Artificial Intelligence Communities of Practice

Posted on Mar 29 2023 by Michelle Ratzmer
  • What does digital literacy for AI look like? 
  • What are the implications of AI for assessment design? 
  • What does ethical use of AI look like? 
  • How will AI change the way that people teach, learn and conduct research? 

The new Artificial Intelligence (AI) CoP tackled some of these challenging questions in our first meeting last week. Nobody has all the answers to these questions yet, and it feels like the technology is evolving almost daily. The last few weeks has seen announcements from Google, Microsoft and the launch of GPT4, which will once again change the conversation around the capabilities and affordances of AI tools. 

We asked GPT4 to summarise some rough notes from our collective discussion. It did a pretty good job, but I have edited the output below for clarity and coherence. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Learning  

AI has the potential to revolutionize the way people teach and learn. However, it's essential to continue prioritizing human connection and capabilities. AI may help us to enhance the student experience by creating multimodal, high quality and timely resources. It can help students with study planning, habit formation, content revision, among other things. Still, it's essential to be aware of the limitations of AI and understand its role in the curriculum. 

Responsible Use of AI 

One critical concern around AI is maintaining academic integrity and ethical use. To achieve this, it's important to shape students' mindsets and encourage them to use AI tools responsibly. We will also need to incorporate AI and responsible use into the curriculum. There are a variety of other concerns to consider, including ethical and environmental issues, biases, costs of access to AI tools, and referencing and acknowledgement. 

Assessment Design  

Incorporating AI into assessment design is an ongoing process that requires careful consideration, prioritization of resource allocation, and a gradual shift from awareness to capability building. Short-term, tools like Cadmus may help to manage the ways students use AI. It's necessary to consider school and discipline perspectives and find ways to introduce all students to AI. 

In the long-term, using AI could make some aspects of academic work more efficient and save time on certain tasks (such as the design of a rubric or drafting a case study for an assessment).  

AI and Research 

AI has both challenges and affordances for research, including the potential to aid the process of discovery, help with notetaking, structure, and image-based design, and generate research methods. However, challenges around assessing originality, biases, and data quality also exist. 

 AI is transforming the education sector, but it's important to approach its integration responsibly and with awareness of its limitations. Ultimately, AI has the potential to enhance teaching, learning and research, making work more efficient and possibly also accelerating learning. 

Thanks to the CoP members, and to GPT4! 

Learn more, join the CoP and access resources on the Artificial Intelligence and Learning webpage. 

Tagged in ChatGPT4, ChatGPT, Artificial Intelligence, Academic Integrity