Anisa Salazar
Senior Editor
Artificial intelligence, with its rapid development and increasingly easy access the past few years, has crept into the college classroom, causing many within and outside of education to question what this may mean for the future.
Many professors at the University of La Verne have worked to adjust their curriculum and reformat assignments with the goal of upholding academic integrity by limiting students’ AI use.
Though at this point, some say, it is difficult to know whether AI overall may support and enhance learning, or harm it.
They worry about how it has begun to change education as a whole.
“If we let AI do our writing, we’re really in a way letting it take what’s most human about us,” said Jason Neidleman, professor of political science.
Although professors from different disciplines have different opinions on how AI should or shouldn’t be used in the classroom, something they all agree on is that using AI has increasingly limited students’ critical thinking and creativity, which are essential in higher education.
Sean Bernard, professor of creative writing, gives all readings and their written responses in class.
He said he gives more creative activity assignments, so students don’t feel pressured to resort to AI to receive a good grade. For example, he will give them two paintings, and students are required to imagine a novel based on those paintings.
He said he has shifted focus to less popular texts for online and lower-level classes where students aren’t all creative writing majors, but instead taking the class to fulfill their general education requirements.
“The whole thing that I’m trying to teach is exercising the creative muscle of our brains,” Bernard said. “Using AI is a shortcut around that.”
Neidleman, similarly, has made his classrooms AI- and technology-free, with the hope of being able to get a sense of his students’ personalities, who they are and how they express themselves.
“The human being is reflected in their writing style,” Neidleman said. “And you don’t get to know the person unless you can see their actual writing.
“This is about guarding what makes us human against the incursions of the machines.”
Faculty in the College of Business have similar views when it comes to writing papers and analyses, such as case studies. But some differ when it comes to brainstorming ideas and using AI as a source for information.
Omid Furutan, professor of management, said he has made changes so that most of his assignments are now oral or have a presentation element, so students must defend what is written.
As long as his students understand the content, can defend what they are saying and can expand on it, the possible usage of AI would be okay, Furutan said.
“The best strategy is to help them understand … what is the best way to use (AI),” Furutan said. “It is here to stay, it is not going to go away.”
He allows students to generate ideas and ask AI various questions, such as whether there are holes in their analysis of a case study.
Furutan believes this shows him they are researching existing information and better informing their analysis.
Rick Hasse, instructor of accounting and finance, also sees AI as a tool when it comes to learning and research. But he has also observed that more students are lacking skills in writing and critical thinking because of their increasing dependency on AI.
“My issue with AI is that it creates laziness in the mind,” Hasse said. “I don’t mind the sophistication of technology, but it makes people lazy.”
Hasse said he believes that students’ learning is not based on AI as a tool, but on how they interpret the data the tool is giving them. He questions whether we will be able to apply these tools for good as AI continues to develop and become more sophisticated.
Overreliance on AI is a concern across disciplines. Faculty across the University are concerned that it will prevent students from acquiring the skills they need to be successful in careers after graduation.
With a lack of AI policy or regulation, faculty here are rushing to adjust and adapt to its ubiquity to maintain the integrity of the college education.
Anisa Salazar can be reached at anisa.salazar@laverne.edu.
Anisa Salazar is a senior communications major with a concentration in public relations. She is sports editor, social media editor and a staff photographer for the Campus Times. She previously served as a staff writer.
