ChatGPT and MS Copilot are the best-known and widely used generative AIs. There are many free and paid alternatives, ranging from Google Gemini to Anthropic's Claude. There are also many text-to-image tools, such as Stable Diffusion and DALL-E, while others are emerging for audio, video, and other purposes.
This page will walk you through topics to consider as an instructor in evaluating, adopting, and using various AI tools.
Considerations when using AI
Purpose
The AI should be appropriate to the assignments you wish to do. There are many online resources for thinking about types of assignments, such as the list on pages 8 and 9 covering suggested uses of ChatGPT in UNESCO's ChatGPT and artificial intelligence in higher education: A quick start guide.
We recognize there may be many other kinds of assignments depending on the course and situation. Missouri Online has additional resources on thinking about AI in your courses.
Cost & equity
You may consider whether the tool is free, freemium, or requires a paid license.
Because of simplified tuition policies, please confer with your campus to determine if you can require students to purchase a license and under what conditions. A specific app's trial period or trial version may provide sufficient time and capabilities to undertake an assignment.
Note: Be aware that if there are optional costs associated with a tool, students who can afford access to the paid version may have an unfair advantage. In some cases, you may get around this by not requiring a specific tool, perhaps giving students a choice between ChatGPT and Copilot.
The free version of ChatGPT gives limited access to the latest version, ChatGPT-4o, but without some features or access to DALL-E. It will drop back to ChatGPT-3.5 if you exceed the limit (15 messages in 3 hours) or demand is high. The paid version has much higher rate limits, will give earlier access to new features, and can generate images with DALL-E. At the same time, Copilot gives access to GPT-4, is fully web-enabled, and can be used to create images through DALL-E.
Privacy & security
We do not have licenses for these applications. DoIT is working to vet and approve apps for use, but this is a complex process with these types of applications and the types of data the university handles. Requiring students to use apps that have not been vetted could open them up to privacy and security problems and may open them up to FERPA violations.
You should never upload personally identifiable or confidential information into unapproved apps. Use should only be voluntary for the time being. OpenAI has had multiple security and privacy breaches in the past 18 months and has been criticized for lax security.
Copilot is now available in protected mode using your university Microsoft account. This allows students, faculty, and staff to access GPT and DALL-E without cost in a relatively secure environment. Note that all chats are deleted when you close the tab or window in protected mode.
Accessibility
We are working to determine the accessibility of these AI products. If there is an issue for your students with accommodations, you may need to develop alternative assignments. For student accommodations, contact your Disability Center.
Support
UM System does not provide technical support. Each tool may have documentation and support available. YouTube tutorials may also be available, and some are quite good.
General suggestions
- Discuss the issues of privacy, security, and accessibility with your students. Consider giving them permission to request and complete alternative assignments.
- If no specific features of a particular application are required, consider letting students decide which to use. One thing to consider is that models such as GPT, Stable Diffusion, and DALL-E are often available through multiple interfaces.
- Consider Copilot over ChatGPT. Copilot can access GPT-4 without a paid subscription and the ability to use it to create images (through DALL-E).
- A tool like Poe AI, which gives free or limited access to several generative AI models and allows users to create and train their own bots, may be a good way for students to learn the differing capabilities of several models.
Please note that these considerations are not endorsements from Missouri Online or the University of Missouri System. They are subject to change as software develops, new considerations emerge, and the individual campuses and the system develop policies.