“Where should we start?” is what Gemini asks when users open the interface. Some Durham College (DC) professors believe the starting place for AI literacy is in the classroom.
Since the rise of generative AI chatbots in late 2022 there has been much back and forth around how it can be used responsibly and if it should be embraced at all, especially in classrooms.
A May study by Academica Group found about 58 per cent of Canadian post-secondary students included in a 1,100-person group reported they were permitted to use GenAI in some capacity for their coursework, which is an increase from their 2024 results.
DC’s GenAI policy reflects a similar sentiment, stating the college supports faculty exploring GenAI in relation to course evaluations and adopting it where they deem it helpful and informative to students, under specific guidelines.
Corey Gill, program co-ordinator and professor in DC’s Human Resources cluster, is one of the professors leading the charge when it comes to GenAI use in DC classrooms. Gill uses Microsoft Co-Pilot as a tutor for his students and says it has had a positive impact on the students that embrace it.
“It’s been set up in such a way that it will not answer questions for them, but it will coach them towards where to find those answers and it will help them refine the answers,” said Gill.
“If they give it the assignment rubric, it will give them feedback towards where the strengths are and where the areas of improvement might be. As a result, for the students that use it, I’ve seen their marks climb.”
Gill adds that because GenAI evolves so rapidly, published textbooks and studies are often already outdated by the time they hit print, making the classroom “the biggest place we can actually keep up with it.”
Mixed opinions in the classroom
For students like Ahanae Lydner, who is in DC Entrepreneurship and Small Business program, that integration is already taking shape. Lydner says her program has encouraged her to use GenAI to help build resumes and structure ideas, but she thinks it should not function beyond being an aid.
“[I’ve used GenAI] to check my work by comparing it to my rubric, to see what things I’m missing, and what I can take out that I over-explained,” said Lynder. “It’s a good tool and it’s a good source for us to have, but it’s not something that we should depend on.”
Jonathan Carrigan, DC Marketing program coordinator and founder of HuminAI, believes there is no avoiding GenAI. He said it must be embraced because it represents the future of the workforce.
In his own courses, Carrigan uses GenAI to offer students “a learning process with both the professor and the AI” that will teach them critical thinking and set them up for their future workplace.
“AI is changing the way work is done across industries, across positions, and as a result, that changes not only the way that work is going to be done, but the skills that students are going to need to graduate with,” he said.
“I can’t think of a single role from creative to strategy to technology that’s not going to be touched by AI in some way.” – Jonathan Carrigan
In his TEDx Oshawa talk, Carrigan discusses how GenAI will eliminate entry level jobs as they have previously been known, requiring students to graduate with knowledge of how to do higher levels of work than in the past.
Strong foundations come first
But while faculty push for GenAI-based workforce readiness, not all students are convinced the foundation is there yet.
Aaliyah Alexander, a DC Paralegal student, says her courses have begun encouraging GenAI use to summarize and analyze long legal cases to save time. While she acknowledges the potential benefits of these methods, she questions whether GenAI functions well as a foundational teaching tool.
“Your job essentially is not just to gather information, but it’s to interpret information,” said Alexander. “I’m seeing a lot of people right now, especially with regards to AI, who can use ChatGPT to find the information like immediately, but then they can’t process that information. They can’t tell you why a case is important.”
She warns that without strong foundational critical thinking and knowledge about the content, GenAI runs the risk of replacing human thinking rather than assisting it.
“As far as I can tell, our professors want us to engage with AI because it’s becoming industry standard,” said Alexander. “But it’s just that there are some people that I’m looking at and I’m like, I don’t think we’re there yet.”
Not every professor or program is there yet either. Carrigan said the next step is finding the best use for AI in every program and for every student.
However, he acknowledges concerns from environmental sustainability to the future of society and humanity.
“I think both extremes, while valid, it’s something in between that’s more realistic,” said Carrigan.