UBC instructors reflect on using AI as a teaching tool

Instructors at the University of British Columbia are exploring new ways to use tools like ChatGPT in the postsecondary classroom. UBC instructor Ioan ‘Miti’ Isbasecu encouraged students to use ChatGPT as a virtual teaching assistant (TA) after hours to help alleviate workloads for human TAs. Isabasecu explained that it is important to integrate these tools into teaching practices to prepare students for their future work. Dr Patrick Parra Pennefather is using the software in an emerging technology course where students have used applied generative AI software to prototype ideas and additionally critically examined the machine’s outputs for biases. “That’s where the learning unfolds,” explained Pennefather, “because then we can start to question the body of data that the AI model is relying on and the inherent biases introduced with the source material and during the data labeling process.”