Guided Use of AI for Experiential Learning: Advertising History Through Collaborative Media Production

This paper presents a teaching case examining the guided use of artificial intelligence (AI) within an experiential, instructor-led undergraduate advertising history course. Drawing on a balanced Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) approach, it explores how AI was integrated as a collaborative assistant rather than a generative authority, supporting student learning while maintaining clear boundaries around authorship, evaluation, and creative ownership. The case centers on a semester-long, project-based media production in which students collaboratively produced a short film tracing the history of Canadian advertising across multiple eras. AI was employed in two primary ways: to support the structured development of production role descriptions that enabled equitable team formation, and to assist with iterative dialogue development after students had completed independent historical research and narrative planning. All AI use occurred in instructor-led, in-person workshop sessions. The paper argues that when framed as an apprentice-like tool within a shared physical learning environment, AI can enhance clarity, collaboration, and reflective practice without undermining student agency or disciplinary rigor. The case contributes to ongoing discussions on responsible AI integration in higher education by foregrounding pedagogy, instructional control, and experiential learning over automation.