The Case for LLMWorkshops: The Responsible Use of Large Language Models by Faculty at Small Liberal Arts Universities

Large Language Models (LLMs) are radically changing the academic landscape. Many professors are unaware of how LLMs work and are therefore unsure how to incorporate them in their teaching. This is problematic as students will use them anyway. In this paper, we outline our institution as a case study for a curricular initiative. We develop an intellectual framework for creating workshops for faculty at small liberal arts universities. We base their development on the literature we have analyzed and discussed as a group. Our approach is to address our colleagues across a variety of different disciplines and teach them the responsible use of LLMs in the classroom. We also teach our colleagues how to modify assignments to make them, to some extent, LLM proof. This includes adding personalized elements, and including LLM designed parts explicitly, such as article summaries. We also design a syllabus policy about the responsible use of LLMs. We present philosophical and ethical challenges and teach a list of other actionable items. We ultimately support the use of LLMs in academia but seek to teach our colleagues how they can guide students to use them mindfully and responsibly.