Introducing Blackboard’s AI Design Assistant | The Teaching & Learning Centre

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by Ashley Ribbel, Special Projects Coordinator in the Teaching & Learning Centre

Get ready to add an AI tool to your course design toolbox!

Blackboard's AI Design Assistant will soon be available to you in your Learn@Seneca course, providing suggestions as you design your course. But before diving in, it's important to understand its purpose, capabilities, and limitations.

Purpose

Blackboard’s AI Design Assistant is designed to help you with your course design process by leveraging generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Developed in collaboration with Microsoft, its goal is to assist faculty and instructors in creating engaging course content within their Learn@Seneca courses. By analyzing the course title, description, and/or content, the AI Design Assistant generates tailored suggestions, ranging from learning modules to rubrics to assessments, and even suggesting images.

Capabilities

The AI Design Assistant is integrated with Unsplash and can suggest search words to help you find royalty-free images:

• Based on the title and description of your course, it can suggest search words to help you choose a course image (banner).
• It can suggest search words to help you find an Unsplash image for your modules and within any text editor.

The AI Design Assistant can generate content suggestions:

• It can generate images for pre-existing learning modules and within any text editor.
• You can use the AI Design Assistant to generate test questions, assignment prompts, and rubrics based on course content.
• It can generate learning modules, journal prompts, and initial discussion posts based on your course’s title and description.
• You can also generate question banks based on Learn@Seneca Blackboard Ultra Documents.

Limitations

While the AI Design Assistant may offer valuable support, it's important to recognize its limitations. It lacks the ability to understand the specific context of your subject matter or course learning outcomes. Furthermore, it cannot replace your knowledge, creativity, and intuition as an instructor, so you’ll need to review the generated content carefully before implementing any suggestions. Relying solely on the AI Design Assistant could result in the inclusion of content or activities that are not suitable or appropriate for your course or your students.

Location

In May, the AI Design Assistant will become available within your Learn@Seneca course. Here is how you can find it:

For suggesting search words to find royalty-free images, keep an eye out for the drop-down menu within the "Insert image" pop-up.

When it comes to generating content suggestions, look for the stars. The Auto-generate options may look slightly different, depending on where you are within you course.

Watch the Teaching & Learning Centre Blackboard Ultra website for new how-to articles related to the AI Design Assistant.

The AI Design Assistant could be a handy tool in Learn@Seneca when building and designing your course. However, it's essential to approach its suggestions critically and combine them with your expertise to create engaging and effective learning experiences for your students.

Seneca's Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Policy serves as a framework for the responsible and safe use of GenAI.

The Teaching & Learning Centre has Generative AI resources on their Artificial Intelligence webpage.

Seneca Libraries has developed a guide that explores the challenges and opportunities of generative AI.

To learn more about Blackboard’s framework for the use of Generative AI, see Anthology’s Trustworthy AI Approach.

Teaching & Learning Day Spring 2024

Seneca's Teaching & Learning Day Spring 2024 is on Tuesday, Apr. 30, 2024 at King Campus! It is a one-day conference dedicated to showcasing and sharing ideas and activities about how to enhance teaching and learning. Come share perspectives, experiences, and practices for teaching and learning at the one-day conference. The theme is Elevate, Empower, Excel: Celebrating Faculty Success Stories.

Register for this free conference in MyPD and join us on Apr. 30 at King Campus!

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