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PSYC 200: Methods in Empirical Psychology

AI-Resistant, AI-Inclusive, Writing Intensive

Reflection on Instructional Change:

This course is a graduate-level, writing-intensive course in which students learn to write a compelling research justification that summarizes the work of previous scientists, identifies gaps in the literature, and provides a rationale for their own master's thesis project. I chose to implement an AI-Inclusive assignment that would show students both the strengths and weaknesses of generative AI. I guided students on how to write a review paper using generative AI and then walked them through several critique steps in which they evaluated the work of the generative AI.

With the advent of generative AI, I was concerned how I would help aspiring researchers develop this skill while preventing them from offloading their critical thinking to AI. After the AI generated their review paper, they wrote an annotated bibliography in which they found each of the sources that generative AI had used. Every student discovered that at least 25% of their sources (sometimes as many as 90%) had been "hallucinated" and were not real. Students then had to find suitable replacements for the hallucinated sources and perform a final critique on how well generative AI wrote about their science.

This series of assignments was an effective deterrent for using AI in the next phase of the course in which students needed to write the introduction of their research proposal. With experience at how poorly AI wrote about research, they were substantially more motivated to do the hard work of developing their own skills identifying appropriate sources, determining the gap in the existing research, and providing a compelling rationale for their own research.

All four of the Quick Study ACUE Courses were instrumental in developing the series of assignments that formed the first AI-Inclusive Review Paper project in this course. I used "Leveraging AI to Develop Course Resources" to create a detailed analytical rubric for each assignment to provide clear instructions for success. I used "Writing Effective AI Prompts" to provide students with the prompts they needed to produce a full and complete review paper with AI. I used "Empowering Students to Use AI Responsibly" to help students identify the positive and negative uses of generative AI. Finally, "Teaching with AI-Centered and AI-Resistant Learning Experiences" inspired the project as a whole.

Evidence of Instructional Change

Evidence of Instructional Change
AI-Inclusive Review Paper Project	Example Student Statement	Example ACUE Suggested Activities
Students completed 4 separate assignments in this AI-Inclusive project.	An example critique statement from the culminating assignment in the project. "Overall, the AI-generated literature review seemed promising at first glance, however, after further investigation of its sources and claims, I was unsatisfied with its work. Although I had low expectations for the writing, I hoped that I would be given valuable sources that I could use for my personal research. Unfortunately, the majority of the sources provided in this literature review were either nonexistent or were not relevant to the topic, so my hopes were not met. One thing that did work well within the generation process was that generative AI gave interesting main topics and helped me brainstorm ways to organize the paper."	Teaching with AI-Inclusive Learning Experiences

Practice and Reflect Teaching and Learning with AI:

Generative AI is here to stay and it will keep getting more sophisticated. Ensuring students know how to use generative AI responsibly and effectively will be a necessary skill as they enter the workplace. The AI ACUE course helped provide some guidelines for how to adapt my existing course plans, but also provided skills so that I -- as an instructor -- could continue to adapt as AI changes and evolves. I now regularly rotate between using ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini depending on the task that I am trying to accomplish. I hope to pass these skills along to students in a way that helps them develop their intellectual skills of inquiry and analysis, while also preparing them for the future.

Course Syllabus

Fall 2024 Psyc 200 Course Syllabus

Faculty Bio

Faculty Bio
	Faculty Bio: I have a Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience and an M.S. in Animal Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. I have been a lecturer at Sac State since Fall 2011, teaching both upper and lower division courses. I received the Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching in the 2021-22 academic year and spent my sabbatical being a guest lecturer at the University of Oulu in Finland and the University of Skövde in Sweden. I am currently examining the influence of "Grading for Equity" practice on the Equity Index across multiple courses.

Funding Sources
	This work was supported by: US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project TECH4Equity US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM4Equity P031C210012 *Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the US Department of Education.