ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IN HIGHER EDUCATION: TOOL OR TRICKERY?

Abstract

With the release of ChatGPT in November 2022 by OpenAI, the field of higher education was rudely awakened to the revolutionary impact of generative AI on the traditional means of assessing academic performance. New – and ever-improving – “large language models” (LLMs) are now capable of on-demand generation of coherent, comprehensive and academic-grade content - be it in the form of (long-format) text, code or mathematical symbols. Many universities have, as yet, not officially positioned themselves with respect to these new developments and those that have, did so in strikingly diverse ways, from outright bans on any form of AI to investigating how AI can be leveraged by students and staff alike to enhance the academic learning process. This workshop aims to guide participants in the process of 1) gaining awareness of the potential, limitations and pitfalls of AI tools; 2) critically assessing these tools within the framework of participants’ (domain-specific) practices for teaching, learning and assessment; 3) comparing observations and sharing opinions with co-practitioners in the domain; and 4) developing a position towards these new technologies and translating this position into (tentative) policy guidelines, either on a personal or institutional level.