Take a look below at Professor of Practice Jarvis Sam's assignment in his Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Organizations course within the IE Brown Executive MBA program. In this assignment, Jarvis Sam asks students to conduct a conversation with an AI Chatbot about a DEI topic to explore trends in the DEI professional space. After the conversation, students reflect on their discussion, evaluating the chatbot's analysis and identifying areas of agreement and disagreement.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Organizations

EMBA Program, Spring 2024

AI Assignment (20%): Using AI to Understand Macro Trends in the DEI Professional Space.

For this assignment, you will need to use an AI chatbot. Examples include ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Synthesia, and Microsoft CoPilot.  If you already subscribe to one, you can go ahead and use it.  If you don’t, there are several that you can use for free, including ChatGPT and Copilot. Make sure to state up front which bot you used and which version you used (if you know).

Part 1: Pick one topic from the following list (note: the actual assignment has a longer list of topics). 

• Representation Gaps: Ensuring diverse representation across all levels, especially in leadership and decision-making roles.

• Inclusion vs. Tokenism: Avoiding tokenistic approaches and ensuring that inclusion is meaningful and impactful.

• Bias in Hiring: Addressing unconscious bias in recruitment, promotion, and retention practices.

• Cultural Competence: Building cultural competence among employees to foster an inclusive environment.

• Resistance to Change: Overcoming resistance from employees who may see DEI initiatives as unnecessary or a threat to their own status.

• Equity in Career Advancement: Ensuring that all employees have equal access to career advancement opportunities.

• Mental Health: Recognizing and supporting mental health as a critical component of employee well-being and inclusion.

Part 2: Have a 5-10 minute conversation with the AI about the topic you chose. When you are done, write a 300-word summary explaining why you asked the questions you did, what the AI answered, and what the experience was like for you. Also copy and paste your entire conversation and include it with your submission.

Part 3: In 750 words, reflect more deeply on your interaction with the AI. What do you think its answers mean for how companies will engage with DEI in the coming years? Did you find its statements useful? Did you agree with its analysis? Explain why or why not. More broadly, what potential do you think AI tools hold for advancing the work of DEI in organizations or helping us understand this space better?

The AI Pedagogy Project at metaLAB at Harvard collects assignments from across disciplines that integrate AI tools for specific educational uses, and Northeastern curates a gallery of their professors' AI-integrated assignments. To get a sense of what's possible and how instructors are integrating AI into their coursework, go to the collections and browse the examples. Focus in one one that stood out to you or is relevant to your discipline. Why was AI use useful in this context? Are there any parallels or similar reasons it might be useful in your course?