Pitt Faculty Integrate AI Tools to Streamline Grading and Course Design
Four professors and a graduate student describe how they use artificial intelligence for problem generation, writing feedback, and research, while noting distinct limits for creative work.
By Meera Fletcher ·
Pittsburgh’s academic community is increasingly adopting artificial intelligence to handle routine instructional tasks, according to four faculty members and one graduate student. These educators use the technology for grading, lesson planning, and source identification, though they maintain specific boundaries for its application in research and creative writing.
Anne Yust, a teaching associate professor of mathematics, uses AI to generate variations of calculus problems for exams. She noted that traditional computational tools often produced messy numbers when altering problems, but current AI models rarely make errors. Yust also trained the tool to provide individual feedback to her approximately 150 calculus students, a task she previously found difficult to manage manually.
Yust reported that her students view the AI-generated comments as useful and have attended office hours more frequently to discuss mistakes. She estimates that grading a single midterm currently requires 40 hours of work, a time commitment she hopes to reduce in order to spend more face time with students. The primary drawback she identified is the lack of one-on-one appointments with every student in the large class.
Maggie Jones, a teaching professor of English and contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, uses AI for high-level brainstorming and locating primary source material. She cautioned that sources generated by the technology are not always reliable. Jones stated that she avoids using AI for actual writing, describing the practice as horrifying for journalism and personal essays because the work must remain authentically hers.
Weifeng Xu, an assistant professor of neuroscience, generates lecture notes from her slides and reading materials. She fact-checks the AI output and explicitly tells students the notes are machine-written. Xu said the notes provide students with an additional handle to track content and that the tool keeps the science straight, though it takes her less time than writing the notes herself.
Ross Harrison, an adjunct associate professor of political science, uses AI sparingly for creating charts and graphics in his lecture slides. Outside of teaching, he uses the tool to help organize his research writing. Harrison described the experience as similar to having a colleague sit next to him, suggesting that AI could be more fully utilized by early-career faculty designing new courses.
Nick Canada, a graduate student in the English department, observed that faculty often use AI for organization, source finding, and skimming large PDFs. He noted that a stigma exists where users fear being perceived as lazy. Canada said the rapid development of the technology makes it difficult to determine the line between appropriate usage and overreliance, though he believes professors should use it to make their teaching ideas transfer better.
