The potential of Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT is a main topic of conversation in higher education circles—the pros and cons along with fear and excitement about the possibilities. While many colleges and universities have started embracing AI technology to improve the student engagement and learning experience, there are also fears about plagiarism and cheating.
Ethan Mollick, Founder of Wharton Interactive at the University of Pennsylvania, advises finding ways to use AI, as it is now a tool available to more than 1 billion people. In essence the genie is not going back into the bottle, he said during the recent ASU+GSV Summit.
Mollick said AI will transform education, although it is still too early to know exactly how that will happen. However, there are clear advantages for personalized learning, and AI holds the promise for better pedagogy and less work for educators, he said. Personalized instruction using AI can help students with:
- Prior knowledge
- Challenges
- Adaptive feedback
- Calibrated support
Mollick and his team are using GPT-4 for developing case studies, rubrics, customized lesson plans, adaptive feedback, low-stakes testing and more. And he reminds us that AI will only get better from here. The technology is moving fast with only a few months between availability of Chat GPT and GPT-4. Mollick claims AI will democratize edtech and education and that we must teach students how to use it, as AI will absolutely impact their careers post-graduation.
In another session at the summit, AI-Personalized Learning, CEOs of four edtech companies discussed how their platforms are using AI and being used by millions of students around the world. For K-12, higher ed, and corporate skills training, AI supplies 1:1 personalized learning by allowing educators to break learning down across topics and skills. The panel determined that the reason AI is moving at such a breakneck pace is that it makes us more efficient, which is useful, and so is developing quickly.
“We have to educate students for the future world they’re inheriting,” said Quizlet CEO Lex Bayer. “It will democratize access and provide more students with tools to help their learning.”
University Snapshot: AI in Action
At Teachers College, School of Education at Western Governor’s University (WGU) they have recently integrated AI into one of their courses using a platform that offers roleplay in authentic scenarios.
Karen Lea is Lead Program Development Owner for Teachers’ College and partners with vendor Muzzy Lane to build simulations and interactive content that can be integrated into existing courses. In this case, AI is being used for training future teachers how to assess information and make classroom decisions in a controlled and safe environment. Students are learning soft skills in a classroom scenario where they’re role playing a first-year teacher and reacting to students and choices. Depending on the choices they make, an AI-powered coach provides automatic feedback.
“There are three different simulations where they can practice and apply everything they’ve learned in the course,” said Lea. “Our goal is to prepare them to teach the next generation of K-12 students, so we’re providing them critical practice through the simulations.” Lea said they are shifting to more competency-based mastery where demonstrating what students have learned is part of the assessment.
“One of the advantages of using this kind of simulation is you can have multiple dimensions being measured at the same time and provide feedback on them,” said Jeff Fiske, VP of Production at Muzzy Lane. “Providing the right level of feedback is one of the strong suits of our tool. Students can go back and practice making choices multiple times in a safe environment.”
Using AI for personalizing learning, such as creating interactive training situations, is just one aspect of how AI will disrupt and transform learning experiences. It remains to be seen how much it will democratize education.