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The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), will introduce a comparative literature course in 2025 that uses a textbook and assignments generated by an AI platform. Taught by Professor Zrinka Stahuljak, the course materials were created using an artificial intelligence model named Kudu and cover literature from the Middle Ages to the 17th century.
Kudu is an AI textbook platform created by fellow UCLA physics and astronomy Professor Alexander Kusenko. It has previously been used to create other courses at UCLA, primarily in the sciences. However, this comparative literature class will be the first time that Kudu is used in a humanities course at UCLA.
Building the Course with AI
In order to create the course materials using artificial intelligence, Professor Stahuljak provided it with a variety of resources. These included notes from previous courses as well as YouTube videos and PowerPoint presentations that Professor Stahuljak created while teaching remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elizabeth Landers, a UCLA doctoral candidate in history, managed the development of the AI course materials in Kudu. Once the course materials were ready, Professor Stahuljak then reviewed them for accuracy. Landers told the UCLA newsroom that the digital-first format means that the textbook can be updated frequently, even in the middle of the course if need be.
The textbook will be made available as an eBook and can also be printed or used with audio readers for additional accessibility. There will also be a chatbot available that students can ask questions, but the chatbot will only be able to give answers based on the data uploaded by Professor Stahuljak. The system will also flag any submitted work if more than half of it appears to have been created by generative AI. This reduces the risk of a student using ChatGPT or another AI platform to generate their assignments.
Saving time with AI textbooks
Professors who want to create a course in Kudu’s AI platform typically spend a maximum of 20 hours on development, including reviewing and editing. The rest of the process is handled by members of the Kudu team, and the entire development takes three to four months from start to finish. Using Kudu saves professors a significant amount of time and effort, which is one of the reasons why Professor Stahuljak plans to use the AI tool again.
“It allows us to spend more time teaching basic analytical skills, critical thinking and reading skills, in a consistent manner—the things professors are best at doing,” she said. “Those are hard things to do when you have 300 students in a classroom, but this allows us to do them much better.”