Innovative Partnerships with AI
A Framework for Curious Instructors
Starting Where You Are
You might be intrigued by AI, skeptical of it, overwhelmed by the hype—or all three at once. That’s a reasonable place to be.
This isn’t about whether you should use AI in your teaching. It’s about a different question: If I did partner with AI, what could my teaching look like that wasn’t possible before?
Think of AI as a bounded partner. It can propose, generate, and support. But interpretation, judgment, and values? Those stay with you. The innovation comes from what you do with the partnership.
What Becomes Possible
AI doesn’t just help you do what you already do a little faster. It opens doors that were previously closed:
- What if students could get feedback on a draft at 2am—without waiting for you?
- What if you could see patterns across 75 student reflections in minutes instead of days?
- What if students could practice a difficult conversation, a clinical interaction, or a client pitch ten times before doing it for real?
- What if every student got a slightly different practice problem matched to where they’re struggling?
These aren’t distant possibilities. They’re available now. The question is which ones matter for your teaching.
Three Ways to Partner with AI
These aren’t stages or requirements—they’re starting points. See if one sparks something.
AI as a Thinking Partner
Use AI to generate multiple explanations of a difficult concept, model disciplinary reasoning, or surface counterarguments your students can wrestle with.
Your role: Curate, contextualize, and critique. You’re making expert thinking visible—AI gives you more material to work with.
Try this: Prompt AI to explain a threshold concept in your field three different ways. See which framing might unlock understanding for students who’ve been stuck.
AI as a Practice Generator
Use AI to create low-stakes practice problems, simulate realistic scenarios, or build spaces where students can rehearse with immediate feedback.
Your role: Design the learning arc. Decide what mastery looks like and where productive struggle matters.
Try this: Ask AI to generate five variations of a problem type your students find difficult. Use them as optional practice before a high-stakes assignment.
AI as a Reflective Mirror
Use AI to spot patterns in student work—common misconceptions, recurring gaps, emerging themes—so you can adjust in real time rather than after the semester ends.
Your role: Interpret what you find, ethically and responsibly. Use insights to teach better, not to shortcut evaluation.
Try this: Paste ten anonymized student responses into AI and ask what themes or misunderstandings appear. See if it surfaces something you hadn’t noticed.
Boundaries Are Part of the Partnership
Innovation without intention isn’t innovation—it’s just novelty. Effective AI partnerships depend on knowing your limits:
- AI shouldn’t replace your evaluation or mentoring
- AI shouldn’t make final grading decisions
- AI use should be transparent and discussable with students
These aren’t restrictions. They’re what make the partnership trustworthy—for you and your students.
If You Want to Go Deeper: AI and SoTL
Experimenting with AI can become more than innovation—it can become inquiry. If you’re drawn to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, AI partnerships raise compelling questions:
- What changed when I introduced this?
- For whom?
- Under what conditions?
- What’s my evidence?
You don’t have to formalize it. But if something surprises you—write it down. That’s where research begins.
Two Places to Start
The Practical Entry
Think of one teaching task you already do—explaining a concept, designing practice, giving feedback. Ask yourself: Could AI handle part of this without undermining learning? Try it once and see what happens.
The Ambitious Stretch
Think of something you’ve always wanted to do in your teaching but couldn’t—because of time, scale, or logistics. Now ask: Does AI change that equation? Maybe the thing that felt impossible is now just an experiment away.