Spotlight
Good afternoon all,
The highlight of today’s newsletter – we share a research paper that proposes an Artificial Intelligence Assessment Scale to integrate GenAI in educational assessment. You’ll also learn about the new version of ChatGPT – GPT-4o. Read below!
Next Roundtable Meeting
Date: Tuesday, May 28th, 2024
Time: 12h00-1h00PM ET
Join us Tuesday, May 28th, from 12:00PM to 1:00PM ET, for our next AI Roundtable, which will focus on Decolonization. In this session, we will have the pleasure to hear from different guest speakers: Dr. Gurnam Singh, Hon Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, will talk about his book chapter “Can AI Be Anti-Racist?” from Chris Rowell’s book “AI Conversations: Critical discussions about AI, art, and education”; Dr. Oscar Mwaanga, Programme Director of the PGCE Certificate in International Sport Management and Fellow at the Centre for Online and Distance Education at the University of London, will talk about Decolonizing curriculum; and Dr. Eric Atwell, Professor of Artificial Intelligence for Language at Leeds University and LITE Fellow, will talk about AI for Decolonizing reading lists. The audience will be able to ask questions following each 10-min presentation, and the session will conclude with an open discussion. This session will be facilitated by Sandrine Desforges, Research Associate at Higher Education Strategy Associates and lead of HESA’s AI Observatory. Register now (it’s free!) to save your spot!
If you missed last month’s AI Roundtable on Pedagogy and Curriculum, you can watch the recording here.
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News & Research
Coffey, L. Inside Higher Ed. May 17th, 2024
The release of ChatGPT’s newest version, GPT-4o, includes a more realistic voice and quicker verbal response time. It also allows users to interrupt it while it speaks, it simulates more emotions with its voice and translates languages in real time. It can also understand instructions in text and images and has improved voice capabilities. The best part – it should be made available for free to all users, which has great implications for equity of access. These new and improved functionalities of GPT-4o makes it a great personalized tutor, and could also be used for role playing, for example for mock interviews. “When you have a book and don’t understand a passage, you have to ask someone. With this, if you don’t understand a subsection, [GPT] can answer you”, says Gašper Beguš, director of the speech and computation lab at the University of California, Berkeley. GPT-40 could help supplement questions otherwise asked during office hours, or that students don’t feel comfortable asking in class.
Perkins, M. Furze, L., Roe, J. and MacVaugh, J. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice. April 30th, 2024
“This study presents an ‘AI Assessment Scale’ that provides clear directions and expectations to students regarding their engagement with GenAI tools for assessed submissions. It is designed to help educators consider how their assessments might need to be adjusted considering the prevalence of GenAI tools, clarify how and where GenAI tools might be used in their work, and support students in completing assessments in line with the principles of academic integrity.”
Pavan, A. University World News. May 11th, 2024
At the end of 2023, Saudi Arabia’s National eLearning Center published its National Framework for Artificial Intelligence in Digital Learning. “This robust framework not only positions Saudi Arabia as a leader in the development of AI-powered education solutions for both the local and the international learning community, but also addresses concerns over ethical and responsible use of AI”. “Universities are expected to play a critical role in supporting the AI strategy – well beyond promoting AI literacy in curricula”. In addition, the Saudi government plans to create a tech fund of US$40 billion to invest in AI.
Parrilla, J. M. University World News. May 11th, 2024
Here, the author argues that a double standard exists regarding using external help for grant proposals. Where top universities have teams of grant writers, and many researchers have been relying on external companies to ghost write proposals for them or have been delegating this work to their post-docs, using GenAI to help write a grant proposal does not appear to be seen under the same light. “Funding agencies require researchers to state when they use AI to help write a proposal – why have they never had a problem with other people writing grants for principal investigators?” “Application forms for funding opportunities are usually extremely long, asking for many different types of documents. In many cases, they are so long that unless you have a team to help you, it is almost impossible to complete them in the required timeframe. Tools like ChatGPT are extremely helpful because they can be that ‘team’, accelerate the writing process, and therefore enable more researchers to apply for grants.”
Sheikh, D. Times Higher Education. May 12th, 2024
The author of this article, provost at Arden University, shares her tips on adopting AI in pedagogy. She says that when reinventing assessments, she would apply the following steps to ensure student learning will still be measured effectively: being industry-first, focusing on solving industry problems, and testing knowledge first then skills.
Lee, J. Times Higher Education. May 14th, 2024
In this article, the author makes the case that LLMs could be leveraged by educators to assess and improve students’ soft skills. “In their ongoing research project, researchers from Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities test the idea of integrating LLMs into assessment practices in a lifelong learning context as a feedback tool to empower both students and instructors”. “Integrating LLMs into educational practices can transform learning by providing personalized feedback on crucial skills such as leadership and critical thinking.”
Hallenbrook, C. R. Times Higher Education. May 17th, 2024
“Students using AI to write their essays is a problem, but it isn’t a crisis. We have the tools to tackle the issue”, says Christopher R. Hallenbrook, assistant professor of political science and chair of the general education committee at California State University. He argues that “AI is easy to spot” and that essay prompts can be re-designed to reduce the risks of student using GenAI. He also recommends to “ask ChatGPT first, [and] then set the essay topic”. “Running your prompt through ChatGPT before you assign it will both let you know if you’ve successfully created a question that the generative AI will struggle with and give you a feel for the tells in its approach that will let you know if a student tries to use it.”
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More Information
Want more? Consult HESA’s Observatory on AI Policies in Canadian Post-Secondary Education.
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