Active Learning Lab

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Digital Escape Rooms

Welcome to Dr. Scherer's World - Bb Users - Escape Room - June 2026 

Dr. Rainwater's Digital Escape Rooms - Self-Enroll in the Blackboard Course

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Comparison of AI Tools and Strategies

NotebookLM

Your private, closed-loop AI partner for research and teaching. NotebookLM transforms your specific course materials, research PDFs, and lecture notes into an interactive knowledge base. Instantly generate tailored student study guides, synthesize complex literature, and draft lesson plans. Because it operates in a strict closed loop, the AI only uses the exact resources you feed it—ensuring your intellectual property and data remain completely private and never leave your secure environment.

Microsoft Copilot

Ready to use AI safely at UH? Look no further than Microsoft Copilot. By simply signing in with your UH credentials, you activate a secure protective barrier that keeps your prompts, research, and materials completely private. Unlike public AI tools, your information won't be used to train future models or leaked to the outside world. Most importantly, this secure environment makes Copilot the only AI platform where it is safe and approved to work with student information. Log in today and work with confidence! 

 Claude 

Your advanced partner for complex writing, analysis, and deep thinking. Claude excels at processing massive amounts of text, making it an exceptional tool for analyzing long research papers, drafting nuanced course communications, or brainstorming curriculum ideas. Important Privacy Note: Because Claude operates outside of our primary institutional single-sign-on (SSO) firewall, it cannot be used with any student data or confidential university information. Use Claude as your creative sounding board and deep-text analyst for public, professional, or general academic materials.

Gemini

Meet Google Gemini: Your multi-talented creative partner. Whether you need help structuring a complex syllabus, translating academic text, or breaking down data, Gemini provides a smooth, highly conversational experience. Even better, if you are utilizing a Gemini Pro tier, you automatically supercharge your work in NotebookLM at no additional cost. Your Pro status unlocks premium limits in NotebookLM for free—allowing you to manage up to 300 sources per notebook and run dozens of advanced Deep Research reports, Audio Overviews, and student guides every single day. Just remember the golden rule of data hygiene: since Gemini isn't under our secure campus firewall, keep student info entirely off the platform!  

ChatGPT

Meet ChatGPT: Your go-to engine for data, logic, and rapid brainstorming. If you need a tool that can instantly write an Excel formula, critique the logic of a complex argument, or help you generate a massive list of creative classroom activities, ChatGPT is a phenomenal resource. Just remember to maintain standard data safety protocols: because standard ChatGPT isn't integrated behind our secure university firewall like Copilot is, it cannot be used to manage or evaluate student information. Enjoy using its powerful deep-analysis tools for your general course development and academic writing—just keep campus-restricted data entirely out of the prompt box! 

Perplexity

An AI-powered search engine that prioritizes factual accountability and information literacy. Unlike general chatbots that output text entirely from memory, Perplexity scans the live web and academic databases to answer questions, immediately anchoring every claim with explicit inline citations. It serves as an exceptional teaching aid for information literacy because students can click straight through to the original source to evaluate its credibility. Because this is a public search platform operating outside our secure single-sign-on network, do not input non-public student data or proprietary institutional research. 

Elicit / Consensus 

Specialized research assistants built explicitly for systematic evidence synthesis and data extraction. These platforms search across massive databases of over 135 million peer-reviewed papers to instantly compile dynamic comparison tables, extract specific methodologies, and visually display where the overall scientific literature leans on a given hypothesis. They drastically shorten the screening phase of a research project by allowing faculty to compare findings across multiple studies side-by-side rather than wading through non-academic web noise. While you can upload your own PDFs to analyze privately, the general search pulls from public open-access and scholarly indexes, meaning standard privacy rules apply—keep student information entirely off the platforms. 

Eduaide.ai / Brisk Teaching 

Specialized AI assistants built by educators, for educators, to streamline prep work and curriculum alignment. Rather than acting as standard search engines, these platforms are dedicated solely to lesson planning, resource generation, and student engagement using established pedagogical frameworks like Bloom’s Taxonomy and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). They allow faculty to instantly adapt reading levels, build interactive slide decks, generate rubrics, and design formative assessment questions with a single click. While these systems are purpose-built to reduce administrative workloads, they are public-facing platforms; do not paste sensitive or identifiable student performance records, grades, or personal information into the prompt boxes. 

Share yours with us now! 

Share yours with us now! 

Share yours with us now! 

Share yours with us now!