In fall 2023, Teaching Support invited University of Minnesota (UMN) faculty and P&A instructors from all system campuses to submit applications for the 2024-2025 Faculty Fellowship Program (FFP).
The goal of this 18-month program is to foster a multidisciplinary learning community that uses generative AI in teaching practice and to promote the effective use and best practices of this emerging technology. The 2023 Horizon Report encapsulates the promise and peril of these emerging tools:
Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm, with new AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT opening up new opportunities in higher education for content creation, communication, and learning, while also raising new concerns about the misuses and overreach of technology. Our shared humanity has also become a key focal point within higher education, as faculty and leaders continue to wrestle with understanding and meeting the diverse needs of students and to find ways of cultivating institutional communities that support student well-being and belonging.
Teaching Support has established financial support for this faculty fellowship program to address the urgency felt within the teaching and learning community around generative AI.
Program Overview
Fellowship participants have identified an area of exploration and are iteratively refining their plans for implementation within their UMN courses. Fellows will be disseminating findings at the University in some form and are encouraged to contribute to scholarly publication and/or presentations beyond the University of Minnesota. All of these activities contribute to organizational awareness in order to bring effective practices back to the University community. Teaching Support has funded 16 fellows with 14 projects from all the University of Minnesota system campuses to be part of this collaborative fellowship program.
Fellows will address the question
What are the conditions that promote innovative, equitable, and ethical use of Generative AI in teaching and learning?
Outcomes
In the 2024-2025 Emerging Technologies Faculty Fellowship participants will:
- empower instructors to promote the inclusive, ethical and effective use of generative AI
- analyze how generative AI can be used to create, enhance and / or administer course content
- maximize students’ skills, potential, and well-being enhancing student success,
- provide guidance to the larger community on generative AI effective practices in teaching and learning.
By focusing on generative AI tools in education, the Faculty Fellowship Program aims to create an inclusive and supportive learning environment that equips instructors and their students with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in a rapidly changing world.
Timeline
