Predictive technologies are artificial intelligence technologies emerging in all aspects of our world, including education. Examples of predictive technologies include OpenAI, ChatGPT, and Midjourney. They are called “predictive” because they can generate unique materials, written responses, and images in real time based on prompts that users submit. These predictive technologies are developing quickly. Their capabilities are growing in ways that may change the kinds of tools educators have to enhance student learning, but these changes can be challenging as well, especially at first.

Many units across campus are meeting to discuss the possibilities and challenges of predictive technologies at Marquette, including the Center for Teaching and Learning. As we all work within our departments and across colleges to make sense of how this technology is affecting Marquette faculty and students, we want to make sure that faculty have access to relevant resources to help them discover what makes most sense for them to know and use.

This semester, we encourage everyone to educate themselves about this technology and start be giving it some thought about how it works with their teaching practices. The university does not plan to make a uniform policy regarding predictive technologies this semester; the technologies are too new and rapidly developing. We think that the desire of the university will be to provide evidence-informed suggestions for syllabus language at the start of the 2023-2024 school year.

Through the rest of this semester, we will provide regular different information and opinions about predictive technologies and teaching. If you have materials that you think would benefit others across campus, please send that information to: ctl@marquette.edu.  We will regularly spotlight different uses of this technology as well as different perspectives about it from a variety of people on campus throughout the semester.

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Introductory Materials

1.) What is ChatGPT, the most well-known predictive technology tool at this point?

Watch: ChatGPT: Grading Artificial Intelligence's Writing, an 8-minute clip from CBS Sunday Morning (January 2023)

2.) What do I need to know this semester about this technology in my classes?

Dr. Amber Young-Brice, Chair of Marquette’s university-wide Committee on Teaching and faculty in the College of Nursing, recommends this set of resources compiled by Cynthia Alby, coauthor of Learning That Matters: A Field Guide to Course Design for Transformative Education (Article link also here: ChatGPT: Understanding the new landscape and short-term solutions)

3.) What other tools can I use to support student learning, especially in developing critical reading and writing skills?

Dr. Lilly Campbell, Director of the Foundations in Rhetoric class required of all Marquette undergraduates, recommends that educators consider using educational tools like Perusall, a free and popular collaborative annotation tool embedded already in D2L, or Eli Review, a peer-feedback platform.