the country have begun creating and sharing various resources that address these areas and more.

Set Expectations. It is important to set clear expectations and guidelines on the use of AI in your classroom. Talk with the students. Discuss your views on ChatGPT and AI within the learning process and environment. Provide rationale for whether AI is embraced or discouraged (or prohibited) within your classroom. This provides a great opportunity to build rapport with your students and demonstrate your teaching philosophy.  

This resource is created by Lance Eaton for the purpose of sharing and helping other instructors see the range of policies available by other educators to help in the development of their own for navigating AI-Generative Tools (such as ChatGPT, MidJourney, Dall-E, etc).

Be creative with your assignments. Create assignments that ask students to reflect on a lived experience that relates to course content. ChatGPT cannot provide information post-2021; thus, create assignments that connect to more current real-world events. Not only will this help with using AI as a brainstorm mechanism for students, rather than assignment completion tool, it will show real world application to course material, making the course and material more meaningful.  

Integrate AI into class assignments. Think about how AI might facilitate learning and prepare them to thoughtfully engage in the learning process.  There are several ways to integrate and interact with AI in the classroom. Some examples: have AI create an essay and then students deconstruct that essay; use AI to brainstorm a research topic; have AI provide an outline of a research proposal or essay; ask AI to provide an argument for students to create counterarguments. These are just a few examples of integration.   

CELTT is happy to discuss ways to work with AI in specific courses! We look forward to partnering with you through a more in-depth consultation.

With the fast pace of AI development, it is easy to get lost and overwhelmed with the thought of students' misuse of ChatGPT and AI. These feelings are real and valid among faculty and staff; however, this is an opportunity to think about how we assess student learning. How does a student demonstrate mastery over course material?   

Process over Product. Lowering stakes of assignments reduces the incentive for student cheating, but it also provides an opportunity for students to learn. For example, providing more informal, low-stakes drafts and exploratory activities (e.g., writing, brainstorming, concept mapping, blogging). This also enhances the opportunity for students to build creativity and higher-order critical thinking skills.    

Applied Assessment. Rather than "another paper" in which students identify, explain, and apply a concept, have students create multimedia portfolios designed around application of concepts. For example, create a PSA for domestic violence that incorporates the ABCs of attitudes and persuasion. This also provides students with an alternate method to showcase their understanding and creates meaning and value to their work as the PSA could be shared with external entities.   

These are only a few examples of ways to think about assessment. CELTT is eager to work with you to rethink assessment in your courses!  If you are interested, please schedule a more in-depth consultation.

 

 

Fun with AI

Here are some fun examples of AI in action provided by UBalt faculty, including Dr. Nima Zahadat and Dr. Jessica A Stansbury:

screenshot of Python code

screenshot of ChatGPT song lyrics

screenshot of story by ChatGPT

Screenshot of poem written by ChatGPT

screenshot of description of ChatGPT's limitations

DALL-E 2 is ChatGPT's visual sister, which is a version of Open AI for drawing.

screenshot description of DALL-E 2

Prompt: Draw a little boy, 8-years old, named Joey, with long hair, and swimming with orcas in the Arctic. "It gave me 4 options. I picked these two for my son Joey who loves orcas. I had asked it to do it in the style of Van Gogh."

drawing of long-haired boy in ocean with orcas

drawing of long-haired boy, arms raised, with orcas

 

 

 

 

CONTACT US

 

Jessica Stansbury, Director