Generative AI as an ideation assistant
Description: Generative AI (GenAI) can be used to create new content quickly, making it a useful tool for ideation. It can generate relevant alternative ideas and is immune to some human ideation pitfalls (e.g. first idea bias, preconceptions of a good idea, or reluctance to share ideas due to anxiety or IP concerns). GenAI can be used for in class or assessment ideation where students are asked to start an activity / project by prompting GenAI to give a list of ideas. Individuals or groups then assess the GenAI outputs and narrow down to one or more options to pursue for the project itself. In many ways this workflow is similar to the way that students (and academics!) currently use Google to assist with understanding basic definitions and context for a new challenge.
Assessment types applicable: any workshop or project that involves ideation, design or prototyping where the challenge, context and background could be provided and even visualised by the GenAI, which could be refined used by the students to introduce their project, the details of which they create themselves.
Unit Context: any
Learning Objectives: (inter)disciplinary context, background knowledge acquisition, external / general perspective, exposing students to GenAI pros and cons, students develop ideation skills, minimises ideation challenges
Which AI tools & why: ChatGPT, Dall-E (et al.). The choice will depend on what the task is and what format of output the task requires (text or visual).
How is task & AI structured/scaffolded: Instructor-led or self paced, depending on the level of direction you want to give students. Could depend on year level / weighting of the assessment, and could even be a workshop prior to / part of the assessment to ensure GenAI is used in a guided manner and students are able to receive immediate assistance and feedback to ensure the LOs (particularly of avoiding ideation challenges) are met.
What support/guidance was needed for students: A workshop style session where the instructor demonstrates the process and/or guides students through the process of ideation with the GenAI can be useful. Students often struggle with prompting GenAI at the right level and benefit from guidance on how to ‘set up’ the GenAI by giving it adequate background and instruction for it to be able to generate a relevant list. The use of GenAI also doesn’t have to end at ideation: the user can follow up and discuss the ideas with the GenAI, curating and refining the list until a suitable solution is reached, depending on the activity or assessment guidelines.
How were responsible use and ethical issues addressed: suggest that this is done in class to emphasise responsible use and teach students what that means (in the particular assessment context). It could include the requirement for students to acknowledge the use of GenAI (even though it’s required in the assignment), and to reflect on their experience and critique the GenAI outputs and/or the interactive process of generating them.
Things to consider when adapting to your context:
Bias in GenAI databases (The ideation activity can work well for objective, fact-based content (eg possible environmental implications of a project) but can be limited in more subjective, socially specific contexts (eg the ethics of tackling the environmental implications),
Ownership and citation of the data (training and generated),
Accuracy (use only for general context and always fact-check!),
Academic misconduct (depends on policy to some extent, but (re)presenting work that is only partly or not wholly the students own amounts to plagiarism, regardless of where it came from)