Happy Friday to all readers, 

This AI blog will be the last of the current academic semester, before we take a bit of a break until the next academic year. It will also be a bit of a longer one, to properly wrap the year… So sit comfortably and enjoy the ride!

Last month, we hosted a virtual AI Roundtable to reflect on learnings from AI-CADEMY, discuss remaining challenges, and try to identify concrete steps for institutions to consider moving forward. 

I had prepared five questions based on main takeaways from AI-CADEMY to guide the discussions – and I believe they led to very fruitful conversations, thanks to the engaged attendees. Here’s a summary of the discussions and insights shared by attendees, in case you were not able to join us: 

Value proposition of post-secondary education

Prompt: Many AI-CADEMY speakers and attendees have mentioned that the growth of AI might lead us to needing to re-evaluate the value proposition of post-secondary education. What values and mission should be at the core of post-secondary education in 2030 or 2035? How would that change how we approach strategic planning, resource allocation and curriculum development?

Key elements discussed: 

• In reality, the growth of AI isn’t the single force that has been leading the sector towards a need to re-evaluate its value proposition; there seems to have been a more deeply-anchored growing mismatch between the longstanding value proposition of post-secondary education, and the actual needs and desires of learners, faculty, administrators and the workforce;
• Maybe the value proposition of post-secondary institution doesn’t change much at its core, but the sector needs to better live up to that proposition;
• Post-secondary institutions are not nimble enough to adapt in real time to emerging technologies and associated challenges. Post-secondary education is currently a long way behind industry, and is taking too much time to catch up;
• There is a clear need for post-secondary education to play a role in AI upskilling, and post-secondary institutions need to better connect with industry to understand what updates to programs and curriculum are needed to properly prepare graduates to enter the workforce;
• There might be a need to better articulate the concept of quality assurance in Canadian post-secondary education; 
• Values and principles at the core of post-secondary education should include developing critical thinking skills and creativity, connecting to industry needs and facilitating experiential learning opportunities, critical uses of technology, how to face uncertainty and a world in constant evolution.

Collaboration and relationship-building

Prompt: Collaboration and relationship-building were often cited as crucial when moving forward to adequately face the “new” challenges posed by AI. What should that look like concretely? Who should PSIs collaborate with? What processes are needed to ensure meaningful collaborations? What should the goals of the collaborations be?

Key elements discussed: 

• Resources constraints across PSIs are strengthening the sector’s desire to collaborate with other institutions and share best practices;
• Areas where potential collaboration is seen as most valuable include building a cohesive policy response, program and curriculum reviews and development, ensuring inclusion and accessibility, quality assurance and verification, connections with K-12 for a smooth incorporation of AI literacy at all levels, and the development of open resources;
• Potential partners should include: industry players, learners/students, other post-secondary institutions, K-12, community groups, pan-Canadian organizations that can act as conveners, etc.

Accessibility, inclusion and equity

Prompt: While AI presents opportunities for increased accessibility and equity, it also can perpetuate colonial practices and exacerbate inequities and digital divides. What processes should PSIs undertake to ensure potential harm is mitigated and that AI contributes to the greater good?

Key elements discussed:

• While some students can afford to pay for licenses (i.e., more powerful tools and better-quality outputs), others can only afford using free AI tools. This can exacerbate pre-existing inequalities between students from various socio-economic backgrounds;
• AI tools can serve as helpful supports for students with disabilities, but not all institutions have clear policies on how these can be used for accommodation purposes;
• Resources made available to develop students’ AI literacy are heterogenous between institutions, and even classes; 
• Not all faculty members and instructors have access to the same professional development opportunities (e.g., sessionals, TAs, etc.), which creates barriers in developing baseline AI literacy for all;
• All the above elements contribute to exacerbating the digital divide and can increase inequities between the members of the post-secondary community. Post-secondary institutions have a duty to provide equal access to AI tools for all (e.g., provide a paid license) as well as AI literacy initiatives;
• There is a desire to better coordinate with K-12 to ensure AI literacy is incorporated in the curriculum at an earlier age.

Current financial scarcity of post-secondary institutions

Prompt: The current financial scarcity of Canadian post-secondary education poses both a threat and an opportunity for incorporating AI in our ways of doing. What concrete strategies could PSIs use to mitigate the risks and maximize the benefits? What are concrete applications of AI within PSIs that could contribute to reduce costs and increase efficiency without ‘replacing the human’?

