Generative AI tools enhance faculty connection with students and boost productivity

ASU educators and employees are leveraging technology in and outside of the classroom to create inclusive learning environments and educational materials.

Launched in the spring and summer of 2023, the W. P. Carey School of Business' "Coffee, Tea, and ChatGPT" series fosters collaboration among faculty, staff, and guest speakers on the impact of generative AI in education. Rotating through the school’s academic departments, the series sparks conversations on teaching and learning innovations, drawing participation from across W. P. Carey, other ASU units, and the Office of the University Provost. This article is the fifth installment in the series, sharing insights with the broader community.

Can AI tools foster deeper connections between students and faculty? What about helping students approach real-world business challenges? Could they even streamline grading and assignments?

During the October and November Coffee, Tea, and ChatGPT speaker series, educators shared innovative ways to use generative AI — from exploring cultural nuances and enhancing learning while fostering student independence to simplifying grading and improving assignment workflows. The November session concluded with Co-President of Harvard Business Publishing Ellen Desmarais, who highlighted technology trends shaping business education.

During the series' October 2024 session, MS-ISM Faculty Director and Clinical Professor and Assistant Chair of Information Systems Dan Mazzola offered a new way to leverage the technology. He demonstrated how faculty can connect with their students by using ChatGPT to demystify themes important to young people today.

"I can get into the world of what my students might be thinking — what's relevant in their world," said Mazzola. "I get to learn about people and things I might not have otherwise."

Mazzola discussed using ChatGPT to analyze media, technology, and social themes prevalent in his young adulthood and today to better understand how to engage with and motivate students. He also presented prompt examples of ways ChatGPT helped him understand key aspects of other cultures so he could better relate to and support international students.

The MS-ISM (Master of Science in Information Systems Management) program is ranked No. 6 in the nation, welcomes students from around the globe, and is committed to preparing graduates to lead inclusive teams in their fields. Cultural differences add unique perspectives to Mazzola's classroom but can also result in miscommunications about the prioritizations of deadlines, time management, and interpersonal interactions.

"What are key cultural aspects that could cause conflict? What about timeliness, criticism, speaking one's mind, individuality versus a team-focused mentality?" asked Mazzola. "Culturally, it's different… how can I use this to be aware of these differences and help students to understand so we can build a diverse team?"

Clinical Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship Roland Burgman discussed using ChatGPT for live case studies. While teaching online, Burgman found that students were using generative AI to search for recommended solutions to Harvard Business Publishing case studies in addition to using the Internet for available tools and framework applications. To encourage students to engage with the assignments and to discourage plagiarism, Burgman allows students to use ChatGPT to assist them in researching a company, its business challenges, analysis of challenges, and the students' recommendations for how the company should proceed with addressing and resolving its current rather than historical problems. By requiring students to research companies in real time, ChatGPT becomes a fact-checker and aid for the students instead of a crutch.

"The students that do the work really love these live case studies because the content they're writing about is up to the minute: They're researching real problems in real-time," said Burgman.

November session: Ethical AI, innovative tools, and the future
November's Coffee, Tea, and ChatGPT event focused on tools for rubrics, assignments, and grading in business education. Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning Dan Gruber kicked off the session by discussing the importance of practicing Principled Innovation, ASU's newest design aspiration, when working with generative AI. Gruber has been partnering with Jared Byrne, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and New Business Design, to thoughtfully bring Principled Innovation to faculty, staff, and students across the W. P. Carey School of Business as College Catalysts.

"Principled innovation allows us to put character values at the center of these decisions and actions," said Gruber, co-founder of the Teaching and Learning Leaders Alliance, which connects associate deans and other business school leaders from across the globe. He recently presented on the Coffee, Tea, and ChatGPT speaker series during the AACSB Associate Deans Conference. "It allows us to think about different related elements of moral, civic, and performance values and intellectual practices of principled innovation while asking the question: Just because we can, should we?"

Online Academic Services Instructional Designers Jamie Zelechowski, Ashleigh Pankratz, and Joanna Simone shared ASU AI tools that can assist educator productivity in the classroom, including the Question Generator and ClipGist, which break down lecture videos to create summaries, quiz questions, and study guides; the Learning Objective Creator to assist in creating learning objectives based on subject matter and learning levels, frameworks, and guiding thinking; and the Image Accessibility Generator to quickly and easily create image descriptions.

Director of Online Academic Services Michael Weiland demonstrated how faculty can upload resources like presentation slide transcripts and handwritten notes to NotebookLM, an ADA-compliant application that creates a language model based on the resources for student use.

Andrew Maynard, a professor at ASU's School for the Future of Innovation in Society, said NotebookLM is one of the fastest-growing AI tools although the application's podcast feature, which turns written content into conversations, is still unreliable.

"It's a platform that students are already using extensively. It's worthwhile thinking about how to fold it into teaching to encourage students to explore things themselves," he said.

Co-President of Harvard Business Publishing Ellen Desmarais concluded the session with an overview of technology trends she's observed in the business education field and within Harvard Business Publishing, which partners with approximately 4,000 business programs globally on curriculum products, case studies, simulations, and articles.

Desmarais said her organization is focused on tools and trends related to generative AI and that many business schools are currently focusing on creating and refining technology-related classroom policies.

"We've noticed that U.S. schools are ahead of the rest of the world when thinking about bringing generative AI into schools and the curriculum," said Desmarais.

As generative AI becomes more common in global business education, Desmarais anticipates critical thinking will become a necessary skill for students when working with technology.

"It's going to become more important that students understand how to judge the output of these tools," she said. "As managers, they will need to think about how they're no longer just managing humans: They're managing algorithms… what is generative AI going to do to the future of work? And what does it mean for the future of management education?"

Reflecting on the October and November sessions, Gruber was energized by the collective journey of the "Coffee, Tea, and ChatGPT" learning community.

"I am grateful to our Faculty Teaching Leads for their partnership in keeping the vibrancy of these sessions. The range of speakers and topics we have been having has illuminated so much for all of us to learn about the impact of generative AI and to practice Principled Innovation,” he shared.

ASU faculty and staff will continue the generative AI conversation in the spring of 2025.