Tag: university
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My book on scholarship as a commons
We face increasingly complex challenges yet have made systematic thinking tools exclusive to academic institutions. This creates artificial scarcity when we need broader intellectual engagement. Scholarship should function as intellectual commons—shared infrastructure enabling thoughtful navigation of uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity for everyone, not just credentialed experts. This book explores what that might look like.
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Efficiency in teaching is important, but learning is importanter
When we focus solely on how AI can automate teaching tasks, we miss its transformative potential for learning. The question isn’t whether AI can grade papers faster, but whether it might help learners navigate complexity, connect diverse perspectives, and construct meaning in ways previously unimaginable in traditional educational environments.
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The hard work of establishing value
Is anyone really considering the real change necessary to respond to AI in higher education?
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Reimagining higher education in the face of advanced genAI: An opinionated vision
This post explores the potential impacts of advanced generative AI on higher education. It presents a radical vision where AI transforms learning processes, redefines institutions, and reshapes the nature of knowledge itself. The analysis considers how universities might evolve to remain relevant in a world where AI becomes the primary source of information and education.
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Universities’ ChatGPT misconduct focus ‘panicked students’
in AIhttps://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/universities-chatgpt-misconduct-focus-panicked-students Universities’ focus on assessment misconduct in the wake of the emergence of large language models “panicked” students, and institutions would have been better being “honest” that they were still figuring out the ramifications of new technologies… Agreed. Universities’ knee jerk reaction and misplaced moralising about the potential for cheating, wasted everyone’s time. And did…
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Integrating AI in higher education needs a culture shift
Integrating AI into higher education requires a questioning of assumptions, and a re-evaluation of attitudes, behaviours, and beliefs. In short, it requires a change in culture.
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An AI-first approach to higher education in the UK
http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2024/01/ai-university.html Donald Clark proposes a vision for an AI-first university, tackling the pressing need for high-quality, low-cost online education in the UK. Here’s a distilled list of 25 transformative ideas, drawing inspiration from other successful educational models: I couldn’t agree more. For me, AI has the potential to massively scale personal learning, and for that…
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On the ethics concerns around requiring students to use AI
Note: I wrote this over the course of a busy day full of meetings. At the end of the day I just wanted to get it out there. I’m not sure that I’m fully on board with the arguments, but the thing that I love about blogs is that it doesn’t matter. So these are…
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Institutional AI policy or classroom AI policy?
I’ve been thinking about the challenges of developing an institution AI policy for staff use in the classroom, and the longer I reflect on it, the more I think that it can’t work. An institutional policy is a set of guidelines, rules, or principles govern operations, activities, procedures, etc. They are often legally binding and…
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Compress a PhD+experience into 3-6 months
https://www.quantumleap.education/joinus/founding_learning_engineer.html “Quantum Leap is building the world’s best system for rapidly acquiring expertise. Our first courses will be on large language models and AI safety, for which we’re aiming to compress a PhD and several years’ experience into 3-6 months using accelerated learning methods developed by the US military.” Whether you agree that it’s possible…
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Assessment reform is fine. Education reform is better.
I’m seeing plenty of calls for institutions to reform their assessments in the face of generative AI (see here, for example). Which is fine, I suppose. Nothing wrong with assessment reform. But changing assessment practices without reforming the system in which it operates is just painting over the cracks. Or to put it more crudely,…
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AI and expertise in professional education – ADAPT conference
At the 2023 ADAPT physiotherapy conference, I discussed the impact of generative AI on physiotherapy education, emphasising how it challenges the traditional role of universities in professional training by offering accessible and personalised expertise. The presentation highlighted AI’s potential to democratise learning, enhance project-based education, and create affordable learning alternatives outside formal degree programs. I…
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AI-first educational institutions
In a previous post I mentioned in passing the idea that universities, if they want to remain relevant, will need to adopt an AI-first position for everything they do. Soon, AI will be embedded in everything, from preparing course materials, to developing assessments, to budget allocation. And email. It will be a huge part of…
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When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object
TL;DR (generated by Claude, lightly edited by me). The rise of abundant expertise in the form of generative AI questions the university monopoly on expertise provision and validation. Leadership in the creative deployment of AI for learning, teaching, and assessment will require a change in mindset and a shift towards a new paradigm, which universities…
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A national core physiotherapy curriculum
I had a great conversation with a colleague today, that stemmed from an ongoing discussion we’re having in our department about moving our practical assessments towards an OSCE-type format. We’ve been thinking about standardising on our assessments for a while but have never had dedicated time to work on it…not that we have any now,…
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Thoughts on SAAHE 2009
Another SAAHE has come and gone and once again, it was an absolute pleasure to attend. The conference was well organised, the presentations were interesting and informative and I think everyone was able to go home having received something of value. I’ll try and share some of my notes and reflections over the course of…
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Teaching and learning workshop outcomes
Two weeks ago I attended a teaching and learning workshop on campus that was pretty interesting. I just received an email from the coordinator highlighting the following key points that were raised: For me, the main benefit of attending the workshop was finding out just how many resources are available to the students.