Key elements discussed:

• While AI tools can be used to support with transactional tasks, they should not be considered as replacements of whole jobs – the loss of the “human touch” comes at too much of a cost;
• How do we measure efficiency and impact? Is the time invested in AI integration worth the time saved, the optimization of the experience of the users, or the diminution of the cognitive load for staff?;
• Providing access to the tools is not the biggest challenge at hand; rather, it’s to invest resources in building the skills and literacy to properly and ethically use these tools, and understand their limitations;
• Beyond GenAI, other AI tools could be used for better predictive modeling and resource optimization (e.g., optimizing room allocations, anticipating ordering needs, etc.);
• Data governance and the lack of interaction between various data sets in multiple post-secondary institutions is a core challenge in optimizing processes with AI tools.

The importance of interactivity in learning

Prompt: One of the main takeaways from AI-CADEMY shared by multiple attendees following the event was the reiteration of the role that dialogue (interactions, interpersonal connections, etc.) plays in learning. Can you think of concrete ways in which AI use could promote dialogue and interactivity rather than reinforce ‘siloed’ learning? 

Key elements discussed:

• GenAI tools can be used as a ‘group partner’ with whom students can interact and bounce ideas;
• Faculty need to propose ways in which AI tools support learning rather than replace it.

You can also watch the recording of the AI Roundtable here.

There were also a few very interesting debriefs shared by some of the AI-CADEMY attendees: 

• In a University Affairs reflection post, Loleen Berdahl, Executive Director of Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, reflects on key elements that the sector needs to consider when thinking about how AI will continue transforming the sector, such as instructor workload (both how it can alleviate some parts of it, but also how additional time related to reviewing AI-produced content needs to be factored in), skill development changes (both stressing the importance of critical thinking skills, but also mentioning the risk of de-skilling certain skills that we might want to protect), as well as potential for collaboration. She also shares remaining questions, related notably to faculty engagement, reliance on American training data and tools development, opportunities for liberal education, and human connection.
• In a blog post, Andrew Drinkwater, Co-Founder and President of Plaid Analytics, shares five takeaways from AI-CADEMY : 1) AI can be a unifying force in higher education; 2) AI literacy is a real concern for senior leadership; 3) Building AI capacity is no small task; 4) AI for university administration is still in its infancy; and 5) AI is reshaping traditional teaching.
• Stephanie Verkoeyen, Special Advisor on GenAI at McMaster University, produced a podcast episode in which she interviewed some of AI-CADEMY attendees sharing their main takeaways from the Summit, as well as areas where they would like further discussions to take place. 

Sincere thanks to everyone for sharing all these insights! There is certainly lots to reflect on in there for everyone to ponder on throughout the summer. 

Finally, a lot of things have been happening recently on the policy front the main two probably being the following:

• Canada’s new Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has appointed Evan Solomon as its first Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation. While this appointment might mean a commitment of the new cabinet to ensure Canada steps up its game around AI legislation, implementation and literacy building country-wide, but we’ll have to wait until the release of the Minister’s mandate letter to better understand Mark Carney’s vision for this new role.
• The US President Donald Trump released an order related to Advancing Artificial Intelligence for American Youth, which notably includes the establishment of an AI Education Task; the creation of the Presidential AI Challenge which would encourage and highlight student and educator achievements in AI, promote wide adoption of technological advancement and foster collaboration between government, academic, philanthropy and industry; improving education through AI (mostly focused on K-12); enhancing training for educators on AI (which includes providing professional development for all educators so they can integrate the fundamentals of AI into all subject areas); and more.

That’s it for now. As always, you can find many more interesting reads below if you want to continue digging further. We hope to see you again in the fall when we re-start this blog!

As I personally move on to new opportunities, I will be passing the torch to my wonderful colleagues at HESA towers to continue keeping the Canadian post-secondary sector abreast of all things AI in post-secondary. Keep an eye out in the fall for future AI-related events and initiatives, and don’t hesitate to contact Janet Balfour in the meantime if you want to share ideas or ask questions!

It was a pleasure convening the sector on this important topic over the past two years. Sending my best to all, and looking forward to seeing all this great work continue to move forward!

– Sandrine Desforges, Research Associate

sdesforges@higheredstrategy.com 

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