AI Updates and Opportunities to Start the New Semester

The UNO Division of Innovative and Learning-Centric Initiatives (ILCI) is pleased to announce a number of opportunities available for UNO faculty to experiment, pilot, and begin incorporating AI into your teaching, research, service and working on campus. A one-page overview document that is easily printed/shared electronically is available, and the most up-to-date information can always be found at ilci.unomaha.edu/AILearningLab.

Explore Updates and Opportunities

• Get a ChatGPT License for Yourself and the Students in Your Course
• Redesign Your Course to Incorporate Elements About AI in Your Discipline
• Training and Professional Development Opportunities to Learn More About AI
• Attend a Virtual Town Hall About the AI Learning Lab
• Key Dates and Deadlines

Get a ChatGPT License for Yourself and the Students in Your Course

If you would like to pilot enterprise ChatCPT this fall, a limited number of licenses are available for UNO faculty and (if requested) the students in courses.

Access to UNO’s enterprise ChatGPT will be done through an RFP process called the AI Challenge, where ILCI will seek information about specific use cases. The RFP is not intended to provide access for general use of ChatGPT but rather for specific and clearly identified tasks, projects, and business processes.

It is anticipated that use cases will include but will not be limited to teaching and learning (for example, a faculty member may way to try out a Custom GPT to assist students in their class with studying and preparing for course activities and assessments, similar to a Teaching Assistant), operational efficiency (for example, the faculty member may want to deploy AI to answer common questions from prospective students), research, or other activities. The RFP will stay open through Aug. 31.

Through an agreement with OpenAI, faculty will have the opportunity to create custom GPT’s. For security and privacy, these rely exclusively on internal data sources. Custom GPT models created in the workspace are restricted to sharing with only other Enterprise workspace members (i.e. a staff member shares with other staff members in their unit at UNO, a faculty member shares with students enrolled in their course, etc.). Custom GPT’s can be created as part of the AI Challenge – please use the same application process.

Redesign Your Course to Incorporate Elements About AI in Your Discipline

UNO is now offering our first round of AI-Powered Teaching grants to help faculty integrate generative AI into your course(s) across many disciplines. Collaborate with an Instructional Designer to implement AI effectively and meaningfully into your teaching in three different ways:

All full and part-time UNO faculty are eligible to apply for AI-powered teaching grants. We are particularly interested in funding grants where faculty choose to implement a module or multiple learning opportunities into their course(s) that demonstrate AI in the respective field and help to prepare students for using AI appropriately in their future careers. AI teaching grant applications will be reviewed Sept. 17-27. Grant recipients will be contacted the week of Sept. 30. If you are interested, please consider applying before Sept. 16.

Training and Professional Development Opportunities to Learn More About AI

UNO will be offering our free, six-week virtual professional development called “The AI Advantage: Transforming Teaching and Preparing Students to Thrive” again this fall. This course gives an overview of generative AI; walks faculty and staff through adapting their personal philosophies for the AI world; shares strategies for incorporating AI into courses, learning experiences, and business processes; and prepares students to be responsible users of AI.

Faculty and staff will leave the course with a plan on how they can incorporate AI into their course, work, department, or curriculum. We already had 120 members of the UNO community complete this training over the summer, and we hope you might consider joining this fall’s offering, as well. Register today for this six-week asynchronous training program! The next AI Advantage program will start Aug. 26, and we plan to offer a third start date of mid-to late September as well.

If you are looking for a shorter AI-focused professional development opportunity, you might consider our newest “AI Jumpstart” three-hour training. This micro course is designed to help you learn about generative AI compared to other AI models, improve your prompt engineering, and give you the opportunity to experiment with generative AI. We hope this short-form professional development opportunity will provide you with an introduction to foundational knowledge and help you to gain curiosity to dive into AI and how you can use it in your work. This offering is completely self-paced, so start/finish when it works for you. Register anytime here.

And finally, we have a new compliance training on AI for the UNO campus community. We highly recommend all members of the UNO community complete the training, which will take less than ten minutes. Individuals selected to receive licenses to the enterprise ChatGPT environment will be required to complete the training before access to the tool is granted. The AI Bridge training is available here.

Attend a Virtual Town Hall About the AI Learning Lab

Staff from the AI Learning Lab – in addition to faculty who have already submitted their plans for using enterprise ChatGPT – will be on hand to answer questions and share ideas at a virtual town hall on Aug. 28 at noon on Zoom.

If you would like Cassie Mallette (Program Manager of UNO’s AI Learning Lab) to present or brainstorm with you about the AI Challenge RFP or ChatGPT more broadly at an upcoming unit/division/college meeting or do a department-specific workshop, we’d be happy to do so. Please reach out to innovate@unomaha.edu to set this up.

Key Dates and Deadlines