Spotlight
Good morning all,
We are soon approaching the end of our Winter 2024 series of AI Roundtables. After the one taking place next Tuesday (make sure to register here if you haven’t already), we only have one last session planned, in May. For that last session, we hoped to be able to talk about the important topic of GenAI and decolonization – in other words, how can we make sure that the growing use of GenAI tools don’t hinder institution’s efforts to make their teaching and operations more inclusive. If you know any expert on that field, please share their name and contact information with us by responding to this email (or by reaching out to us here).
Thank you for your help, and wishing you all a great week-end!
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Next Roundtable Meeting
Date: Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024
Time: 12h00-1h00PM ET
Join us Tuesday, April 23rd, from 12:00PM to 1:00PM ET, for our next AI Roundtable, which will focus on Pedagogy and Curriculum. In this “community poster” session, we will have the pleasure to welcome guest speakers from different institutions that have been using AI in innovative ways to support them in teaching and learning. They will share, in short presentations, their practical use of the AI tools. The audience will be able to ask questions after each presentation. We will conclude the session with an open discussion. We will have the pleasure of welcoming the following guests: Dr. Erin Aspenlieder, Special Advisor to the Provost on Generative AI and Ben Lee Taylor, Program Coordinator, Academic Skills and Writing at McMaster University to talk about Partnering with AI in Assessment; Warren Apel, Director of Technology at The American School in Japan, to talk about Transforming Feedback in the Classroom; and Lucas Wright, Senior Educational Consultant at the Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology at the University of British Columbia, to talk about Critical GenAI Literacy and Digital Skills Development for Faculty, Students, and Staff. This session will be facilitated by Cheryl Kinzel, Dean of Technology and Innovation at Bow Valley College, and Grant Potter, Acting Director at the University of Northern British Columbia’s Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology. Register now (it’s free!) to save your spot!
If you missed last month’s AI Roundtable on Governance and Policy, you can watch the recording here.
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News & Research
Coffey, L. Inside Higher Ed. April 18th, 2024
Faculty unions are increasingly starting to bring up concerns about artificial intelligence into contract negotiations, notably to address issues such as faculty autonomy and job security, ethical concerns, and data protection. The National Education Association (NEA) is prepping language that should be finalized in July for members to be able to use as a framework for their own bargaining. “Multiple unions – including the NEA and the American Federation for Teachers – suggest the ‘gold standard’ of creating AI policies is getting specific language in labor agreements that are enforceable if a disagreement arises between faculty and administration”.
Helsby, C. University Affairs. April 17th, 2024
This year’s Global Student Wellbeing Survey conducted by Studiosity looked into understanding student expectations towards AI-based support. The main themes that emerged from the survey results are the following: 1) 54% of Canadian students expect their university to offer AI support tools, and students who have been traditionally underrepresented and under-supported are more likely to expect their university to offer AI support tools. 2) Students are motivated by stress, time, and money… and students who felt regularly stressed during their degree had the strongest expectations for AI support tools from their university. 3) 60% of Canadian students believe their university are not adapting quickly enough to include AI support tools.
Ross, J. Times Higher Education. April 19th, 2024
“If you think the only impact AI is going to have on your university is [around] academic integrity, then you’re really missing the picture”, said Danny Bielik, president of the Digital Education Council. Some institutions are still super-focused on GenAI’s use in cheating, and the potential of AI detection tools. But “this ‘whack-a-mole’ approach [is] unlikely to work, and [risk] blinding administrators to other applications”. The author of this article then proceeds to list a series of other applications of AI tools that should be considered by institutions.
Chen, J. Times Higher Education. April 18th, 2024
The author of this articles affirms that we find ourselves in a pivotal moment (as GenAI advances rapidly), which offers opportunity for an educational reform. To start the reflections, she asks three fundamental questions to the higher education sector: 1) What is learning?; 2) What is the value of formal institutional education?; and 3) How are higher education institutions addressing pressure points and roadblocks to stay relevant?
Warner. J. Inside Higher Ed. April 19th, 2024
In this article, the author talks about the despair and doubt that the emergence of ChatGPT and tools of the like have caused for a lot of instructors. “The feeling that you are putting great effort into delivering experiences that should be – and have been – meaningful to students, but which students are bypassing almost entirely by employing ChatGPT or their ilk, is simply awful”. Many instructors also feel like they are facing this challenge alone, with little to no support from their institution. The author conducted a little experiment, asking an instructor to assess how many students were doing truly excellent work both before and after ChatGPT, now that the instructor had adapted its assessment criteria to account for ChatGPT. To which the instructor said “The best work is better” – more original, more interesting, more clearly the byproduct of rigorous engagement… showing that it is possible to adapt successfully to this ChatGPT era.
Lederman, D. Inside Higher Ed. April 19th, 2024
The American Council on Education is leading efforts to establish a Global Data Consortium, “through which participating colleges, nonprofit groups and others around the world would contribute institution-level datasets on learners to create an enormous body of information. Researchers, institutional leaders and, potentially, companies could tap into the consortium to build AI products and develop their understanding of what works (and doesn’t) in the student journey.” The consortium also envisions providing technical supports to colleges and universities in need.
Zaphir, L. and Hansen, D. Times Higher Education. April 19th, 2024
In this article, the authors, both learning designers in the Institute of Teaching and Learning Innovation at the University of Queensland, caution instructors against integrating GenAI into teaching, learning and assessment, because GenAI tools rely a lot on Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives, which is criticized by many. “We need to recognize that the AI may create hierarchies (which are potentially inaccurate to boot) whenever prompted for suggestions or during brainstorming”.
More Information
Want more? Consult HESA’s Observatory on AI Policies in Canadian Post-Secondary Education.
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