Teaching in the AI Era

Why it is important to use a “weekly challenge”

In light of the advent of generative AI, I redesigned a course assignment to be more collaborative, occur in the classroom, and to encourage students to develop responses based on peer discussion. I sought to design the activity to limit students’ ability to use AI, and found that it yielded improved application-based learning and student satisfaction. The group interactions and real-world connections were motivating and beneficial for their learning. As we think about how to teach in an era of AI, we should consider redesigning our course assignments to be more interactive, relevant, and meaningful for students.

In the Economics for Policy Analysis course that I teach at AU, I used to require students to create presentations based on specific book chapters or podcast episodes related to the topics covered in class. However, with the rise of AI, I became concerned that students might rely on AI to generate the presentations for them, which would prevent them from engaging deeply with the material, critically analyzing it, and developing their own communication and collaboration skills. Research has shown that active learning strategies have a profound effect on student learning (Dorestani, 2005). Small group discussion and brainstorming and writing ideas enhance students’ motivation, critical thinking, and participation. As a result, in Fall 2023, for the first time, I introduced a new learning activity in lieu of the traditional presentation. In what I named the “weekly challenge,” students presented short research projects related to the topic of each week’s lecture. Through this activity, I learned that students typically do not rely on AI to find answers when they have the opportunity to work with each other.

What is the weekly challenge and how to use it?

During each week’s class meeting, after reviewing the module’s topic, 3–5 students worked in groups to complete a weekly challenge for about 15 minutes (depending on the topic, the duration may vary between 10–20 minutes). I encouraged them to utilize any resource available to them to answer a specific set of prompts in the classroom. Students started by discussing the question and dividing tasks among themselves. They then submitted a written answer, which I graded based on students’ effort rather than the outcome. Due to the time constraint as well as the focus on collaboration, students ended up minimizing reliance on online searches and generative AI and, instead, focused on discussing and collectively crafting answers among themselves. This approach fosters critical thinking as students collaborate and share ideas within their groups. I also encouraged students to complete the weekly challenges with peers with whom they hadn’t worked with before, which allowed more advanced students to pair with those students who were behind and help them catch up.

Example of a weekly challenge

All of the weekly challenge prompts had the same format, which set the expectation for students that they are participating in a graded, timed group activity. As an example, the following weekly challenge was given to students after completing lessons on the labor market and the economics of welfare. The answer to the question will usually have been discussed in the class.

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Weekly challenge

The market for robotaxis is growing in China and in selected Chinese towns, robotaxis are reachable for booking and transportation.

a. How does this technological advancement affect the market for drivers? Use labor market graphs to illustrate this change.

b. Does this change in the market affect income inequality? How?

c. Provide two policy implications of this economic change.

Time: 15 minutes

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Students’ opinions on weekly challenges

I have been using weekly challenges for three semesters now, and have received positive feedback from students. In their evaluations, students shared that they were mostly satisfied with the activity. Here are a few of their comments:

• I appreciated having the weekly challenges to practice concepts immediately after learning them so that I could raise any initial questions I had. It also helped me get to know people in the class, and we have become good friends.
• I am satisfied with weekly challenges, I appreciate that we are able to take what we learned and apply it to a real life scenario in class.
• I am enjoyed working with classmates on weekly challenges!
• I really enjoyed the weekly challenges. It was a good way to learn how other people thought about the concepts we were learning. I think it added much to the class in terms of cooperation and real world implication.
• I thoroughly enjoyed the Weekly Challenges you presented to the class during the course. They challenged me and my classmates to apply the concepts you taught in the course in combination with real-world scenarios. These challenges made many of the concepts taught much easier to digest, and I couldn’t thank you enough for that.
• At first, the weekly challenges felt a bit too high stakes considering they were to be done shortly after learning new material and we were only given a few minutes. However, this was addressed part way through the semester and she took our class’s feedback.

Students appreciated how the weekly challenges helped them connect with peers in class and allowed them to apply classroom concepts to real-life scenarios. Weekly challenges are closely tied to the topic of the session. This activity therefore creates an incentive for students to listen carefully and be present and engaged during the class. However, a downside is that the activity could create stress for students who need more time to fully understand the material. In such cases, I would highly encourage students to study before class to help them be better prepared for the lesson. Additionally, if I noticed that most students were still working and need more time, I would quietly give them a few extra minutes.

Conclusion

Weekly challenges are mini-projects that connect course lessons to real-world examples, encouraging students to engage in group work and interact with one another, and develop responses to prompts based on discussion and note-taking rather than relying on AI. My use of weekly challenges in my Economics for Policy Analysis course over the past three semesters has garnered mostly positive feedback. Students appear to be satisfied with the format and enjoy learning from each other. Although I used this activity for an economics course, it can easily be adapted to other disciplines.

Author Profile

Shirin Sabetghadam is a professorial lecturer in the Department of Public Affairs and Policy and a CTRL SoTL fellow. She earned her PhD in Economics from the University of Arizona and is passionate about exploring innovative methods and pedagogies for effective teaching.

Resources and References

Deslauriers, L., McCarty, L. S., Miller, K., Callaghan, K., and Kestin, G. (2019). Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom. Applied Physical Sciences, 116(39), 19251–19257.

Dorestani, A. (2005). Is interactive/active learning superior to traditional lecturing in economics courses? Humanomics, 21(1/2), 1–20.