{"id":4,"date":"2026-06-15T12:22:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T12:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/usingaiinacademics\/?p=4"},"modified":"2026-09-04T14:18:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T14:18:35","slug":"introduction","status":"publish","type":"front-matter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/usingaiinacademics\/front-matter\/introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction: Why This Book Exists"},"content":{"raw":"
\r\n\r\nThe public release of ChatGPT in November 2022 is recent enough that most of us can remember where we were when we first tried it. It is also long enough ago that a student starting college this fall has had it available to them for nearly the whole of high school. In those few years, tools that could draft an essay, summarize a dense article, or write a block of code went from novelty to routine and faculty were left to make consequential choices, about assignments, assessments, and academic integrity, largely without precedent.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nThis book is a response to these times. It is not a manifesto for or against AI in the classroom, and it is not a prediction about where the technology is headed over the long-term. It is something that we hope is far more useful: a practical guide, written by educators for educators, about how to teach thoughtfully in a world where these tools now exist.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Where It Came From<\/h2>\r\n
\r\n\r\nThe chapters that follow were written collaboratively by a cross-disciplinary cohort of 35 Cleveland State University faculty and staff who spent a week together in June of 2026 working through exactly the questions you are probably bringing to this book. \u00a0They came from different departments, taught different kinds of students, and held genuinely different views about what AI means for their work. Some of them were enthusiastic. Some were skeptical. Most were somewhere in between, curious but cautious.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nThat mix is one of this book\u2019s strongest assets. No single discipline has the full picture of what AI means for all of teaching and learning, and no single stance, from unfettered adoption to outright refusal, addresses what all students need to learn before they graduate into a world where these tools are now seemingly ubiquitous.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nThis cohort of educators spent five days learning together, testing tools, and discussing what they might mean for their courses. The chapters came later. Participants divided into groups, each responsible for a single topic, and developed the chapters over the following weeks, often in collaboration with AI.\u00a0 Even though the chapters have named authors, they were shaped by conversations across the full cohort. What you are reading is the record of a group of educators teaching themselves, and each other, in real time.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

What This Book Is (and Is Not)<\/h2>\r\n
\r\n\r\nA few things are worth saying plainly at the start.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nThis is a teaching resource, not a technical manual. No background in computer science is required. The opening chapter does explain, in plain terms, how generative AI systems actually work, because some grounding in that helps a reader reason about what these tools can and cannot reliably do. But the bulk of the book is aimed at the questions that actually land on a faculty member's desk: how to design assignments that remain meaningful, how to talk with students about appropriate use, how to think about assessment when a machine can produce a passable first draft, and how to use these tools to support an instructor's own work.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nIt is also a starting point, not a final word. The technology will keep changing, and so will the field's understanding of it. The chapters are written to stay useful even as specific tools come and go, focusing on pedagogy and judgment rather than on any one platform. Concrete examples throughout are offered as illustrations rather than instructions.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nFinally, this is an open resource. It is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) license, which means readers are free to borrow from it, adapt it for their own contexts, and share it with colleagues, provided they attribute the original and do not use it commercially. Take what is useful and leave the rest.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

How to Use It<\/h2>\r\n
\r\n\r\nThis book need not be read front to back. Each chapter stands largely on its own, so readers can begin wherever their immediate questions are most pressing. For those unsure where to start, the early chapters lay a foundation by covering what these tools are and are not and taking a close look at prompting as a skill worth teaching in its own right. From there, the book moves through redesigning assignments and assessments, using AI as a partner in course design, and supporting student learning without displacing it. The later chapters take up the harder questions like the ethical stakes of AI in higher education, from bias and environmental cost to intellectual property and labor, and what academic integrity means when the old markers of authorship no longer hold.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nOne suggestion above all: try the ideas out. AI is difficult to reason about in the abstract. Its promise and its problems both become much clearer when a reader sits down with a tool, an assignment, and a specific goal. This book is at its best when it is read with one's own courses in mind.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

An Invitation<\/h2>\r\n
\r\n\r\nWe wrote this as colleagues, not as experts handing down answers, because on this subject there are few settled answers. What exists instead is a growing community of educators working out in good faith what responsible teaching looks like in this new landscape. We are glad you are joining that conversation, and we hope this book gives you a useful place to begin.\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"
\n

