AI, Oh My….
AI, Oh My….
I set off to Spokane to find others working in the Outcomes & Assessment space and program outcome mastery for students in asynchronous online courses. It’s a bit of a niche market so I wasn’t expecting to be overwhelmed with new contacts and information, and my experience met my expectations. I had a few conversations, made some good contacts, and gained some interesting insight. But what I was overwhelmed with was AI, AI, AI… Not only at the Instructure Conference, which in itself had an AI theme as a whole, but also in the COLTT (Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology) Conference that I stopped at on my way back to my home base in Tennessee. I was speaking on our progress with Outcome & Assessments in the Canvas LMS, but while I was there I partook of the other sessions, AI, AI, AI. Over half of them were AI related, and what I learned was not necessarily surprising, but the depth and breadth of the focus surrounding AI sure was.
The Keynote was a Plenary Panel where the theme that emerged was, without a doubt, that employers are looking to hire folks that know how to use AI ethically and effectively and then use what they find to take it to the next level through critical thinking, collaboration and communication. And, that they were seeing was young professionals lacking not only in AI skills, but the other more traditional critical thinking, collaboration and communication skills as well. As one panel member put it, if AI can do it for me I don’t need you, I need you to go to the next level. Another panelist noted that they thought they had found the perfect candidate, they were asounded at the depth of their knowledge, but this person couldn’t effectively communicate with others in the online environment and so they had to pass them up and hire someone else.
Other comments of note included The human expert who uses AI wisely becomes unstoppable. And We need to be teaching students to Human, as in relying on AI as a tool should be expected, the human part is key. Those who know their field well enough to fact check, pull in a creative component to the task at hand, collaborate with others to get the job done, and communicate their position, they will be the superstars.
Employers are looking for educators to model ethical use of AI by incorporating use of AI in their courses, being transparent about it, critically evaluating and then implementing AI into assignments. Then also require their students to be effective following them down a similar path as they complete assignments. For students introduced and taught to use AI will have a leg up on others. If we’re hiring, that’s what we’re looking for.
The world is changing, quickly, and the expecation emerging seems to be use the tool, hyper launch yourself into the taks using AI, evaluate what it returns, then add the human component that only we can do. Now, if you think it’s not daunting to keep up and teach students ethical use of AI, whew you’re lucky. But if we want to stay on top of our game, this seems to be the future because AI, it’s here to stay.
Gemini. (August 2, 2025). A timeline of the transition from the traditional classroom to AI as a partner in learning. Google.