This fall and spring Extra Points will feature a series of conversations focused on how faculty and staff around the University of Minnesota are using generative AI to do University work.
Tell us about your role in the Business Department, and how that is informing your work with generative AI.
Al Fattal Anas: I'm an assistant professor in Marketing, and I'm on a tenure track. I teach courses like principles of marketing, marketing research, consumer behavior and marketing strategies.
Instead of thinking about generative AI as something working against you, I’ve been exploring using it as an ally. We need to redesign assignments and assessments and further integrate AI into our teaching and learning environment. It's all about trial and then development. Then maybe fail. Maybe succeed or try again.
Set the context for us and tell us more about your project in the Faculty Fellowship program.
AFA: I'm using generative AI in my classes to help students understand how gen AI will impact their work in the future. I’m helping them understand and practice careful prompt creation, a necessary skill.
I gave students an assignment in class: “I have this product, and I want you to analyze the market for it using the PEEST model.” I asked the students to work in groups and to use a model that is widely used in marketing. They did the task in teams.
Many students feel that AI is mainly something used to cheat. My response is no, that's not all it can do. AI can help to generate ideas or questions related to a topic. It can be a learning tool.
To help my students understand the relevance of AI, I gave them a task:
- I wrote a prompt on the board. The prompt will help AI generate a similar marketing analysis like the PEEST model, the one they used in class.
- I ask the students to use AI to generate the same model we already created manually.
- Finally, I asked them to compare the results and the effort: “Write a reflection where you compare the human generated results to the AI output and prompts. Tell me what you think about the results.” They need to think about the answer AI provided, whether it’s good or not, and how it can be improved.
When students completed the task, I gave them some comprehension questions to check their mastery and confidence. I concluded by saying, “Did you know that I generated these questions with AI?” And the students were like, “Oh, really? You're a teacher and an instructor and you’re using AI?” It was like I was doing something not allowed.
I've got very interesting insights from the students. I believe that was a very healthy way of introducing the students to AI. It shows how we can write and think collaboratively with AI, and there are some things that we did better as humans. We did better, because we are more familiar with the context. There are some things the AI did better actually in tackling some of the aspects that the students overlooked.
I tell my students, AI is a tool. It's a tool that can help us achieve our tasks more effectively.
How are your students responding to your work with generative AI in the course?
AFA: The first impression? It was like the kind of look (and I still actually get this look) that I'm doing something I shouldn't do. I'm a professor. I shouldn't talk about the ChatGPT.
I try my best to change this attitude. One of the most important conclusions that came from the fellowship program is that you need to think about generative AI as a tool, not the source. It's a tool that can help you achieve your task more effectively, efficiently, and faster. It's going to have huge impacts on every aspect of our work, and it will help us actually work much faster.
What have you learned? Share your ah-ha moments!
AFA: Believe me, everyday there's like an ah-ha moment with AI. For example, I recently completed an IRB proposal. And usually it takes 6 days for me to do it, but I was able to get the same results in 2 hours.
Before using AI, I had my proposal, my plan, and my literature research written, so all I needed was to create the separate sections for each of the requirements. I submitted the document for review, and it went through from the 1st draft. This was very, very interesting for me. Usually you go through corrections to change this and change that.
I used prompt engineering to say “I want this kind of protocol” or “I don't want you to ignore any of the aspects related to ethics related to code of the IRB” and stuff like that. At the same time I read carefully about what responses don't fit the requirements and then prompted the AI on exactly what I wanted.
That was one of the moments when I was like, wow! AI can help me be more efficient.
I’ll share another example. I teach online classes. For my online students, I send them a weekly email like, “Hey everyone, this is week 14. This week, we're covering these topics and doing these activities.” Or I tell them, “Come on, let's be strong and focused as we approach the middle of the semester.”
I usually generate this before the semester. I have it ready on a word file. This semester I uploaded my syllabus, which was very detailed, and I asked the AI, “Hey, I want you to generate a communication plan for this course for the next 16 weeks. Let's start with Week One. Can you suggest something?” So I collaborate with AI on week one. I get a response and I can say, “I want you to change the tone.” With 2 clicks, I got a 16-week email communication plan. It saved me a lot of time.
I also use AI to review documents. For example, when I need to update the syllabus for the new semester, I might forget to revise all due dates from last semester. You can upload the syllabus to AI and it can check for consistency.
How are your peers at Crookston responding?
AFA: I am the only person in the fellowship program from the Crookston campus. And everybody on campus knows that I'm in this program. I get approached by a lot of people. Just before this meeting happened, a faculty member from the Animal Science Department approached me for a one-on-one session on how I can help them use AI in this work.
Every 2 weeks I have a meeting with one of the faculty where I sit together with them, and share or reflect, or think about possible ways they can use AI for their work.
But it's changing, it's changing. I also think this is, I don't know the exact way to describe this in English, but you know, whenever something new is happening, there's this kind of chaos. But in time, things will settle.
What recommendations do you have for instructors as they approach using AI in their classes?
AFA: The introduction of AI is like major inventions that changed human history, like the engine. Every day, there are new applications for this engine. The world is moving to a new era. The faster you jump in, the better for you.
Much like every kind of major invention we've had in the last century, all of these kinds of inventions, there's a lot of resistance.
My background is in behaviorism and consumer behavior, and we have a model called Technology Acceptance Model, which talks about how a new technological product gets popular. First, there is resistance and then gradually people start accepting it and using it.
I consider myself an AI ambassador on my campus. Whenever there's an opportunity, I talk to people here on campus about AI, and I think eventually, AI will be everywhere, almost everywhere. And eventually everybody will know something about AI, whether they like it or not.
I tell my students, there are millions of applications in marketing nowadays. I'm not talking about the future, I am talking about now, where businesses are using AI to help them with marketing. You have great space now for creativity. So if you're doing well with AI, you'll do great.
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