From:
S. Jack Hu, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
Marisa Anne Pagnattaro, Vice President for Instruction and Senior Vice Provost for Academic Planning
Ron Walcott, Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate School
To: Faculty and Instructors
Fall 2023 Semester – Updates and Reminder
Welcome back to campus. We hope you had a chance to get rejuvenated over the summer. With the start of a new academic cycle, we are looking forward to a year filled with discovery and growth through rich and engaging teaching and learning experiences. As we begin a new semester, we want to share some useful information and reminders with you.
UGA’s national reputation as a top academic institution is largely due to your efforts to support student success in and out of the classroom. Additionally, supportive resources, including free tutoring, academic coaching, presentation help, and student success workshops as well as means to help students facing financial hardships and food insecurity help set students up for success. Please share these resources widely with students.. Please share these resources widely with students.
ChatGPT and Similar Tools
We are continuing to have conversations about the impact of generative AI on higher education: how it can be used in the classroom, what problems it might present, and the ways we need to prepare students for productive engagement with these tools – both now, and in the future. ChatGPT, a conversational artificial intelligence tool built on top of OpenAI’s GPT Large Language Model, is just one such tool. Similar tools include Google Bard, Anthropic Claude, and OpenAI’s GPT4, the most advanced generative AI currently available (available free through Bing or for a small charge from OpenAI). Other generative AI tools convert text to images, videos, code, and more.
Instructors are encouraged to take the following steps:
- Familiarize yourself with generative AI tools that are relevant to your field. If you don’t know where to start, you can read:
- ChatGPT Guidance for Instructors (PDF) from the UGA Center for Teaching and Learning
- What You Need to Know about ChatGPT from the Chronicle of Higher Education
- Learn with AI from the University of Maine
- Teaching with AI course from Auburn University (free to SEC institutions beginning in August 2023)
- Develop a course policy on the use of generative AI and talk to your students about your expectations. Remind students that they are required to follow UGA’s Academic Honesty Policy (PDF) and talk to your students about how that policy applies to your course, including their engagement with generative AI tools. A growing repository of Classroom Policies for AI Generative Tools is available here.
- Consider how you structure your course assignments and how AI can be used to implement effective teaching strategies.
- Do not rely solely on AI detector tools to identify whether an assignment was created using generative AI. These tools (including Turnitin’s AI writing indicator score, described below) can return false positives and fail to detect some AI-generated material. If you suspect a piece of work was completed using generative AI, carefully analyze the work. If you believe a violation of A Culture of Honesty may have occurred, instructors have a responsibility to report to the Office of Academic Honesty. A facilitated discussion will be scheduled for you to talk with the student about their process for completing the assignment and whether a violation occurred.
Turnitin
UGA students, faculty, and staff have access to the Turnitin suite of tools. Turnitin is available through eLearning Commons and via integration with Google Docs online. Supported services include Feedback Studio, Originality, PeerMark, and Draft Coach. Turnitin’s Originality aids instructors and students in maintaining and promoting academic integrity, and can be used to generate a Similarity Report for student work. UGA’s Similarity Reports includes an AI writing indicator score, which is independent from the similarity score. Instructors should use Turnitin’s AI writing indicator score with caution, as the tool can generate false positives or can fail to detect some AI-generated material. It is important to note that the AI detection scores should not be used as a definitive measure of misconduct.
TopHat
TopHat is a student engagement system that allows instructors to ask questions, take polls, give quizzes, and get feedback from students during class via any web-enabled device. Options include a basic free version, TopHat Basic, and a more advanced fee-based version, TopHat Pro.
Syllabus Checklist and Posting
University policy (PDF) requires that a syllabus for each course be available online. Please post your syllabus on your eLC course page and on the university’s syllabus website.
The syllabus checklist is available here (PDF). Briefly, your syllabus should include course information; instructor information; course description and details including a topical outline; assessments and grading; and course statements and policies including the academic honesty policy. Remember to clearly describe your attendance policy on your syllabus to make students aware of the classroom expectations at the beginning of the term. UGA is a residential campus where classroom attendance always has been an important part of the educational experience. As instructors, you generally have the authority to adapt and enforce an attendance policy that best suits your classes, but you should check with your departmental/college leaders regarding any accreditor-based requirements.
Information on Setting up the eLC Gradebook
It is very important for students to know their academic standing in their classes. Please post grades in a timely manner so that students can make informed decisions about studying or seeking tutoring or additional help. You are strongly encouraged to use the eLC gradebook. Knowing that setting up the gradebook can be challenging, and a new set of resources has been created to help with the process. Instructions for setting up your Gradebook can be found online with both step-by-step text and video directions. These modules include grades setup, entering grades, calculating and releasing grades, displaying final calculated grades, and exporting/importing the gradebook.
Active Learning Teaching Strategies
Developing a culture of active learning continues to be a key initiative across campus. A culture of active learning is characterized by an environment where students actively participate in the classroom, where learning is understood as the construction of knowledge, and instructors serve as guides to construct knowledge. For easy ways to incorporate Active Learning in your class, check out the new Active Learning toolkit online. There is an Active Learning Workshop Series this fall aimed at empowering and equipping instructors to successfully implement active learning practices in their classrooms and other learning environments.
Communication with Advisors: SAGE Access
Faculty have access to SAGE (Student Advising and Guidance Expert), the online platform used for academic advising. You can use this tool to:
- Quickly and easily raise a concern about a student (attendance, academic, or general);
- Identify and communicate with a student’s academic advisor; and
- Send a student “kudos” as encouragement for academic improvement or ongoing academic excellence.
Near the midpoint of each semester, you will receive an invitation to complete a quick SAGE Progress Survey for your students. If you have any concerns that a student’s absence may signal a crisis for the student, please contact Student Care and Outreach or your college’s student affairs representative.
Dawg® Source
As part of ongoing efforts to enhance the student experience on campus, UGA is launching Dawg® Source, a one-stop hybrid service model that provides resources to support students from pre-enrollment through graduation in person and online. Building upon the existing in-person student services currently located in Student Care and Outreach at the Tate Student Center, Dawg® Source will add streamlined instant mobile access to student resources through a dynamic website accessible through the UGA App. Dawg® Source will launch on Monday, August 14 and will be available in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.