A primary purpose of using AI in academic education is for students to use AI as an aid and as a tool for achieving learning objectives. Teachers need to decide how to use the affordances of AI as a tool, as the didactical value of technology is never inherent but must be thoughtfully developed with the learning outcomes for students in mind.
Therefore, AI is a tool to be utilized; it is not AI that dictates the practice of teaching and learning, but the teacher who determines its relevance and functions within their course.
Teachers and students are at the forefront of increasingly technology-driven learning environments. While AI can enhance and expand pedagogical possibilities, it cannot replicate the nuanced understanding, empathy, and mentorship that educators bring to the learning process. A human-centered approach ensures that teachers remain integral as learning architects and coaches using AI at best to cultivate curiosity, promote higher-order thinking, and support the emotional and social dimensions of learning across diverse educational scenarios.
Following a human-centered approach in academic teaching means designing courses in a way that supports the involvement of learners in all stages of the learning process according to prior knowledge, capabilities, and needs in relation to defined learning outcomes. In all steps of designing and developing a course, the needs of learners remain the key reference of didactic design.
AI offers a wider range of opportunities to tailor courses more effectively to the interests, strengths, and needs of students.
However, AI presents both threats and opportunities. To support students in developing professional, creative, and responsible use of AI as a key skill of this decade, every pedagogical approach must be grounded in three principles: accessibility, equity, and inclusion.
Accessibility ensures that all learners, including those with disabilities and other learning challenges, have equal opportunities to achieve learning outcomes by accessing and engaging with course materials, activities, and assessments equitably, regardless of personal, social, or economic circumstances. This also means that students from lower-income backgrounds must not face disadvantages when using AI in academic education.
Equity refers to transforming educational practices and using AI to actively support students from diverse backgrounds, with varying language skills, prior knowledge, and learning habits. The goal is to provide equal opportunities for all students to achieve learning outcomes.
AI tools should facilitate, not hinder, diverse learning needs. Consider how these tools can be adapted to accommodate various backgrounds, abilities, and language proficiencies, fostering inclusive learning experiences that respect different learning habits, backgrounds, perspectives, and approaches while preventing disadvantages stemming from personal, cultural, social, or economic circumstances.
Inclusion is defined as “an ongoing process aimed at offering quality education for all while respecting diversity and the different needs and abilities, characteristics and learning expectations of the students and communities, eliminating all forms of discrimination” (UNESCO 2009: 126). This definition clarifies that using AI is a necessary step, but not a sufficient one, and that teachers must actively reframe teaching and learning practices to create learning environments where all students can equally develop AI skills.
Therefore, consider students’ varying levels of access to technology, too. Use AI options that promote equal access to AI tools for learning, assignments, and assessments in your course to avoid disadvantaging students who may have limited resources.