The faculty panel discussion, “Will AI Make Us Better Teachers?” offered perspectives about technology’s evolving role in higher education.
While mathematics and many other academic fields strive for objective and precise solutions, Terence Tao — a professor and the James and Carol Collins Chair in the UCLA College of Letters and Sciences — urged instructors during his keynote address to allow students to authentically engage in the problem-solving process, where arriving at the wrong answer – often over and over again – is part of learning. He explained to an eager audience gathered at the University Club and on Zoom how educators might leverage teaching tools to emphasize the learning value in failure to students experimenting with new learning methods. He also shared the importance of making this process of trial and error an explicit part of the course learning goals. The engaged response from participants reflected the strong interest in having discussions about how to cultivate students’ problem-solving abilities, particularly in the face of evolving assistive technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI).
More than 300 members of UCLA’s instructional community participated in the inaugural Teaching Symposium hosted this June by the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC). The full-day event provided a forum for exploring the role and impact of AI on teaching and learning through panel discussions, flash talks, and a technology exposition featuring campus partners. The Symposium showcased various and complex perspectives around how to practically, ethically, and responsibly navigate AI tools – a topic currently impacting all segments of higher education.
“AI is on the minds of instructors and students alike, and many are considering the opportunities and challenges AI tools present,” explained Kem Saichaie, Executive Director of the TLC and Symposium Co-Chair. “The Symposium represented a unique opportunity for an intentional campus-wide conversation focused on AI in teaching and learning.”
The Symposium also provided an opportunity to build collaboration and spark new ideas with colleagues and experts from across UCLA.
“The main point I hope you take away from this Symposium is that you don’t have to do this work alone. TLC will be here for you with resources, support, and data (research) to help us move forward responsibly and collaboratively,” said Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Erin Sanders O’Leary. She also recognized the commitment to teaching demonstrated by attendees, and outlined the TLC’s core principles for implementing AI tools in the UCLA learning environment.
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt invited attendees to embrace curiosity and scholarly rigor as they explored meaningful questions about future instruction. Leveraging emerging academic technologies like AI to improve the student experience and elevate teaching is outlined in the UCLA for Life flagship initiative, a part of the One UCLA campaign and Goal 4 of the University’s Strategic Plan.
“The pace of change can feel unsettling, but universities have long served as a place where society can contemplate change rather than be reactive to it,” he noted. “Our goal today is not to arrive at a single conclusion about AI but to engage in the rigorous and collaborative inquiry that defines UCLA at its best.”
Instructional Perspectives on Emerging Technologies
Tao’s keynote highlighted how today’s technological advances invite educators to reexamine many instructional practices. In “Beyond Answers: What Should Math (and all) Students Focus on Learning in the AI Era?” he highlighted the fundamental questions about math education that AI has illuminated for instructors and the lessons that it provides across disciplines. He emphasized that instead of optimizing assessment for a single standard of achieving the correct answer, instructors should highlight the internal struggle of students learning problem-solving skills through trial and error.
”We have to normalize failure in the educational process and demonstrate to students that failure is a powerful learning opportunity,” he said. Tao noted that instructors should encourage students to experiment with different mathematical approaches. Technologies like controlled and specific AI assistance could potentially offer students a space to practice techniques and make mistakes while developing their skills.
Attendees were offered additional perspectives about the technology’s evolving role in higher education in the faculty panel discussion, “Will AI Make Us Better Teachers?” The group recounted various moments of realization about AI’s effects on their courses and strategies for sustaining student engagement. After learning that students were creating their own practice patient scenarios using AI tools, Serena Wang, Chair of the UCLA AI in Medical Education Council and an associate clinical professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine, has focused on helping students critically evaluate the benefits and risks of different AI platforms, both in education and the medical field.
“I believe that it is our responsibility as faculty to lead our learners in the current AI environment by designing custom educational tools and experiences that would enable more experiential and personalized learning and feedback,” she noted. Meanwhile, Danny Snelson, an associate professor of English and design media arts, presented students with multimedia projects exploring generative systems in literature and art to help them engage with their complex feelings about the technology.
“What are productive methods might we devise to help students demystify and defang the algorithmic monsters that they see haunting their future?” He shared.
Dialogue and Demonstrations on Applying AI Tools
The afternoon’s concurrent sessions highlighted concrete teaching practices for thoughtfully integrating AI tools as well as navigating challenges related to academic integrity, student access, and ethics. One panel of faculty and graduate student instructors walked through how they have reimagined many common practices and centered collaborative learning and community connection throughout their courses. Another panel reflected on their experiences of when, how, and why instructors have adapted to use AI tools in a rapidly changing classroom environment.
Emma Ridder, a Ph.D. student in English and Research, and Instructional Technology Consultant for Humanities Technology, shared that her writing assignments encourage productive intellectual friction among students to emphasize deeper class engagement.
“Where learning often begins is with difficult moments and by staying with the more uncomfortable moments,” she shared, adding that she works to help students examine where AI tools would help or would instead let them evade sitting with that difficulty.
The afternoon’s flash talk sessions showcased teaching innovations that have been applied in the classroom at UCLA. In one session, faculty from the Samueli School of Engineering and UCLA Writing Programs reflected on approaches for developing a writing curriculum spanning both the sciences and humanities, where AI augments rather than replaces human communication. The presenters emphasized that the technology should not overshadow or replace a writer’s voice, perspective, and intellectual identity.
“Students must first develop the ‘large language models’ inside of their own heads before relying on external AI tools,” noted presenter Rick Wesel, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs at Samueli.
Exploring On-Campus Innovations
The day closed with a technology exposition where academic staff demonstrated various tools, programs, and opportunities to spark attendees’ inquiry into how AI might be applied in their courses. The TLC’s Practice & Play with EdTech table walked participants through how to use Google Gemini to create a scaffolded assessment for an example theater course designed to engage students in a conversation-like activity.
Attendees also saw demonstrations from organizations across campus, including KramerBot, an AI agent developed by MBA student Attin Kundra, that offers personalized practice modeled after Terry Kramer, an adjunct professor in the Anderson School of Management. Meanwhile, representatives from the UCLA Library showcased consultation services related to generative AI for instructors. Attendees appreciated learning about the tools and support available to enhance future instruction.
“Knowing that these resources are available for both faculty and students will help me guide learners toward responsible and effective use of AI technologies in their academic work,” shared Theresa Brown, an assistant adjunct professor in the UCLA Joe C. Wen School of Nursing, who attended the exposition.
Through the Symposium’s focus on exploration and inquiry, attendees felt inspired to consider how new technologies might impact their classrooms and how to critically assess the learning value of using new resources.
“One of the primary takeaways from the Symposium was the importance of thoughtfully integrating generative AI into my courses,” noted Brown. “I hope to explore ways I can use AI tools to support student learning and scholarly writing, and I also appreciated learning about the AI resources available through BruinLearn. I plan to experiment with these features in future courses.”
For organizers like Saichaie, the day provided attendees with a powerful way to connect and share perspectives.
“The value of human interaction on the topic was central to the Symposium’s success,” he noted. “With so much content at our fingertips, understanding how the experiences of instructors from UCLA classrooms have adapted — and are adapting — gave participants many new lines of inquiry to consider for their own teaching with, without, and about AI.”