Shape the Future: WKU AI Conference

Establishing Guiding Principles for Using AI in Your Program or Department 
Gary Houchens 

In Fall 2023 the WKU Educational Leadership Doctoral program established guiding principles to help faculty and students manage the ethical and effective use of artificial intelligence in EdD coursework and dissertation processes. These six principles establish a framework for using AI as a tool in student learning and research activities and provide a common language to discuss its ethical use. In this demonstration session, the program director will share the AI Guiding Principles, discuss how they are being used, and explore other applications of this framework. 

 

Generative AI – A Tool to Improve Student Thinking Skills in Engineering Classroom 
Mi Sun An 

The Construction Scheduling course traditionally saw students relying heavily on instructor-provided materials for schedule creation or focusing solely on activity list development, neglecting the objective of the course: schedule construction. This study introduced a generative AI to assist students, empowering them to actively develop their activity lists for the given project types. This innovative approach led to students independently crafting unique lists. Equipped with newfound knowledge, students successfully honed their critical thinking skills to create various construction schedules.  

 

Using AI to give specific and responsive feedback to students  
Angela Nagel 

Teachers can use AI to create highly detailed rubrics for student work, and then use those same scored rubrics to create specific student feedback.  This "feedback bank" can be used to give students AI-created/teacher-edited notes on improving their thinking or performance on an assignment.   

AI-Enabling Your Syllabus 
Steven Momorella 

This hands-on, interactive session will provide the foundation for instructors to modify their existing syllabi to include AI skills and knowledge. Examples of AI-enabled syllabi for an Agriculture course and a Public Relations course will be shared along with specific lesson plan ideas that can transform your syllabus to help provide the skills that the workforce demands. Tools include generative AI applications ChatGPT, Microsoft CoPilot, open.AI and beautiful.AI. At the end of this workshop, participants should have several useful examples of how to AI enable an existing syllabus. 

The Use of A.I. in a Technology Oriented Course 
Kirk Atkinson 

In teaching a Database/SQL course, it is easily observable that students often struggle with a new skill, especially if writing "code" is involved. Using the free version  of ChatGPT, students can be taught to use A.I. to assist them in writing this code, and further, how to learn to deconstruct the English narrative to solve tasks presented. 

 

Bridging Tradition and Innovation: Integrating ChatGPT in Letterpress Education 
Natalie Tyree 

Exploring the intersection of traditional practices and technology, this presentation highlights the integration of ChatGPT in Art 496: Special Topics in Letterpress. This discussion will give insights into the fusion of analog and digital methods, focusing on utilizing AI-generated text to enhance the art of hand-setting typographic compositions using movable type.This presentation showcases practical applications of AI in traditional settings and provides tips for crafting effective prompts for optimal creative outcomes. This session aims to inspire educators and creative practitioners to embrace the possibilities of AI, providing a framework for integrating this technology into their own creative practices. 

 

Enhancing Scenario Planning with AI While Managing Group Dynamics for Complex Problem Solving 
Rheanna Plemons & SFC George Joseph 

This presentation discusses the pedagogical application of artificial intelligence (AI) in teaching case study analysis, scenario planning, and managing diverse teams. The presenters will illustrate how AI can generate hypothetical outcomes for proposed case study solutions. Using AI for predictive modeling will help future leaders remove bias from decision-making and force them to view outcomes from different perspectives. The presenters will describe how instructors can use AI to purposefully control team assignments to challenge students in working with others who have conflicting personalities or leverage team members' strengths and weaknesses based on personality traits. 

I am once again asking if AI is cheating... 
Brooke Gross 

This session will cover common ethical concerns surrounding the use of artificial intelligence in academia and professional life. Participants will engage in small group debates via breakout rooms using hypothetical scenarios and justify their conclusions based on social/cultural, academic, or legal precedents. As a large group, they will then discuss how these debates may relate to their coursework, and the session leader will offer tips for staging similar activities with different student groups. Supplementary materials will be provided via a shared drive with popular articles regarding AI ethics to aid in the debates. 

AI Empowerment: Navigating Academic Challenges for Students with Disabilities 
Jimmie Martin 

In this session, we will explore how generative AI can be transformative for students with disabilities. We'll share success stories, demonstrate tools, and discuss strategies to tailor AI support for diverse learning needs. Attendees will gain insights into creating inclusive educational environments, ensuring responsible AI use that empowers rather than undermines student autonomy and learning outcomes. The session promises to be an enlightening exploration of AI’s potential to level the playing field in higher education. 

Program Change using AI 
Will Perry and Tanja Bibbs 

This session will explore how the faculty in the School of Leadership and Professional Studies have used generative AI to support the transformation of the Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership. Attendees will gain insight on how to leverage the capabilities of AI to assist in market research, identify curriculum gaps, formulate strategic plans, and conduct in-depth data analysis. The discussion will highlight the practical benefits and challenges of integrating AI into program strategy and execution.    

 

Using AI For Presentation Building 
Steve Momorella 

This demonstration will provide a brief overview of two popular AI report and presentation building platforms. Tome.app and Beautiful.ai are examples of AI-enabled presentation platforms that integrate with Microsoft Powerpoint and Google Slides, offering organizational and outline assistance plus slide content and graphic generation.  
 
At the end of this demonstration, participants should have basic access and knowledge to both AI presentation building platforms and be able to construct a simple presentation and export to more traditional tools. 

 

Communicating with Students about AI 
Micah Logan 

To help us wrap up our day, this conversation will provide a framework to help guide us in our AI use. This framework provides both faculty and students with questions around effective and responsible use of AI tools sure to last longer than the next version of ChatGPT.