Students use the term “filler course” to refer to programmes they deem irrelevant to their professional goals. For teachers of such courses, many of which fall under the social sciences and humanities disciplines, this perception can be very difficult to overcome.
The issue is even greater for online, asynchronous courses; a lack of personal interaction between the teacher and the student often makes students further question the usefulness of these courses.
There is much written about how to use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve teaching. But can we also use AI tools to help students understand how courses not directly related to their majors are relevant to their future ambitions?
My colleagues and I have used the following strategies in our asynchronous, online course, Global Citizenship: Diversity and Tolerance, with promising results.
Tailor learning to students’ professional aspirations
It is challenging to provide clear examples and applications of how certain topics can be useful to students studying for highly technical professions. To help with this, we asked students to input our course topics and their preferred careers into ChatGPT and ask the following questions, requesting clear and real-life examples.
- Why and how will the course topics be important for my professional life?
- How can I apply what I learn in this course in my future career?
The tool responded with concrete, field-specific examples that helped them understand how the course content could be applied in their areas of study.
Link theoretical and abstract topics with practical applications: students may find applying theoretical or abstract topics to their professional fields difficult. For example, a student taking my course might ask how learning about Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition is useful to them as a future mechatronics engineer. For cases like this, ask students to input the following prompt into ChatGPT:
How will learning about (insert specific course topic) be useful to my future professional life as a (insert job title)? Provide clear and real-life examples or scenarios.
You can complement these exercises with 360° videos or virtual reality resources to make the learning experience even more meaningful.
Generate personalised study strategies
Even if students do genuinely care about so-called filler courses, they may struggle to balance them with other academic priorities. We asked students to create both professional and personal profiles that include their main areas of improvement, such as time management skills. Then, we instructed them to use the following prompt:
Here is some information about me: (insert personal and professional details). Based on this, give me at least five strategies that I can start implementing today to maximise my learning in the Global Citizenship: Diversity and Tolerance course. Take into account the following characteristics of the course: college-level, online and asynchronous.
We recommend using this strategy as a complement to others, since by itself, it might not impact students’ perspectives of the course. However, when combined with reflective activities, it can help students view a course as more relevant to their personal development.
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Highlight the soft skills students will develop
My colleagues and I wanted to highlight how our use of COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning), a Global Shared Learning experience, improves students’ soft skills. To do this, we asked them to use the following prompt:
The Global Citizenship: Diversity and Tolerance course offers students a Global Shared Learning experience. Through collaboration with universities in different countries, it connects students across borders and facilitates learning in intercultural environments. The Global Shared Learning model is based on the Collaborative Online International Learning methodology. Here is some information about me: (insert personal and professional profile).
- Question 1: why and how will this Global Shared Learning experience be important for my personal and professional lives?
- Question 2: how can I apply what I have learned from a Global Shared Learning experience to my future career?
We asked the students to use another prompt to find out how the competencies our course aims to improve will be relevant to them. They include recognition, empathy and verbal communication. This was the prompt they used:
Here is some information about me: (insert personal and professional details).
- Question 1: why and how will recognition, empathy and verbal communication be important for my personal and professional lives?
- Question 2: what are some potential applications of these competencies in my career?
Showing students how these soft skills are relevant to their future career success helps students understand how courses such as yours can enrich their professional and personal lives.
Assess the impact
It is important to measure the impact of your activities to ensure they are working. I suggest using a tool such as Google Forms to check students’ initial perceptions and expectations to see if you need to adapt your approach. Once you implement these activities, you can re-evaluate students’ perceptions using the following questions:
- How did the activities motivate you to engage with the course topics?
- How did the activity help you understand the course topics’ relevance to your field of study?
- How confident do you feel about applying the course content in real-world work scenarios after engaging in these activities?
In an age of complex global challenges, it’s more important than ever to help students connect with courses in the social sciences and humanities. We can turn to AI to help express the importance of these to students pursuing careers not directly related to them.
Elizabeth Marcial Morales is a tutor professor at Monterrey Institute of Technology, Mexico.
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