AI Ethics Learning Toolkit

Instructors Guide

This section provides an overview of the topic as it relates to Artificial Intelligence, including definitions of key concepts where relevant. It offers instructors background and context to better understand the topic scope, suggested activities, and recommended resources.

Learning Activities

🗣️ Conversation Starters A Few Questions to Get the Discussion Going

These questions are designed to be lightweight and student-oriented, prompting students to reflect on personal experiences without requiring background knowledge. They can be used in a variety of formats, such as a quick 5-minute class discussion, a think-pair-share activity, a Canvas discussion, a reflective essay prompt, or even a more in-depth class debate. 

💡 Active Learning with AI Fun Ways to Explore AI’s Strengths and Limitations

These activities provide hands-on experience with AI, allowing students to engage more directly with it. Instructors should consider the accessibility and ease-of-use of available tools for their students. Microsoft Co-pilot and ChatGPT EDU are freely available through Duke OIT, and free versions of certain GenAI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini may be options most familiar to students. Consider offering a “No AI Alternative,” as some students may have legitimate ethical concerns about using AI.

🎓 Disciplinary Extensions Ideas for Exploring AI’s Impact in Specific Fields

These suggestions aim to help instructors integrate AI topics into upper-level, discipline-specific courses. By incorporating discipline-specific readings or applications, instructors can deepen students’ exploration of AI within that field of study. While not exhaustive of all departments at Duke, these activities offer ideas for use in social sciences, natural sciences, and arts and humanities courses.

Resources

This curated selection of readings includes both popular and scholarly sources, offering a diverse range of perspectives on the topic. We have incorporated various format genres – such as videos, podcasts, and both journalistic and research-oriented articles – since AI and technology topics are widely covered across media. We aim to provide resources that would be openly accessible to students. While not a comprehensive bibliography, this list could serve as a resource for students’ course readings or as a starting point for instructors to explore the subject further on their own. 

Resource Note for Duke Instructors:

  • New York Times Online access – All current Duke students, faculty, and staff have free access to the NYT Online through the Duke University Libraries.
  • Atlantic Online access – All current Duke students, faculty, and staff have free access to The Atlantic Online through the Duke University Libraries.
  • Wall Street Journal Online access – All current Duke students, faculty, and staff have free access to The Wall Street Journal Online through the Duke University Libraries.

Additional publications in the toolkit (popular, scholarly) may require access through the Duke University Libraries website.

Recommendations

  • Related topics → Suggested topics
  • External recommendations → When possible, we provide additional resources beyond Duke that may inspire and support teaching on the topic.