> [!summary]+ Summary > This page describes the background and programmatic planning for an Artificial Intelligence (AI) response and literacy strategy at GWU. A list of programming efforts is provided and demonstrated outcomes are provided throughout this site. # Generative AI at GWU: Awareness, Literacy, and Integration When OpenAI's ChatGPT was announced in November 2022 it was like a *slap to the face* to the university. Some took the technology as offensive and were very upset. And others, or rather a few, took it with excitement. I took it with excitement. In part because I have always been interested in the power of educational technology, but more so because of my experiences working outside of higher-education. This enabled me to see the value that generative Artificial Intelligence (genAI) could/would bring to multiple areas of work. Transforming teaching and learning was what I was brought into GWU to help drive. The introduction of genAI was a part of this. By March 2023 I was formally asked to take on creating a strategy for how the central library at GWU would respond to this new technology, including defining the programming we would create to support faculty (and staff). My first step was to reach out to my network of faculty across every college and school, and invite faculty to meet with me one-on-one to discuss their take on genAI implications, what had them optimistic, and what had them scared. It was extremely revealing. Soon after I wrote a formal plan and prepared a series of slides to present to leadership. I wrote my plan with 3 ideas in mind. 1. **Awareness** – Intentionally building channels and messaging to make the community aware of genAI tools, discussions happening on campus, resources being developed, policy implications, actions I/we were taking, etc. 2. **Literacy** – Designing, developing, and delivering programming that faculty and staff could attend/use to learn about genAI, practice using it, discuss use cases, and learning how to match the technology to use cases. 3. **Integration** – Creating opportunities for faculty and staff to work with myself and their peers to explore how to infuse genAI as a tool or partner into teaching practice, research, and/or work. ## The original plan Like every design effort there is an initial plan before the landscape and people change. The slides below represent this. My goals in this initial plan were to create community, create communications channels, and create programming to educate and upskill faculty and staff on genAI. <div class="container"><iframe class="responsive-iframe-sd" src="https://1drv.ms/b/c/13829E5D2EB238DE/IQQEtVf2ACzDT7noyKDyyjNrAYOiF_vTNGbZ2R5i-WhK9m0" width="100%" height="400" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></div> ### Guiding councils Building community was an important part to my plan because for any transformation to be successful, it needs to have broad input, shared buy-in, and felt ownership from a diversity of stakeholders. Of the ideas presented in the original plan, I successfully created a genAI faculty council — see [[genAI Faculty Advisory Council]] — that brought faculty and staff of different opinions together from across the entire organization. ### Digital communications This was all about creating a website that could serve as a single stop point of communications from the library to the GWU community about genAI. This was very much needed because teams tended to work and communicate independently with overlapping and mixed messages. ### Programmatic efforts Ultimately everything but the quarterly symposiums and competitions were created. It took a significant amount of effort, but I corralled the people, the teams, and bought the time through efficiencies gained in my project management efforts to setup most of these efforts. ## The plan evolved Between the start of summer 2023 and the end of summer 2024, this outlined plan and more was accomplished. It took a massive amount of effort, but a lot was built and learned along the way. ### Accomplishments in 1 year I was able to drive and evolve the original plan to accomplish the following: 1. genAI Faculty case study interviews — 3 of 21 videos completed - See [[2024, Faculty integrating genAI (video)]] 2. GW micro-learning series: “Getting started with genAI” — 12 of 31 videos completed - See [[2024, Getting started with genAI (video)]] 3. genAI resources — 4 internal works completed 4. Support for a university seminar on AI and writing in the disciplines 5. Collaboration with the Open Source Programming Office on AI tools 6. Formation of an LAI genAI staff working group - See [[genAI Staff Working Group]] 7. Delivery of multiple presentations and discussion on genAI 8. Creation of a genAI website for the library 9. Launch of multiple genAI workshops 10. Conducted a survey of >400 undergraduate students on genAI - See [[2023, Undergrad genAI survey]] ### Ideas left on the table (end of 2024) Unfortunately, multiple ideas were drafted but left in backlog, including the following: 1. Development of a custom GPT for guiding instructional/learning design, media design, and/or teaching practice. 2. A genAI Institute for faculty and staff to develop genAI literacy skills. 3. An addition to the Course Design Institute focusing on course re-design with genAI. 4. A podcast series to discuss with faculty/experts on genAI in teaching, research, and work. 5. A professional development series teaching skills to get faculty started with using genAI. 6. A series of library produced teaching and learning symposiums. 7. A library produced genAI LibGuide. 8. A monthly library staff presentations and activities to promote staff upskilling with genAI. 9. A series of library hosted student competitions with genAI tools. 10. A stable genAI staff working group. ## 🎯 Results Overall, I was able to lead and accomplish a great deal of program ideation, design, development, and delivery from 2023-2024 at GWU. I did this with the help and strategic use of multiple staff, by gaining time from efforts to orchestrate powerful efficiencies in regular projects, by jumping in myself to fill the gaps, and through amazing partnerships with multiple faculty. **It was an exciting time and I was proud to get accomplish so much for the GWU community.** Nonetheless in September 2024 new leadership took over my department and wanted to pursue a more traditional/conservative approach to genAI reflective of the broader stance to avoid genAI use in higher-education. This translated into a major pullback. As a result key efforts became 1) having a monthly meeting for anyone to simply discuss their thoughts around genAI, 2) offering a handful of workshops on genAI in the classroom, and 3) training staff to help faculty devise learning plans that would avoid any use of genAI in teaching and learning.