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The American Association of Colleges and Universities and Elon University have launched an artificial intelligence how-to guide for students navigating the sometimes-murky waters of the burgeoning technology.
The organizations released their AI–U guide today, calling it a “student guide to navigating college in the artificial intelligence era.” The guidebook was born out of conversations last year between dozens of universities at the United Nations–sponsored Internet Governance Forum, which culminated in six principles for the use of AI in higher education.
Constance Ledoux Book, president of Elon and a contributor to AI-U, said the guide was the next step after the U.N. forum “as we worked to make sure colleges are leading and preparing the next workforce for an AI-centered world.”
The guide runs the gamut, including how to use AI in learning environments, such as for writing and research assistance; effective AI prompts to use; concerns with generative AI; and using AI in potential career searches.
“It’s a student guide that really takes them beyond the initial stage of playing with it,” Book said. “It’s easy to open AI and put a prompt in. What’s more challenging is thinking of the impact of where this information is coming from and how to integrate it into an assignment.”
The guide was compiled by feedback from more than 100 students from various universities and faculty members who attended the U.N. forum. Book said one of the largest pieces of student feedback centered around the privacy concerns that come with AI use.
“Students were the first to say, ‘I have a lot of privacy concerns when I get the prompts,’” she said. “They were the ones talking about the importance of other students being aware of privacy concerns.”
There were also concerns about becoming overly reliant on the technology, which spurred the guide creators to include a section focused on forming human relationships. “It wasn’t in our initial thinking, but toward the end we say, ‘Talk to people, don’t isolate,’” Book said.
She expects the guide, which is free for any higher education institution to use, to be the first of several iterations going forward.
