Navigating AI’s Evolving Role in Teaching and Learning

Experience the Episode

Presented by Notre Dame Learning

Although artificial intelligence has been part of higher education for a couple of years now, faculty are still struggling with what this development means for themselves, their students, their courses—and especially their assessments.

Notre Dame Learning recently launched the Lab for AI in Teaching & Learning (LAITL), led by Alex Ambrose of our Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence, to help instructors navigate this terrain. Alex is an eloquent spokesperson for the argument that by building their AI literacy and taking advantage of the opportunities it provides, faculty can expand student learning.

But are faculty buying it? And a deeper question: Does everyone need to embrace AI? Or are there times and places where we shouldn’t be welcoming it into our lives and our courses?

Fresh off hosting several campus AI workshops together, host Jim Lang and Alex discuss these issues, AI at Notre Dame, and a variety of helpful resources for faculty.

Key Points Discussed

• The experiences that have led Alex to become a cautious optimist/power user of AI, a path informed by his long-standing concern over technology’s impact on student learning
• What’s happening right now at Notre Dame with respect to AI in teaching and learning, including the availability of Google Gemini to all faculty, staff, and students and an AI academy for faculty
• The case Alex would make to a skeptical colleague about AI, one that is centered around empathy, literacy—and a very practical example
• The relationship of the two AIs, artificial intelligence and academic integrity, and the results from a survey of Notre Dame students
• Resources to help instructors articulate AI policies for their courses and assignments (see “Resources Mentioned” section for links)
• Imagining next-generation assessments that push students to go beyond just creating a final product
• An example of how Alex is starting to see AI assist faculty with assessments

Meet the Faculty: Alex Ambrose

Alex Ambrose directs the Lab for AI in Teaching and Learning (LAITL) at Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence. He serves as a professor of the practice with concurrent appointments in both the Education, Schooling, and Society and Computing and Digital Technologies programs. He is also a faculty fellow of the Institute for Educational Initiatives and the Pulte Institute for Global Development.

At the heart of Alex’s work is a bold mission: to liberate learning and reduce unnecessary anxiety and harm in education—for both students and faculty. He sees himself as a learning experience architect, committed to designing student-centered learning environments and advancing authentic, meaningful assessment.

His current research focuses on applied learning research, design, and evaluation, including artificial intelligence in education, pedagogy, assessment, learning analytics, active learning classrooms, flexible learning spaces, microcredentials, digital badges, and portfolios. His work has been recognized by Google, IBM, the Gates Foundation, and the National Science Foundation, and earned him the 2015 Campus Technology Innovator Award.

With over two decades of teaching experience across K–12 and higher education—spanning suburban New Jersey, downtown Detroit, community colleges, and both public and private universities—Alex has taught in face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online formats. Before entering higher education, he served as a combat infantry platoon leader in Baghdad and as a military leadership instructor for Officer Candidate School and ROTC as a captain in the U.S. Army National Guard.

Resources Mentioned

• Generative AI Acceptable Use Scale (aka the traffic light)
• The AI Menu
• Student AI Acknowledgment Form
• Notre Dame Learning’s AI Hub: learning.nd.edu/ai
• Book: Next Generation Genres: Teaching Writing for Civic and Academic Engagement (Norton Professional Books)
• Episode Transcript