The PIER Framework for AI: How Educational Technologists and Developers Can Support Faculty in Assignment and Course Design

Perhaps the most common lament about generative AI revolves around how quickly technology is changing.There is an almost constant stream of updates, new tools, new functionalities, new misconceptions, new rumors or even new fears about AI.It is hard to keep up and it is no wonder that students, faculty, and institutions often struggle to articulate their positions or policies for AI usage.This paper provides a framework to help address these concerns and facilitate discussions about ethical AI usage.Whether you are an instructional designer or an educational developer, it is incumbent on us to ask questions about the functionality, impact, and pervasiveness of AI in our environment.But none of us can act as an island in this AI world!We need each other to crowdsource new developments and resources, think about how they affect higher education, and work together to create resilient educational assignments, curricula, and policy.In this context, we think of the concept of AI "resilience" not as teaching students and instructors to use a particular technology or tool but rather asking them to focus on developing an ethical framework or set of competencies that enable us to use, not use, or selectively use an array of tools based on their understanding of the task and our learning goals for the course (Beethan, 2024).The PIER framework (Logan & Tapp, 2024) was adapted from the work of Hanlon (2023) to provide students and faculty with an ethical decision-making guide for AI use.The PIER framework is a strategy that builds a foundation of AI literacy and critical thinking with students and faculty to help them make informed choices.