FALL/WINTER 2025 | 13 “I’ve been saying this is semester zero. We’re trying to provide insight to faculty, and then feed that insight back into the university so we get a bigger picture view of how it’s being used and where it’s effective.” —DOMINIC PACKER, VICE PROVOST FOR EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION AND ASSESSMENT use AI in homework assignments to help them digest higher-level readings. “You could assign a complex paper to a sophomore you’d usually assign to a senior,” Packer says. “It’s not that we want it to replace students being able to read these papers eventually, but maybe it gives people earlier access to things.” Lehigh is providing faculty with technical support through Library and Technology Services, as well as a broader framework of pedagogical principles to help them think through when and how to best use AI. “These are not rules, saying ‘you must do this’; it’s more of high-level guideposts, such as ‘We will use AI when it increases the effectiveness of student learning, which means we’ll rigorously assess how effective these tools are,’” Packer says. In the spirit of experimentation, Packer plans to ramp up assessment next semester in a more formal way, surveying faculty and students to find out where they find AI useful and in what areas it misses the mark. “I’ve been saying this is semester zero,” Packer says. “We’re trying to provide insight to faculty, and then feed that insight back into the university so we get a bigger picture view of how it’s being used and where it’s effective.” As part of that experimentation, some faculty are taking it upon themselves to create course offerings that focus even more deeply on AI-based learning. Bilal Khan, professor of biostatistics and health data science, uses machine learning and other AI tools in his own research on “just in time” interventions that use continuous data collection and forecasting models to give behavioral nudges to patients. Intrigued by the growing prevalence of generative AI, he spent the summer writing a book and developing a new course called “The Art of AI Conversation” to help students learn how to engineer prompts to more effectively interact with LLMs. “It’s very clear we have to take generative AI head-on,” he says. “There’s no pretending this is going to go away.” Yet, too many students enter classes from high school under the assumption that use of AI in class is prohibited. Or if they are using it, they are approaching it in a haphazard way without any real training. “Most people I come across are essentially using LLMs in a ‘seat of the pants’ kind of way without a lot of method to it,” Khan says. “So I decided to systematize it and give students a toolbox.” One of the first exercises in class is using an LLM to develop hooks for TikTok videos to appeal to a Gen Z audience. By using AI Bilal Khan
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