AI is everywhere, and we’ve just finished up a 10-part AI Fluency workshop series. Have you thought about doing an AI audit of your courses and coursework? How about trying out NotebookLM to organize slideshows, documents and more from a conference? Could you create a Custom Gem to align assignments and objectives? AI can be used for a myriad of teaching tasks. Discover the top tips from our workshop series.
10 Tips for AI Use and Fluency from the AI Fluency Series, Fall 2025
If you’d rather read or listen, check out the short recap podcast or video version of tips from the AI Fluency series, created entirely by NotebookLM based on workshop transcripts and documents.
- Cultivate AI Fluency: Augment, Don’t Automate.
Move beyond basic AI usage by focusing on AI Fluency — the ability to craft effective prompts, evaluate results critically, and iterate with the tool. Let your core instructional values — such as critical thinking, academic integrity, creativity, and transparency — guide when and how AI should be used. Remember, AI should augment human work, not automate or replace it.
- Practice Data Privacy and Ethical Awareness.
Protect student and institutional data by disabling “product improvement” settings and strictly avoiding uploading personally identifiable student information. Reflect on the ethical implications of using AI, considering student privacy, intellectual property, and potential bias reinforcement. Model responsible use of AI by incorporating AI ethics discussions into course conversations.
- Practice and Refine Prompts for Better Results – Iterate!
Structure your prompts explicitly using components like the AI’s persona/role, detailed context/knowledge about your course, the precise task required, and the desired uutput/format. Practice iterative prompting—start broad, assess results, and refine the output with specific feedback or follow-up questions.
- Maintain Transparency and Communicate Expectations.
Explicitly communicate your course’s AI policy by addressing the “3 W’s”:
- What AI tools are allowed
- When in the assignment, process, activity, etc., they may be used
- Why they are (or are not) appropriate for specific tasks
Communicate in the syllabus and also at the assignment-level; continue discussing and revisiting the ethics of AI use and the “Why” behind your assignments.
- Integrate Critical Reflection to Guard Against Over-Reliance
Routinely encourage students to use AI as a thinking partner, not a substitute for thinking. Over-reliance on AI can lead to skill degradation and dependency, leaving users to struggle when the tool is unavailable. Build critical reflection into assignments using questions such as:
- “Did I use AI as a thinking partner or did it do the thinking for me?”
- “Have I verified the accuracy of AI-generated content?”.
Encourage students to be curious and skeptical of AI output. Stress the importance of verification, contextual analysis, and detecting bias.
- Align Learning Objectives with AI Use (or Restriction).
Use the AI Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy to evaluate whether learning tasks require uniquely human cognitive skills or can be supplemented by generative AI. If integrating AI into objectives, ensure the revision includes a clear rationale and purposeful inclusion of AI use.
- Design Assignments Around these Three Pillars of AI.
When inviting students to partner with AI, ensure assignments incorporate these pillars of AI use:
- Transparency – students document their prompts, questioning, interactions, and general use of AI.
- Critical Engagement – students question, verify, revise, and improve AI output.
- Creativity – students use AI to explore ideas, not replace their own thinking.
- Conduct an AI Audit of Assignments.
Regularly audit assignments in your courses by breaking down your learning goals into smaller tasks and asking how the presence of AI changes the necessary strategies or pathways to achieve those goals. Identify human skills—like judgment, empathy, or reflection—that AI cannot replace, and design tasks that intentionally preserve or strengthen those skills.
- Use AI to Enhance Instructional Content and Activities
Prompt AI to simplify dense text, create summaries, or suggest alternative text for visuals. Collaborate with AI to brainstorm or refine learning activities such as debates, case studies, or online discussions—ensuring they remain aligned with learning objectives and course context.
- Final Tip – New Use of NotebookLM
To create the first draft of these tips, we used NotebookLM by adding the workshop transcripts, slides, and digital guides and then prompting it to create a list of the top 10 tips from the series. If you want to see explore that NotebookLM looks and use it dive further into the workshop series, let us know on the notebook request form, and we’ll share it with you!
Series Alert! We will be offering the AI Fluency series again this spring with some new workshops and some repeats. If you are interested, join us for the first workshop on Jan. 16.
- Categories:
