Advancing Student Learning at CMU Through Generative AI

“In many ways, CMU is the birthplace of both learning science and AI and machine learning, dating back to the Newell and Simon days(opens in new window),” said James H. Garrett Jr.(opens in new window), CMU’s provost and chief academic officer. “If anybody should be advancing the research and application of AI in education, it should be Carnegie Mellon. We embrace this as an inflection point to take these tools and new ways of thinking to enhance our teaching and learning strategies.”

The Eberly Center recently finished delivering a GAITAR Institute on campus, a four-session program that generated ideas for teaching innovations implementing generative AI in CMU courses, preparing instructors to study the results with tangible Eberly Center support from start to finish.

Since 1996, the Eberly Center has brought pedagogical and technological issues together to support Carnegie Mellon faculty and graduate students in their roles as educators. The center, which fosters a culture of experimentation, innovation and iterative improvement through collaboration, approaches the use of AI with empirical questions — where do AI tools enhance student learning and experience? What do students consider as the benefits and tradeoffs of using AI? How can equitable access and outcomes be ensured when using AI?

CMU’s University Education Council will be convening town hall sessions in early November to hear students’ and educators’ perspectives on the most pressing needs and opportunities related to AI and its potential for impact on education. The full spectrum of community input will inform broader university strategies to advance the applications of generative AI in education. 

“Many articles have shared that education is being upended by these new tools,” said Amy Burkert(opens in new window), vice provost for education. “There are, indeed, many changes taking place, but the question is, ‘How can we help our community leverage that potential into an asset rather than a cause for concern?’”

The theme of the Eberly Center’s 7th annual Teaching and Learning Summit, held on Sept. 21, was “Adapting to Generative AI in Teaching(opens in new window).” During the Summit, faculty members from the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy(opens in new window), the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences(opens in new window), and the Human-Computer Interaction Institute(opens in new window) discussed their use of AI in the classroom.