A&S Teaching & Learning Community of Practice 2026-27: Designing for Responsible AI Use: Frameworks and Applied Assessment

This session features two presentations:

SMART Conversations about AI Use: A Collaborative Framework for Students and Instructors 

Presenter: Ashley Waggoner Denton, Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Psychology

AI use among students is rapidly becoming ubiquitous, even as concerns grow that it may undermine critical thinking. How can we help students use AI in ways that support rather than undermine learning? How can we help students develop the AI literacy and judgment needed to make informed decisions about whether, when, why, and how to use AI? This session will introduce SMART, a collaborative framework for structuring conversations about AI use across five key dimensions: Specific Goal, Meaningful Impact, Accountability, Rights & Risks, and Trust. Participants will explore the complementary roles of instructors and students and leave with a practical framework for fostering productive conversations about AI use and supporting AI literacy across courses and contexts.

Redesigning Assessment in Chemistry Education through a Cascade Group Project Integrating Sensor Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Generative AI  

Presenters:

Soha Ahmadi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Chemistry

Michael Thompson, Professor, Department of Chemistry

Preparing students for the evolving chemical sciences requires assessment models that foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and technological literacy. This presentation describes a cascade group project implemented in a fourth-year Biosensors and Chemical Sensors course, where students identified real-world problems, developed sensor-based solutions, and explored pathways for translating their ideas into impactful innovations. Through scaffolded stages, teams pitched their concepts, presented their innovations, and wrote a review article supporting the scientific foundation of their proposed technology. Generative AI tools were integrated to support ideation, literature exploration, and writing with an emphasis on responsible use. A concluding mini-Hackathon further strengthened entrepreneurial thinking, collaboration, creativity, and confidence in applying sensor technologies to real-world challenges. 

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