Recently, the CLT hosted an engaging session exploring Generative AI (GenAI) as a Teaching Assistant, sparking conversations on the transformative potential of AI in education. Academic staff are continually challenged to balance teaching, research, and administrative responsibilities, and AI offers a unique opportunity to alleviate some of these pressures whilst enhancing the learning experience.
One theme that we touched upon was the growing integration of GenAI within existing learning environments and workspaces. We talked about how in the future, AI systems may be embedded in virtual learning environments, responding to student queries, generating formative quizzes, or summarising complex lecture content into digestible notes.
A particularly interesting concept we discussed was the "AI double"— a personalised, always-available assistant. It was imagined that it could increase capacity by handling repetitive tasks and could GenAI also extend capability by enhancing and creating personalised learning resources and experiences for students.
Though the potential was generally considered exciting, we talked about protecting the human element of teaching. We talked about education being a personal experience, relying on empathy, intuition, and the unique ability of educators to inspire and mentor students. While AI can assist, we thought it cannot replace the relationships, adaptability, and creativity that define great teaching. We concluded that balancing AI integration whilst preserving the human qualities is important to ensure technology enriches rather than erodes the heart of education.
What next?
One attendee mentioned: “The collaborative space you are creating is invaluable for discussing and broadening our understanding of the evolving role AI might provide in education.”
We felt there was appetite amongst attendees to explore this topic further, and in particular, how GenAI might assist us in making our learning spaces accessible and inclusive by picking up some of the administrative burden.
We will be planning further sessions for the New Year, so please keep an eye out for future events and participate in this space!
Our own Virtual Assistant
In the CLT we're experimenting with a GenAI Chat bot we've labelled the Virtual Assistant. This sits in the bottom left of pages on the Learning and Teaching Hub and is trained to respond to questions on the content of our support website. Please try it out and we would love to get your feedback. As is currently typical of these bots, it's not perfect!
Blog post by: Daniel Barker, Curriculum and Academic Development Lead (Learning Design and Enhancement) CLT
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