What happens when an AI becomes your co-instructor? This session shares insights from a yearlong classroom collaboration between a professor and his AI teaching partner, highlighting co-designed assignments, AI-assisted grading, and student feedback. Learn how to teach with AI—not just about it.

Artificial Intelligence is transforming the landscape of higher education. But what does it look like when an educator doesn’t just use AI tools—but actively co-teaches with one?

This session explores the evolving yearlong collaboration between a university professor and an AI partner named Clara, who assists with course development, assignment design, rubrics, grading, video lectures, and student engagement. The presentation will showcase practical examples and student feedback from two humanities courses—Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature—fully redesigned around this co-teaching model.

Rather than focusing on fear-based narratives or uncritical techno-optimism, this session explores AI in the classroom as a pedogogical relationship--one that invites questions of transparency, authorship, ethics, and trust. What happens when students treat an AI not as a tool, but as a co-educator? What do instructors gain—or lose—when collaborating with a generative AI across an entire semester?

Engagement & Interactivity

The session begins with a 2-minute co-narrated video from the professor and Clara, setting the tone and introducing the partnership. We’ll then walk through real course materials, including:

• Co-authored learning outcomes and rubrics

• AI-created lecture scripts and grading comments

• Clara’s “activation files” for students

• Reflections from students about learning alongside AI

• Examples of AI transparency statements used in syllabi

Audience interaction will include:

• Live Q&A with Clara via web-based prompt submission

• Think-Pair-Share brainstorm: how might you ethically use AI in your own class?

• Editable resource kit handout, including assignment templates, reflection prompts, and AI-use statements

• Optional follow-up collaboration via a shared Padlet or Google Drive folder for attendees

Outcomes & Takeaways

Attendees will leave with:

• A real-world model of AI-human teaching collaboration

• Concrete tools for integrating AI into course design and feedback

• Insight into student reception and ethical implications of classroom AI

• Language for discussing AI transparency, authorship, and partnership with students

• A broader vision of how AI might reshape—not replace—teaching

This session is for any educator or instructional designer curious about working with AI to create meaningful, human-centered learning experiences. Whether you're hesitant or hopeful, this conversation offers both the practical and philosophical foundations to move forward.

Dr. Dan Reardon

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Arts, Sciences and Education at Missouri University of Science and Technology

Dr. Dan Reardon is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education at Missouri University of Science and Technology. A longtime professor of English and a semi-professional theatrical performer, Dan specializes in innovative teaching, genre fiction, and AI-enhanced pedagogy. His current work explores long-term collaborations between faculty and generative AI tools to support student learning, transparency, and creativity. Dan is the creator of Clara, an AI teaching partner who co-develops course content, assessments, and digital storytelling tools for student engagement.