The public release of ChatGPT in November 2022 is recent enough that most of us can remember where we were when we first tried it. It is also long enough ago that a student starting college this fall has had it available to them for nearly the whole of high school. In those few years, tools that could draft an essay, summarize a dense article, or write a block of code went from novelty to routine and faculty were left to make consequential choices, about assignments, assessments, and academic integrity, largely without precedent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

This book is a response to these times. It is not a manifesto for or against AI in the classroom, and it is not a prediction about where the technology is headed over the long-term. It is something that we hope is far more useful: a practical guide, written by educators for educators, about how to teach thoughtfully in a world where these tools now exist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Where It Came From<\/h2>\n
\n

The chapters that follow were written collaboratively by a cross-disciplinary cohort of 35 Cleveland State University faculty and staff who spent a week together in June of 2026 working through exactly the questions you are probably bringing to this book. \u00a0They came from different departments, taught different kinds of students, and held genuinely different views about what AI means for their work. Some of them were enthusiastic. Some were skeptical. Most were somewhere in between, curious but cautious.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

That mix is one of this book\u2019s strongest assets. No single discipline has the full picture of what AI means for all of teaching and learning, and no single stance, from unfettered adoption to outright refusal, addresses what all students need to learn before they graduate into a world where these tools are now seemingly ubiquitous.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

This cohort of educators spent five days learning together, testing tools, and discussing what they might mean for their courses. The chapters came later. Participants divided into groups, each responsible for a single topic, and developed the chapters over the following weeks, often in collaboration with AI.\u00a0 Even though the chapters have named authors, they were shaped by conversations across the full cohort. What you are reading is the record of a group of educators teaching themselves, and each other, in real time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What This Book Is (and Is Not)<\/h2>\n
\n

A few things are worth saying plainly at the start.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

This is a teaching resource, not a technical manual. No background in computer science is required. The opening chapter does explain, in plain terms, how generative AI systems actually work, because some grounding in that helps a reader reason about what these tools can and cannot reliably do. But the bulk of the book is aimed at the questions that actually land on a faculty member’s desk: how to design assignments that remain meaningful, how to talk with students about appropriate use, how to think about assessment when a machine can produce a passable first draft, and how to use these tools to support an instructor’s own work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

It is also a starting point, not a final word. The technology will keep changing, and so will the field’s understanding of it. The chapters are written to stay useful even as specific tools come and go, focusing on pedagogy and judgment rather than on any one platform. Concrete examples throughout are offered as illustrations rather than instructions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

Finally, this is an open resource. It is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) license, which means readers are free to borrow from it, adapt it for their own contexts, and share it with colleagues, provided they attribute the original and do not use it commercially. Take what is useful and leave the rest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How to Use It<\/h2>\n
\n

This book need not be read front to back. Each chapter stands largely on its own, so readers can begin wherever their immediate questions are most pressing. For those unsure where to start, the early chapters lay a foundation by covering what these tools are and are not and taking a close look at prompting as a skill worth teaching in its own right. From there, the book moves through redesigning assignments and assessments, using AI as a partner in course design, and supporting student learning without displacing it. The later chapters take up the harder questions like the ethical stakes of AI in higher education, from bias and environmental cost to intellectual property and labor, and what academic integrity means when the old markers of authorship no longer hold.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

One suggestion above all: try the ideas out. AI is difficult to reason about in the abstract. Its promise and its problems both become much clearer when a reader sits down with a tool, an assignment, and a specific goal. This book is at its best when it is read with one’s own courses in mind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

An Invitation<\/h2>\n
\n

We wrote this as colleagues, not as experts handing down answers, because on this subject there are few settled answers. What exists instead is a growing community of educators working out in good faith what responsible teaching looks like in this new landscape. We are glad you are joining that conversation, and we hope this book gives you a useful place to begin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["crennison","dkjackson"],"pb_section_license":""},"front-matter-type":[12],"contributor":[92,91],"license":[],"class_list":["post-4","front-matter","type-front-matter","status-publish","hentry","front-matter-type-introduction","contributor-crennison","contributor-dkjackson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/usingaiinacademics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/usingaiinacademics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/usingaiinacademics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/front-matter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/usingaiinacademics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/usingaiinacademics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/4\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":258,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/usingaiinacademics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/4\/revisions\/258"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/usingaiinacademics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter\/4\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/usingaiinacademics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"front-matter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/usingaiinacademics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/front-matter-type?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/usingaiinacademics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/usingaiinacademics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}