Collaborating with AI in course design

As part of Arizona State University’s AI Innovation Challenge, two faculty members and an instructional designer from the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics recently experimented with AI to enhance certain aspects of their sociology courses. Through their projects, Jennifer Harrison, Marcella Gemelli and Amanda Evans used prompt engineering to explore enriching course design and introducing more applicable, career-focused content for students.

The projects were part of round two of proposals for the AI Innovation Challenge, a collaboration between ASU and OpenAI open to faculty, staff and student researchers. The first round received over 175 proposals, with 105 accepted projects granting over 800 ChatGPT Enterprise licenses to the ASU community. Both proposals from the Sanford School were accepted under the “Supporting Teaching and Learning” category.

Using AI to create personalized lectures in SOC 101

Associate Teaching Professor Jennifer Harrison was part of the first round of the AI Innovation Challenge. Her project centered on making introductory sociology lectures more engaging and relevant to students’ career paths. Using generative AI, she brainstormed scenarios connected to careers like business and healthcare, then created a trial lecture where students would choose the scenario that most interested them—a task that used to be far more time-consuming.

“I have been thinking about how to better relate sociology concepts to students’ career paths for the past several years,” she says. “Yet I struggled to find relevant examples for those careers that I'm not an expert in. Generative AI offers the potential to come up with scenarios that relate to sociology, allowing me to connect the course concepts with career examples in a more efficient way.”

While it hasn’t been integrated into live classrooms, Harrison’s work showcases how generative AI has the potential to create a more personalized learning experience. The project has also planted seeds for new ideas on using AI to bridge the gap between abstract sociological theories and the practical applications students may encounter in future careers.

“I’m now thinking about other ways to incorporate relevance to careers in more practical skill-based assignments, such as creating interactive games that guide students through real-life scenarios where they select their own path through the content,” Harrison said.

Integrating career competencies into sociology courses

For Instructional Designer Amanda Evans and Teaching Professor Marcella Gemelli, the challenge was about making a clear link between classroom skills and career readiness. They participated in the second round of the AI Innovation Challenge, focusing on updating assignments in SOC 334 Technology & Society and SOC/FAS 324 Sociology of Work and Organizations to align with career competencies.

Using the National Association of Colleges and Employers career readiness and competencies as a guide, the team revised a public service announcement assignment. ChatGPT assisted in revising learning outcomes and providing concrete career-based scenarios, helping students see the real-world impact of their work.

Evans and Gemelli found that it was crucial to have a specific learning objective in mind, as well as the right materials and prompt guidance to help them tailor coursework to better reflect real-world career skills. But it took time to get there.

"(We) found the GPT to be an effective collaborator and as with human team members, we engaged in an iterative process to get the assignment to where we wanted it to be,” said Gemelli. “All design elements required prompting and revision; nothing was ‘ready-made’ on the first try.”

Looking ahead: AI as a partner in course design

As Harrison, Gemelli and Evans continue to experiment with AI, they see potential for scaling up their work. AI tools offer new avenues for creative course design, personalized learning and student engagement. By integrating AI into the instructional process, they aim to enrich student learning outcomes and make their courses more aligned with real-world career skills.