AI has permeated all aspects of our lives, particularly education. As a knowledge-based tool, it poses both opportunities and challenges for students and faculty, making it ever-more important to question its place in academia.
During one of the workshops that’s part of the AI Aware Universities project, organized by the Center for Information, Democracy and Citizenship (CIDC) at AUBG and funded by People Powered, Professor and researcher at the American University in Armenia Brett Anders delivered an insightful lecture on the topic. He proposed a rather balanced approach to AI, highlighting both its dangers and advantages in an educational setting and beyond.
AI enhancing students’ agency
According to Professor Anders, AI significantly empowers students in their studies.
“Why? Because AI is now a very powerful tool that can help students understand content in many different ways,” he stated.
Seeking additional explanations on topics
Students can use AI to seek additional explanations to topics and problems, potentially eliminating the need for office hours with professors. For example, if a student struggles to understand an instructor’s presentation, they can prompt AI to explain it in simpler terms. Conversely, they can ask for more advanced insights and examples – an approach referred to as cognitive level manipulation.
However, whether cutting the cord between students and professors is an advantage or rather doing a disservice to the natural exchange of knowledge between the two remains debatable. AI provides instant calculations of information based on algorithmic settings and the data it processes. This raises another issue: where does AI source its information? A recent Deutsche Welle article revealed that OpenAI has signed a deal with Reddit to use forum data to feed ChatGPT. This is problematic, as forums often publish unauthorized information directly from users with questionable origins and validity.
Such reliance on potentially unreliable data contributes to misinformation and exacerbates ChatGPT’s tendency to fabricate information and cite non-existent sources, a phenomenon known as “artificial hallucinations”.
Ideas visualization and prototyping
AI can also assist students with idea development and prototyping. When students need quick visuals to support entrepreneurial ideas for class projects or start-up challenges, AI can generate imagery within seconds. With effective prompt engineering, students can come up with multiple visual concepts, encouraging them to further explore and challenge their ideas.
However, over-reliance on generative AI for visuals may limit students’ opportunities to apply critical thinking and creativity in presenting their ideas. However, if the goal is efficiency, allowing them to focus on other tasks, and the right balance is maintained, AI can be a valuable tool.
Simulator capabilities
AI can be used as a simulator, helping students imagine and play out various scenarios, including interviews, language conversations, and field-specific scenarios such as legal cases and medical diagnoses.
Despite its benefits, students should be cautious of misinformation, particularly in fields like medicine, law, and finance. Over-reliance on AI generated solutions may also undermine independent thought. While AI simulations offer valuable additional training, real-world cases and human interactions remain essential, as AI may not be able to fully grasp the unpredictability of the human experience.
Easing professors’ course development and teaching
On the other side of the equation, “AI can greatly assist faculty with flexibility, efficiencies, and capabilities” in course development and teaching enhancement, said Professor Anders.
Educating special needs students
One of AI’s most significant applications in academia is supporting professors in accommodating students with special needs.
Professor Andres provided an example of a prompt that an instructor could use with ChatGPT:
“Please assume the role of an instructor with special education knowledge in a biology course. I have a student with sensory processing disorder. We are dissecting frogs in class next week. What recommendations do you have?”
Such prompts can help instructors without special education training modify and personalize their courses to meet students’ individual needs. However, while AI aids in accessibility and inclusion efforts, one should not neglect the need for proper accessibility training for all instructors.
Experiential learning
We touched upon scenario-based individual learning for students. Such learning is also increasingly relevant in course curriculums. While experiential learning is certainly not new, AI significantly expands its possibilities. In fact, Professor Anders describes it as “highly needed in order for higher education to remain relevant”.
This raises the question: what makes the classroom different from the AI chat room, when students can access knowledge instantly through AI, the internet, YouTube and other tools.
The answer, according to Professor Anders, lies in the opportunity to apply the knowledge. “That’s where we need to come in as academia to create opportunities for students to implement their skills to engage in social learning.”
Examples include role-playing, simulations, and greater hands-on experiences, all of which can be enhanced through AI. This type of experiential learning will make the difference in job applications and make our students more competitive and competent in a world full of ever-increasing AI.
“When a student graduates today, they’re entering a world where AI is already handling entry-level jobs that were previously available. But now, those businesses have AI to do that, so they’re going to seek candidates with experience who can perform higher-level tasks.”
Laura Kelly, Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at AUBG, incorporates experiential learning into her classes, as she teaches journalism courses that “not only give the theory but require students to practice the skills they need to acquire to be successful journalists, writers and communicators.”
On the use of AI, Professor Kelly commented:
“I have yet to use AI to assist with experiential learning course design. Instead, I belong to several cohorts and communities of teachers who trade ideas and resources.”
Instead of turning to AI for ideas generation to advance experiential learning course design, Professor Kelly relies on human interaction and exchange of ideas within the journalism community.
Whether professors turn to AI or not, it’s essential that that they preserve the social, interactive aspect of learning. That’s what makes university education different and sets future candidates apart.
As Prof. Anders highlights, we should try and find middle ground with AI. Perhaps, it’s best if we approach it as a complement to academia, not a replacement, for human interaction, creativity, and critical thinking. Universities have a legacy of providing rich knowledge, putting a focus on the social and applied experience, and only by preserving this can they rmeain relevant and students for a worls where AI is more than present.
