Generative AI has evolved significantly since its release in 2022. Students have grown alongside it as they worked through their college careers. Now, both students and faculty are speculating about how it will continue to evolve and how it will affect Arkansas State University’s future.

The University’s Stance

A-State has made its stance on AI clear. In an interview with KAIT, Justin Carothers, A-State’s senior director of Academic Technology and Data Analysis, explained the university’s approach. 

“We’re trying not to pretend that AI doesn’t exist and that we want to welcome it responsibly,” said Carothers.

A-State’s Artificial Intelligence Governance Standard further outlines the university’s views. 

“Use of AI or Agent Development Toolkits (ADT) must be ethical, transparent and aligned with the academic integrity standards and acceptable use standards of A-State. Users remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and compliance of all work produced with AI or ADT assistance.”

AI has already been integrated within A-State. The university cannot deny or prevent it, so they are embracing acceptable use. But what does acceptable use look like? 

In 2024, Assistant Library Director April Sheppard and Archivist Matthew Mayton published a presentation on the A-State Research and Creativity Hub (ARCH). The presentation places that responsibility on individual professors rather than establishing a broad rule, stating:

 “Faculty are the experts in their fields. Colleges, departments, and individual faculty members should weigh the potential benefits of different approaches to the use of generative AI by students and craft statements reflecting the most effective policies for their syllabi and assignment guidelines.” 

Classroom Use

With A-State’s policies in mind, what are professors actually doing with AI? Engineering instructor Zahid Hossain sees many benefits with AI.

“Professors could get a lot of benefits using AI,” Hossain said. “In an oral presentation, you need to have a rubric. To create your own rubric, it could take four to five hours. AI can give that same rubric with the click of a mouse. You can refine it, and in 15 minutes you can have that rubric.”

Creating rubrics isn’t the only way AI is being used in the classroom. Coursera, a digital learning platform that many A-State professors incorporate into their material, has introduced the Coursera Coach. The Coursera Coach is a chatbot that serves as an interactive personal tutor that can quiz students over the course material. In some classes, interacting with this chatbot is required.

Student Use

When generative AI first hit the public consciousness, the topic of student use mostly revolved around academic dishonesty. Now, student use has expanded far beyond that. For example, Grammarly’s AI checked this article for spelling and grammatical errors. A-State students also often use other AI tools to find articles while researching.

Many students use AI to quiz themselves, summarize textbooks, and further understand the material. However, not all students have resisted the temptation to use it to cheat. AI and its uses have become more and more complex as time has passed, and A-State and its professors have the difficult task of keeping up. 

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