AI in Higher Education

AI is no longer just for tech experts and scientists; it’s becoming accessible to anyone. AI can make your everyday tasks easier and more efficient, allowing you to focus on what matters to you.

Generative AI focuses on creating new, unique content, based on the input you provide. This input is called prompting (asking AI a specific request). Generative AI can produce creative content, such as writing poems, composing melodies, or designing graphics, based on the patterns and styles it learned from existing data.

Generative AI is a term for AI systems that recognize patterns in significant and complex data sets to generate original text, voice, and images based on these patterns. While some AI systems can make predictions based on existing data, generative AI is designed to use the patterns provided to generate entirely new content. As a result, generative AI tools don't create the same output twice for the same input.

Large language models (LLMs) are a type of neural network architecture that can process and generate conversational text, write code, abstract information, answer questions, and process text in a myriad of ways. LLMs have been trained on vast amounts of text data and can generate human-like text across a wide range of tasks.

Due to extensive training from billions of language samples, including books, articles, and websites, LLMs can perform a variety of natural language tasks, such as:

1. Classification: LLMs can assign predefined labels or categories such as positive, negative, spam, not spam, news, or opinion to texts based on meaning and context. LLMs can even identify the sentiment of a text.
2. Summarization: LLMs can extract the most crucial and relevant information from text, such as news articles, product reviews, and research papers. It can then compose concise and coherent summaries.
3. Translation: LLMs can translate text between various languages while preserving the context and structure of the original text.
4. Content Generation: LLMs can create new and original text such as stories, poems, jokes, slogans, and captions from given input or prompts. LLMs can also generate codes in languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python

Generative AI focuses on creating new, unique content, based on the input you provide. This input is called prompt engineering or prompting.

Prompt engineering is the process of crafting inputs, called prompts, to guide AI models, particularly large language models (LLMs), towards generating desired outputs. It's a skill that involves understanding how LLMs work, designing effective prompts, and optimizing them for specific tasks. Essentially, it's about effectively communicating with AI to get the results you need.

Check out our examples of prompts (Download) for two AI use scenarios in your personal life.

The clearer and more detailed your prompt, the better the AI can understand and respond. It's often more effective to tell AI what you want it to do, rather than what you don't want it to do. The more information and guidance you provide in your prompt, the better AI can assist you.

An effective prompt should be;

1. Clear – Clear questions lead to better responses.
2. Specific - Be specific about what you want AI to do.
3. Contextual - Add some context to help AI understand what you're asking. Context makes the response more relevant. Provide some data or information for AI to use. This helps ground the response in the right context.
4. Goal Oriented - Clear goals lead to better responses

AI can simplify daily routines by helping with various tasks, making your life easier and getting more organized.

AI can help you…

• Compose emails. Quickly draft professional or personal emails by inputting the main message and letting AI create a draft.
• Generate blog posts. Create engaging blog posts by providing a topic and key points, and AI generates a well-structured article.
• Brainstorm ideas. Get creative ideas for your next project, whether it's a slogan, a story, or a social media post.
• Help Organize and Plan. AI can help you stay organized and plan your activities by providing personalized recommendations and streamlining your planning process.

• Plan a trip. AI can help you organize your travel itinerary for a field trip, suggest destinations, and accommodations, and even recommend activities based on your preferences.
• Manage and organize your calendar. AI can help you schedule appointments, set reminders, and organize your daily tasks to ensure you stay on track.
• Plan an event. Whether you're organizing a conference or a student gathering, AI can help you plan the event by suggesting venues, creating schedules, and managing guest lists. It can also provide reminders and updates to keep everything on track.
• Manage tasks. AI can help you manage your to-do list by prioritizing tasks, setting deadlines, and providing reminders. It can also suggest ways to break down larger projects into manageable steps.
• Get Personal Assistance. AI can act as your personal assistant and help you manage your life. Whether you need reminders, information, or assistance with tasks, AI is there to support you. For example,

• Answer questions. Get quick answers to your questions, whether it's finding information online, checking the weather, or getting directions.
• Provide recommendations. Receive personalized recommendations for movies, books, restaurants, and more based on your preferences and past choices.
• Automate tasks. Automate routine tasks such as setting up meetings, sending follow-up emails, or managing your to-do list.

Faculty should create and communicate transparent policies regarding the use of Generative AI. The following includes some possible language for developing a syllabus statement.

Option 1 (Custom): A Generative AI syllabus statement of your own.

Option 2 (All Use Prohibited): The use of Generative AI is not permitted in this course. Since this course emphasizes your writing as a process of your thinking, I am only interested in your own, original writing.

Option 3 (Mixed Use by Assignment): In this course, some assignments will allow for or encourage the use of Generative AI. You must attend to what is allowed on an assignment-by-assignment basis.

Option 4 (Use with Caution and Disclosure): Generative AI may be used within this course. Beware that some information may be inaccurate, biased, or incomplete based on the training of the AI tool. Also, beware that over reliance on Generative AI could stifle your own writing, critical thinking, or creative process. You are responsible for ensuring that your use of Generative AI is transparent and that your information is accurate. You must disclose details about your use of GenAI. Do not simply use your assignment to prompt GenAI and turn in that output.

LUMI is now available inside Brightspace, for faculty only. LUMI leverages Anthropic’s Large Language Model (LLM) Claude by using content provided by the course creator. SUNY’s agreement with D2L protects Faculty intellectual property by ensuring that:

• D2L does not own input content
• D2L does not own output content
• D2L will not use input content to train their Generative AI models

SUNY’s agreement with D2L requires that users will not represent that output content is human generated when it is not.

LUMI Summary - Modules

The Module Summary tool in LUMI AI provides quick, AI-generated overviews of your Brightspace course modules. These summaries help students understand what to expect, making your course content more accessible and easier to navigate. LUMI automatically generates a short summary of the content in a module, uses natural language to describe the main ideas and learning objectives and helps students preview or review content before engaging deeply.

LUMI Summary - Modules (Download)

LUMI Idea - Assignments

The LUMI Idea tool in Brightspace provides quick, AI-generated assignment ideas based on course content. It assists in creating new assignments or enhancing existing ones by suggesting relevant prompts.

LUMI Idea - Assignments (Download)

LUMI Idea - Discussions

The LUMI Idea tool in Brightspace provides quick, AI-generated discussion topic ideas based on course content. It assists in creating new discussion topics or enhancing existing ones by suggesting relevant prompts.

LUMI Idea - Discussions (Download)

LUMI Question - Quizzes

The LUMI question tool in Brightspace provides quick, AI-generated quiz questions based on course content.

LUMI Question - Quizzes (Download)