Abstract
The advent and free availability of artificial intelligence large language models (AI LLMs) in late 2022 created significant challenges for those teaching university degree-level courses and opportunities. The challenges are around the rules and processes for using these tools, how we might use them effectively to engage students and enhance their learning, and how we might regulate the tools against inappropriate use. The opportunities are many: to embrace technology in a safe environment; to equip students with the knowledge and skills they need to effectively use these technologies, ensuring that they carry sufficient experience and expertise into the workforce; and to augment and evolve teaching methods and pedagogy. We chose to embrace and incorporate LLMs into the teaching of a final-year undergraduate course in business ethics, and what better place to do so, given the focus on building an understanding of ethics in theory, practice, and work. We did this, despite LLMs only being recently introduced at the time with many unknowns. What we did know was that the LLMs were already the subject of considerable debate around ethical and responsible use and, of course, continue to be so. Business students, it was concluded, needed direct exposure to the tools and to engage in questions around appropriate use, especially as they would undoubtedly use the tools in the workplace. Indeed, many businesses now encourage employees to use LLMs.
This chapter describes how students in the business ethics course were set up to use LLMs directly in the learning process. In July 2023, when the course commenced, it was a completely new territory as the technology was not available previously. Therefore, the students and the instructors went on a learning journey together. One goal of this was co-creation of knowledge, particularly around responsible LLM use, through a process of discovery. Another goal was to facilitate learning experience that might not have otherwise occurred. The chapter outlines how the students were allocated to groups, working on topics related to business ethics in practice, and how they used LLMs to assist them. The chapter discusses the class design as well as the assessment process. It then reflects on the learning process and outcomes, including the ethics of LLM use, the limits of use, and how student learning was assessed. The chapter asserts that using LLMs supported deep learning in a way that may not have been possible or would have had to have been constructed entirely differently without LLM use.