AI Showcase: Career presentation assignment
Instructor
David Dwyer, Ph.D., RN, NE-BC, Clinical Professor, School of Nursing
Course
Nursing/Social Work 105 Health Care Systems
Assignment
We begin the course with a learning module on media literacy and health literacy, focusing on the credibility of sources, misinformation/disinformation, propaganda, the illusory truth effect, and the increasing importance of social media as a news source. The astounding growth and importance of AI fit directly into this subject and is important to intensify the ability of students to find, select, and use credible media in their daily lives. This assignment, near the mid-point of the course, reinforces the earlier work and adds components that students will need in the future.
This assignment combines a number of basic skills (presentation, citation documentation, use of search engines, and media literacy/credibility assessment) that demonstrate the ability to search, find, and select credible information using AI tools in addition to more traditional methods. It then includes the comparison of AI and traditional findings as part of a 5-minute video presentation.
Realizing that I wanted to focus on the assignment mechanics while also enhancing the course content, I developed an assignment that looks at a fairly comfortable area that is helpful for students (health care careers). Students are divided into groups of 6-10 people, and each person identifies and selects their own career topic. Duplicate careers are not permitted, but otherwise career choices are not limited.
Students use AI tools and traditional sources to research the selected career. A rubric listing required information is supplied. Three unique sources are required, along with an interview (or viewing an interview clip) of someone working in the chosen field.
Once research is completed, students create a 5-minute presentation for members of their discussion group. Students learn about a number of careers while also gaining the experience of creating a presentation and introducing AI as a source and not an all-knowing immediate solution.
Note: The topic could be easily changed and the process updated for more complex topics and/or for face-to-face presentations.
Results
I’ve used this assignment for three semesters with success. It is a pretty non-threatening assignment that reaches a variety of learning objectives, and it rewards students (by being 10 percent of the final course grade) for learning. In some cases, students have not had prior experience creating a “professional presentation” or using citations in a presentation, or using AI as a legitimate tool for researching a topic.