Generative AI and Academic Learning Support

The best approach that students can take regarding their own learning process is to remain an active participant in the way you learn and the strategies you use to learn. Active learning methods ask you to engage in deep thinking by discussing, creating, and assessing the information you are exposed to as a way of processing information to reach an understanding of that information. GenAI can supplement your learning by allowing you to still engage in active learning as part of your study process. For example, tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, and other OpenAI platforms can be used to create flashcards, study guides, and practice exam questions to help you simulate materials and scenarios you may encounter in your coursework. When using GenAI for this purpose, it is important to remain an active participant in your learning.

Research shows that the best way to prepare for exams is to create study materials yourself. By writing out questions, practice problems, notes, etc., you are practicing important memory retention strategies that lead to deep thinking and learning.

In your humanities courses, you might engage with GenAI to summarize texts and concepts either after you have read the full-length text/materials or prior to reading the full-length work. If you use GenAI after reading, you can ask it to summarize the main point(s) of each paragraph or subheading to help you retain key points or takeaways.

Official testing websites for exams like the Civic Literacy Test, DAT, GRE, MCAT, and LSAT often offer free practice tests. Additionally, tools like Brainfuse provide standardized test prep support. After using these resources, you can use GenAI to keep practicing, reinforce areas where you struggle, and simulate test-like questions. For example, you might review your practice test results and then use GenAI to focus on improving specific skills, such as quantitative reasoning on the GRE.

When taking long-hand, detailed notes in class, you might find it helpful to use GenAI to condense your meeting notes down into main points/concepts. For example, after a class session where you take or record copious notes, you can use GenAI to transcribe those notes and to condense your notes down to provide a one-page summary of key concepts and insights. This can be a strategic way to help you organize and categorize course concepts and key takeaways. The great thing about this approach is that you are the author of the original notes, so you have some agency in how you repurpose them to help you better retain information. Be careful about doing this with notes that are not yours because it could give you output that is inaccurate and misinterpreted.

Recent research says that GenAI such as ChatGPT has made people almost 50% faster at their administrative writing tasks such as crafting and replying to emails, managing/organizing inboxes, and improving email etiquette. Another Microsoft survey in 2023 found that working professionals spent about a third of their time managing email/text responsibilities and another third of their time preparing meeting documents and presentations.

To use GenAI support to write an effective email, you still need to guide it on what you want it to say, what tone you want it to take, and the audience with whom you are communicating. Input a bulleted list of topics and state the tone/audience (i.e., professional tone, the audience is my supervisor vs. casual tone, the audience is my colleague or a peer). Aside from drafting and composing emails, GenAI can also be used to automate email responses.

When creating presentations, GenAI can be a useful tool for developing and enhancing various elements of your presentation from brainstorming ideas to suggesting a structure and elevating visual images, charts, graphs, etc. to providing feedback on the delivery of your presentation.

GenAI can be useful when you need quick, direct answers or help understanding a topic. It can explain complex ideas, provide background information, and respond to specific questions in a clear and accessible way. For many students, it can also serve as a low-pressure space to ask questions and build confidence while learning.

Using GenAI tools effectively starts with understanding how they work. When you interact with GenAI, you provide input which is also called a prompt. After receiving a prompt, the GenAI tool generates a response based on patterns it learned from large amounts of text data. Prompts can be short or detailed, but the quality of the response depends heavily on how clear and thoughtful your prompt is. Learning how to write strong prompts can help you get more accurate, relevant, and useful results.

It is important for students to develop their critical thinking skills when it comes to research, such as selecting appropriate research methods, developing research questions, collecting and analyzing data, and drawing conclusions. However, when used thoughtfully, GenAI can be a helpful research tool. It can support tasks like brainstorming topics, refining research questions, identifying key themes, and working through large amounts of information.

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