How might students be using AI to support their learning?
Generative Artificial Intelligence (genAI) is a type of AI that creates new outputs from existing data on the internet using pattern recognition. It generates text, data, code, images, graphs and data visualisations, videos, podcasts and other artefacts at speed in response to prompts. Teachers in higher education are both excited and cautious about the implications for student learning. Used well, it could support students with aspects of their learning, introduce more excitement, and speed up the pace of certain types of work; used poorly, it could homogenise and take away students’ confidence, agency, and the development of their authorial voice and expertise. It could deskill students by offering shortcuts. It is therefore important for us to ensure that we prepare to students to harness the benefits and see the downsides of using generative AI to support their learning. Using generative AI is contentious, with some being more in favour of its use than others. A good starting point for considering how it can impact education is to review the Study Skills tutorial that has been developed for our students. This explains in more detail what generative AI is, how students can use it in a positive way, but also outlines the limits we are setting to ensure that it does not by-pass the learning outcomes of an assessment, for example.
Here are some typical examples of how students use AI, some of which you may want to encourage, and others you may want to discourage depending on the nature of the tasks they are undertaking:
- Generating informal podcasts based on challenging curriculum content in order to engage in the content in more accessible ways
- Summarising academic papers
- Rewording challenging concepts into accessible language
- Generating feedback on drafts of essays, sometimes with reference to rubrics
- Generating question prompts based on content so that students can test their knowledge
- Creating study plan schedules to maximise efficiency
Please talk to your students about the skills and knowledge that they should be building through your units and programme, and the ways in which these uses of AI may help or hinder them from achieving that. It is important that students are clear about when they can and cannot use generative AI in their learning and assessment.