Big Data, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

Resources and Links

• The Office of Instructional Resources (OIR) started looking at AI in the context of Digital Transformation in the October Teaching Today newsletter
• At the January Academic Resources Conference (ARC) we had a focus on Digital Transformation, so a lot of the sessions we had addressed AI in one way or another. Her are some highlights:
  • Opening Plenary (President Muma and John Jones) Session recording for "Opening Plenary: Digital Transformation at Wichita State"
  • Panel: Equity Considerations of Digital Transformation (Ken Harmon, Alicia Newell, Julie Thiele, John Jones moderator) Session recording for "Panel: Equity Considerations of Digital Transformation"
  • Panel: Creative Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence (John Hammer, David MacDonald, John Jones, Carolyn Speer moderator) Session recording of "Panel: Creative Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence"
  • Panel: Digital Transformation and the Future of Work (Diane Scott, Gery Markova, Tami Bradley, Andrew Hippisley moderator) Session recording for "Panel: Digital Transformation and the Future of Work"
  • Panel: Academic Honesty in the Age of AI (Anna Porcaro, Susan Castro, Darren DeFrain, John Gallaher, David MacDonald moderator) Session recording of "Panel: Academic Honesty in the Age of AI"
  • Session: The Ethics of Big Data (Susan Castro) Session recording for "The Ethics of Big Data"
  • Book Group session on Robot Proof (recorded session led by Carolyn Speer)

AI Interest Group

As a part of the January ARC sessions, we invited people to complete a quick interest form to join an AI Interest group, and we have a small group that is just getting started as a Teams group and some information on Sharepoint. We will be starting to try to hold monthly conversations that will be promoted publicly after Spring Break.  :

• AI Interest Group Signup
• Artificial Intelligence and Instruction Interest Group (Sparepoint site, will require login)

Learning From Industry

NetApp, Mark III Systems and NVIDIA are offering a series of webinars about AI and Machine Learning to Wichita State faculty and staff. The first session happened last week, and the recording is now available. 

• Signup page
• First session recording

We’re doing a lot of learning and research in the MRC/OIR: in February I completed a certificate course (AI for Decision Making: Business Strategies and Applications) from the Wharton School, Carolyn let a book study of Robot Prooffor the ARC (Recorded session of "ARC Book Club: Robot Proof"), etc. 

Looking ahead

We have some big questions to answer about instruction. Here are a few we should be actively talking about:

• How do we talk to our students about how to work with AI?
• How is AI impacting the subject matter that we teach?
• How do we responsibly teach with AI?
• How do we create assignments that build student learning and make AI part of that process?
• How do we teach our students what they’re going to need to know in their future when advances are changing the workplace so dramatically year after year?

Additional reading/viewing

• Why All our Classes Suddenly Became AI Classes (Harvard Business Publishing -Education) 
• Ai Bots can seem sentient. Students need Guardrails (Inside Higher Ed)
• John Oliver did a good segment on AI a few weeks ago  
• What Drum Machines can teach us about Artificial Intelligence (Aeon Essays)