by Dr Martin Compton, King’s College London, UK.
Rapid developments in AI, and in particular generative AI connote significant implications for students, as well as academic and professional services staff. I hear talk of text generators like ChatGPT and Google Bard and other multimedia generative AI tools like Midjourney and Dall-e every day. Sometimes these conversations are optimistic, awe-struck even. Other times they are riven with anxiety about what it all means for things like assessment practices in higher education or even, at the extreme, whether innovations in AI present an existential threat (to universities or even humanity!). Yet, simultaneously, I am often surprised to find that a large proportion of academic, professional services staff and students do not share my compulsion to fiddle with these tools. There are profound discussions to be had about affordances, limitations, developments and ethics but if we have limited or no exposure to the tools themselves or to the central debates then we are not evolving our own or our students’ AI literacy which, in my view, is an essential additional component to critical information and data literacy.
To address this at King’s College London, where I work in the central faculty development unit, King’s Academy, we have been working with colleagues and students from across the nine faculties to produce structured guidance for staff and students, have opened an AI research fund for collaborative projects and have launched a new free online course that outlines the impact AI is having on what we study, how we study and how students are evaluated. The course: ‘Generative AI in Higher Education’ has been developed by and for King’s staff and students but is available to anyone with an interest in HE, or indeed any level of education, including educators, professional services staff, management, policymakers and students. The materials can be accessed for free and in the first two weeks since publication it has seen over 1200 sign ups. Already we have participants worldwide who work in universities, colleges, schools and even kindergartens.
The course presents reflective, applied and speculative perspectives on generative AI in HE. It is intended as a starting point for developing AI literacy, taking participants through foundational concepts and big debates and issues. The course also explores some of the applications of generative AI to teaching, learning and assessment practices. Finally, it considers some of the key implications for student employability in a rapidly changing landscape.
One of the contributors to the course, Professor Shitij Kapur, Vice-Chancellor of King’s College London, says: “We all must engage with AI in a scholarly fashion: with curiosity about something that can speak like a human; with humility that many of our cherished ideas may indeed need to be revised; with caution that some technologies of the past have minimised our humanity and increased inequities; but finally, with the ambition that we can make AI speak to the better angels of our nature.”
Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:
- Summarise how artificial intelligence and generative AI work, emulate human intelligence, and create novel content.
- Describe the key capabilities, limitations, challenges and opportunities of generative AI in higher education teaching, learning, feedback and assessment.
- Discuss the importance of considering social, ethical, inclusivity and sustainability dimensions while utilising generative AI in education.
- Explain the influence of generative AI on the employment landscape, including the emergence of new job roles, and the implications for disciplinary curricula of changing skill requirements.
I and my co-leads on this course Professor Oguz Acar and Dr Charlotte Haberstroh, believe the development of AI, and generative AI in particular, is not just a technological leap; it’s a moment for us to pause and reconsider how we teach, learn, and assess in higher education. This course gives everyone an opportunity to do this in the company of others from across the World.
The new course is freely available online now. To find out more and register visit: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/short-courses/generative-ai-in-he . Course materials are divided into two weeks of learning (estimated at 3 hours per week) and, in addition to the course content, feature vibrant discussions participants can read or contribute to.
Editor’s note: Dr Martin Compton will be presenting at the upcoming Media & Learning online event titled “Exploring the potential of AI in educational media production” that will take place on 12 December. Learn more about the event here.
Author
By Dr Martin Compton, Programme and Assessment Design Lead, King’s College London
Programme Lead for Generative AI in Higher Education Course
