As we collectively navigate a new landscape equipped with AI tools and capabilities, we are challenged to think again about foundational questions in teaching and learning – what do we really want students to achieve and how do we best facilitate their learning?
Scott Pauls, Interim Dean of Undergraduate Education “

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The Teaching with Gen AI Initiative: An Enhanced DCAL and LDI Partnership

Over the past two and half years, The Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL) and Learning Design and Innovation (LDI) have partnered to provide support and resources to Dartmouth faculty to use and adapt their teaching to the emergence of Generative AI. As the nature of their work has morphed to meet the moment, so has their understanding of a need for a deeper strategic partnership. 

The goal of DCAL and LDI's Teaching with Gen AI Initiative (TGAI) is to strategize, collaborate, and collectively lead the development of generative AI literacy, experimentation, tool selection, and practice among Dartmouth's educators for student-centered learning. The initiative is currently anchored by 3 key programs, the grant program, institutes, and programming.

Gen AI Teaching Grant Projects

The Gen AI team launched a call for proposals for a pilot teaching grant and received proposals from instructors representing many disciplines for courses taking place in Winter, Spring, and Summer terms of 2025. Grantees worked closely with members of the DCAL and LDI teams, along with other partners from Dartmouth Libraries and ITC to receive pedagogical and technological support for their GenAI teaching projects.  

In one example of such a project, Jonathan Chipman, Director of the Citrin Family GIS/Applied Spatial Analysis Laboratory, was awarded a grant for his work with his Geography course on Geovisualization (GEOG 54). Beyond setting a goal for students to gain experience with Gen AI, Chipman shared that "my motivation was to use this as a method for getting the students to engage more in critical thinking. It turned out that having the students step back from writing the code themselves, and instead 'supervise' an AI doing the coding made it easier for them to focus on critiquing the results, thinking creatively about problems with the AI-generated solutions and trying to figure out how to coax it into improving its work."

In addition to Chipman, nine other faculty were selected to receive Teaching with Gen AI pilot grants: 

For their grant work, each instructor developed a project, assignment, or unit which required students to engage Gen AI to meet their learning objectives. The grant team gathered student feedback on their implementation. The feedback from students and instructors shapes our Gen AI workshops and grant offerings. 

Upcoming Grant Opportunity

The Teaching with Gen AI Initiative is currently seeking proposals from Dartmouth instructors planning to incorporate Gen AI in a course being offered in academic year 2025/26. Proposals are due by 5 pm EDT on Monday, August 18, 2025.

Teaching with Gen AI Institute

In December 2024, LDI and DCAL piloted a two-day institute to guide instructors through an exploration of the implications of Gen AI for their teaching. The institute kicked off with a showcase in which six faculty from a variety of disciplines shared some of the creative and intentional ways that they are integrating GenAI into their teaching. Following the showcase, a cohort of faculty spent the remainder of the institute gaining hands-on experience with Gen AI tools and adapting their course design with the support of facilitators and peer feedback.

For the first time, the two-day Teaching with Gen AI Institute is being offered online this summer on July 29th and 31st. The institute was tailored to meet the pedagogical and technical needs of the faculty enrolled, supporting their specific teaching with Gen AI goals. Both days will include time for both discussion and feedback with facilitators and colleagues alike. 

The Future of Gen AI in Teaching at Dartmouth

The Gen AI Initiative team is hard at work on several projects that will continue to grow DCAL and LDI's collaborative offerings in this space. The Teaching with Gen AI Institutes will continue to grow and evolve based on Dartmouth educators' feedback and needs. Additionally, the materials collected from Gen AI teaching grantees are being developed into case studies, similar to the Accessible Dartmouth Initiative case studies, to showcase the innovation taking place in Dartmouth classrooms. 

Members of the team have also been working with a Gen AI student intern to gather undergraduate student stories and information about student experiences using (or intentionally not using) Gen AI in their studies. Bringing this data together with the student-facing surveys collected in the grantees' work is another short-term goal of the initiative. 

Looking ahead, the Gen AI Initiative Team is inspired by a question posed by Scott Pauls, Interim Dean of Undergraduate Education and former Director of DCAL. When asked about his wishes for this initiative, Pauls, who has been an integral part of the institutional response to Gen AI, prompted Dartmouth community members to reflect: "As we collectively navigate a new landscape equipped with AI tools and capabilities, we are challenged to think again about foundational questions in teaching and learning – what do we really want students to achieve and how do we best facilitate their learning?"