AI is a game-changer for universities’ program design and delivery

Rose Luckin, professor of learner centred design at University College London’s Knowledge Lab. Picture: Quentin Jones

Large language models like ChatGPT are already starting to have a transformational effect on students’ learning. We see this in how students access and organise information, how they understand good academic practice, and how their teaching resources are developed. This latest generation of artificial intelligence tools, now in anyone’s hands, has thrown many assumptions about higher education up in the air. We don’t know where the pieces will land.

While the disruptive effect on learning may already be a lot to take in, it’s still only part of the story. In addition to the student-facing uses of AI, universities have enormous opportunities to mine their vast data collections with intelligent tools to gain new insights.

Take student feedback as an example: previously, staff had to digest and analyse students’ qualitative feedback which, for a large unit, could run to hundreds or even thousands of comments. This text can now be neatly summarised by low-cost AI tools with prioritised actions circulated to staff almost instantly.

Universities are starting to scratch the surface of what’s possible. Current debates in many universities, rightly, are about ensuring data security and protection of intellectual property, accuracy of the tools’ application, and what it means to implement innovations effectively.

The ethics of AI are a vitally important consideration. Rather than use this debate to thwart innovation, the best framing of the ethical uses of AI is to ask whether it could ever be right to try and impede the progress of technologies which bring enormous potential for good.

In one area being pioneered by Educate Ventures Research, built on world-leading research from University College London’s Institute of Education, teams are using AI to investigate how learning in universities actually takes place. Analysing students’ interactions across their learning experiences provides the opportunity to see which moments matter for student success.

Ant Bagshaw, leader of LEK Consulting’s Australian education practice. Picture: David Geraghty

The tools then draw out the “golden thread” which runs through and connects students’ learning processes. This builds understanding within the university of what’s working well and where the student experience needs strengthening.

When the tool was applied at Arizona State University, one of the US’s most innovative institutions, the research-based approach was able to identify common behaviour patterns shared by successful students and offer tangible actions to educators about how to help students who were struggling to adopt more successful learning approaches.

The ASU data also showed improved results for “learning to learn” in hybrid modes when evaluated against face-to-face and ­online-only programs.

As universities transition to a post-Covid teaching model, it is knowledge which comes from understanding the specific ways in which hybrid delivery works well which can inform practical decision-making for program design and delivery.

For the Australian higher education sector, particularly given the scale of many of our institutions, these AI tools provide particularly exciting opportunities. The ability to understand quickly what’s working – and what’s not – at a granular level based on data can be a key part of the evidence base for future education strategy as well as tactical innovations and experimentation.

The AI methods engaged by a university to enhance their educational provision should not be a one-size-fits-all approach. We need to reflect that which is special about each institution and its students’ needs. The case here is for a combination of AI techniques with the insight from research and experience which can sort signal from noise. Robots cannot run a university, but we owe it to students and staff to make the best use of the tools we have that can delivery positive results.

Rose Luckin is professor of learner centred design at University College London’s Knowledge Lab and founder of Educate Ventures Research. Ant Bagshaw leads LEK Consulting’s Australian education practice.