On March 28, business professor Dr. Charlena Miller hosted a talk titled “Empowering Educators and Preparing Students for an AI-Augmented Future.” Held over Zoom, this session was a recreation of a live presentation she gave in October at the regional Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs conference.
While Dr. Miller covered many of the same topics as in October, she noted that “a lot has changed in AI” since her initial presentation. The discussion centered on her personal experiences with AI and how Doane has embraced it.
She mentioned the formation of the informal “AI at Doane” team, which was composed of professors hoping to better understand AI. In the early days of AI’s traction, many professors outlawed it in their classrooms and refused to engage with it. This team, however, wanted to better understand the technology and how it could be utilized by teachers and students alike.
During the presentation, attendees were invited to explore and use AI tools that Dr. Miller shared, including Google NotebookLM, BoodleBox, Napkin, Beautiful and her custom AI teaching assistant. Participants discussed their experiences, shared insights about the applications and talked about how they could incorporate these tools into their daily lives.
In her class, Dr. Miller created a research project that let students create their own chatbots. She expressed how nervous her students were but how the project was immensely successful for them. Students were paired with a member of faculty who needed some AI assistance. Projects included a teaching assistant trainer, presentation checker, writing/editing assistant and a group maker.
This initiative led to Doane’s first-ever AI Student Showcase in early December 2024. Following the success of that event, Dr. Miller’s course will be offered in Fall 2025 over a full 16-week term. This class will be one of several new AI-centered courses available in the fall, including a new English certificate program titled “Thinking and Writing with AI.”
As AI continues to change and evolve, Dr. Miller believes that both students and faculty must adapt as well to lead the conversation on generative AI.
