In an email announcement to Jewell students on August 13th titled “William Jewell College: Educational Excellence, Institutional Stability and Your Future,” the Board of Trustees announced William Jewell College’s exit from financial exigency as well as detailing other college-wide updates. In two sections of the email, AI updates were briefly mentioned. One section, entitled “Your Educational Experience and Excellence Standards,” announced that students’ educational excellence will be enhanced by “AI-powered early warning systems to identify and support struggling students.” A second section, “What All of This Means for Students,” stated that students’ “degree[s] represent … new operational efficiencies through AI and expanding AI in the classroom.” I had questions about the specifics of these updates, so I spoke with Dr. Kelli Braitman, Jewell’s Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Dr. Tara Allen, professor of biology and cochair of the newly appointed AI Task Force at Jewell. Both interviews were conducted based mainly on the second statement regarding AI efficiencies and expanding AI in the classroom. Here’s what I found out.
The following material is entirely composed of information gathered during the two interviews conducted and does not necessarily reflect the author’s belief or opinion. All material not directly quoted has been summarized directly from interview transcripts and notes.
When I asked about the specific implications of this email concerning AI at Jewell, Braitman replied that “one of the areas that we’ve started exploring [the use of AI] is in room scheduling.” Currently, the director of teaching and technologies runs room scheduling through a system called RoomKey. This site is simply a formstack in which requests have to be manually processed. Jewell is now exploring AI tools to “[book] the rooms automatically without him having to do something;” the AI system would be “the same formstack, but … automated,” intended to function as a time saver. “The other thing that we’re doing,” Braitman said, “is we’ve put together a task force … funded by our grant [Department of Education Title III Strengthening Institutional Programs (SIP) Grant – $1.99 million over 5 years] … to start looking at whether there are ways that we can embed AI tutoring within our Brightspace courses.” This AI tutoring resource, as currently imagined, would be overseen by the individual course instructor and would ideally enhance rather than hinder student learning. It would allow for 24/7 tutoring “with the instructor’s materials … like their PowerPoint slide, lecture notes, assignments,” etc. Braitman stated that the task force is still exploring what kind of AI model would be used, but confirmed that they are currently planning to use a model that would be exposed only to information already found within Brightspace. She also noted that the task force is “looking at whether we want to add something in the curriculum that would help students learn ethical uses of AI.”
Although the email received by Jewell students mentioned an expansion of “AI in the classroom,” Dr. Braitman clarified that Jewell admin has “not planned anything specific for in the classroom. … We’re not bringing in AI bots to teach,” and that Jewell is still simply exploring options at this time. “What we are hearing from employers,” Braitman said, “is that they expect graduates … to know how to use AI. We don’t know what that means for what we need to do at Jewell. But we want students to be prepared, in a way, to know how to use AI responsibly and ethically and effectively.” Jewell has recently developed an AI policy which prohibits personally identifiable information from being shared and a baseline syllabus template which states that AI programs should not be used by students to “counterfeit” assignments, although instructors can include additional stipulations or allowances for AI depending on the class. When asked whether she foresaw any changes to the AI honor code policy, Braitman said, “You know, we’re so early in AI that I really anticipate that our honor code policy could evolve over time as we better understand how we should and shouldn’t be using it. I could see it changing.”
My next questions for Braitman involved the decision-making process. While noting that Jewell is still in the exploratory phase, Dr. Braitman did confirm that faculty, staff, and student feedback will be involved. “One of the things they’ve talked about doing,” she said, “is piloting [AI embedded tutoring] in a class or two with some certain instructors. And I think that the students in that class would be providing feedback.”
Dr. Braitman also stated that the reasoning behind this AI initiative is rooted in an intention to improve student success. She told me about the early alert system, explaining how it could be useful to identify struggling students and narrow down possible causes for their difficulties so that those could be addressed more promptly and easily. She also noted other new improvements geared towards student success, such as hiring an academic success coach, implementing a cardinal care network and increasing the stipend to student tutors. “Part of what we’re doing in college,” she stated, “is helping our students grow in different ways to become ethical and responsible citizens. And part of that is exploring how we use AI in the right ways.” Dr. Braitman said she understands that students might have concerns regarding AI usage, particularly environmental concerns, and for this reason the task force is currently planning to make this potential AI tutor opt-in only, not only for students, but also for instructors.
Next, I interviewed Dr. Tara Allen, whom Dr. Braitman recommended to me as a good next contact since Dr. Allen is currently serving as cochair of Jewell’s newly established AI Task Force. According to Allen, the task force was formed over the summer as the result of an email that went out asking for faculty volunteers who would be interested in the project. The task force consists of Allen, professors in the nursing, engineering, and business departments, and a supervisor who works in Brightspace and IT. The purpose of the task force is to learn more about possible AI tutoring resources to augment and enhance student learning. The group has begun to meet with AI companies to see what products are available, evaluate different platforms and assess the options, with a goal to survey students anonymously about AI usage this fall. Depending on the results of the survey and further information from the AI companies, the task force plans to pilot an AI learning tool next spring in some courses for which instructors individually opt in.
I asked Dr. Allen some questions about the specific kinds of AI models that are being considered, and she confirmed that these models certainly would not pull information from the internet, only having access to materials uploaded to Brightspace by faculty. Models currently under consideration would also not be trained or educated by student or faculty input – the AI bot would be self-contained and direct students to course resources as opposed to being able to actually answer student questions.
The AI Task Force, according to Allen, certainly has reservations about AI and is aware that it can compromise intellectual growth in some circumstances. They are looking into whether a class or seminar about AI would help students learn to use AI effectively and ethically while continuing to think critically. The task force is aware that AI models frequently hallucinate inaccurate responses, so AI will only be used if it augments learning and after more information has been gathered from students, faculty and the AI companies.
This story is developing. Keep reading The Hilltop Monitor for potential updates!
