Free generative AI for education: Three tools to get started

A student's silhouette intertwines with a futuristic AI construct, symbolizing the future of education where minds and machines learn together

What can you do for free with generative artificial intelligence (AI) to foster innovative teaching and student engagement? 

This presentation provides short demos of free versions of tools based on OpenAI’s latest language model (ChatGPT-4o and Microsoft Copilot using Bing and the Edge browser sidebar) and a search engine that uses AI to provide answers to questions in a conversational format (Perplexity.ai).

Liz du Plessis shares practical AI assignments she created for her online history class for Mizzou students. These assignments offer students opportunities to use AI to improve their writing skills, prepare questions for oral history interviews, and simulate practice interviews.

Additional resources

  • Preview Liz’s assignments on this public Canvas site. The module is also available to instructors in Canvas Commons.
  • Read about generative AI on the Missouri Online website.

Author

Liz DuPlessis

Liz du Plessis, M.Ed., Ph.D.

Manager of Instructional Design

Dr. Liz du Plessis is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism (1999) and Indiana University's U.S. history doctoral program (2009). She discovered her love for distance education while teaching correspondence and online courses for Indiana University. She earned a master of education in information science and learning technologies from Mizzou in 2011. Since then, she has been an instructional designer for the California Community Colleges system, MU Health Care and Missouri Online. She now serves as an instructional design manager for Missouri Online and has taught as an adjunct online instructor for the MU Department of History.