Grammarly for Education Generative AI Pilot
Project Background
Responsible Generative AI on Campus
Generative AI is a rapidly evolving academic technology. With an ever-increasing number of tools and vendors, how do we ensure we are engaging responsibly and ethically with AI in our classrooms? One way to start is evaluating generative AI tools for classroom use using established frameworks and process.
The Office of Academic Technology (OAT) considers principles responsible use of AI in classrooms to include using applications that ensure the following for our community: privacy, security, accessibility, transparency, literacy, and effective teaching and learning practices.
A Guide for Getting Started with Responsible Gen AI Use
In the Fall of 2023, the Office of Academic Technology began collaborating with Grammarly for Education to test and evaluate responsible use of generative AI at UT Austin using our Learning Technology Adoption Process (LTAP). The LTAP engages campus stakeholders using a comprehensive evaluation process designed to guide effective academic technology decision-making on campus. The OAT led its first generative AI LTAP on Grammarly for Education’s generative AI tool. All participants in the project were trained using the OAT’s AI-Forward – AI Responsible framework to help improve literacy of the six key limitations of using AI for learning.
The result of this project was a toolkit of 30 tested and evaluated generative AI activities and lesson plans. Anyone can download the Faculty Guide to Getting Started with Generative AI and use it in their own classroom, or make new activities and lesson plans using the templates. While Grammarly was the preferred AI tool used to test and validate the activities, the activities can be carried out in virtually any generative AI tool, and there are templates to help make your
own activities.
In the fall of 2023, the university developed a Memo of Understanding with Grammarly for Education to evaluate their generative AI tool. The University engaged with Grammarly for Education because it met our key principles for responsible AI use: their tool did not digest user input into its LLM for training purposes; the application additionally met state and University security, privacy, and accessibility requirements for academic use; and at the time of the evaluation, had a positive vendor reputation related to commitments to accessibility as well as vendor willingness to provide a no-cost contract for the LTAP. As with all technology, we continue to evaluate all tools in our tech stack to ensure it meets UT standards. Generative AI is embedded in the Grammarly for Education application and operates through a chat bot-like user experience, whereby a user may input information into the system and receive output in turn.
Like all generative AI tools, there are both benefits and limitations for classroom use
This project scope focused on evaluating the Generative AI application within Grammarly, and not the full suite of tools and features associated with Grammarly for Education.
The overarching purpose of this project was to engage the UT community (faculty, students, and staff) in testing generative AI and to respond to the following LTAP questions for technology evaluation purposes:
- Objective 1: What is the pedagogical and educational efficacy of generative AI for UT Austin users?
- Objective 2: What is the generative AI user experience based on a sample of UT Austin users?
- Objective 3: What is the campus sustainability and viability of generative AI at UT Austin?
- 90% of users reported that the Grammarly Gen AI output tested in the activities was accurate
- 90% of users reported the Grammarly Gen AI output tested in the activities was somewhat or well aligned with their intentions
- 83% of users reported a positive experience with Grammarly’s Gen AI Tool
This pilot comprised two cohorts of users to test and provide feedback on their experience with generative AI:
- Cohort 1: UT Austin staff, faculty, and students
- Cohort 2: Active UT Austin instructors and their students from
various disciplines
This pilot was conducted in two phases: Phase I engaged Cohort 1 participants to test the general user experience of generative AI; Phase II focused on integrating generative AI in the classroom by partnering with active instructors to develop lesson plans that are both AI Forward and AI Responsible.
This spring, pilot participants developed a series of 20 activities to test the generative AI tool within Grammarly and provide evaluative feedback on their experience. Pilot participants could interact with both asynchronous (whereby users completed a set of tasks and provided feedback in the form of a survey) and synchronous testing of activities (live user tests).
Faculty developed 10 generative AI lesson plans to use in live courses during this spring, summer, and fall. These lesson plans include descriptions of the learner audience, learning outcomes, assessment plans, and instructional activities that involve generative AI in the context of their course, and similarly engage learners to assess their experiences in using generative AI.
This faculty guide developed by the UT Austin community includes 30 teaching and learning activities, vetted by the UT community, to help faculty integrate generative AI in their classrooms.
Download Here