How Should Universities Use AI?

The use of AI in higher education is a hotly contested topic. Progressive universities have embraced AI technology, while others have barred it from entering their learning environment. At StealthGPT, we've covered the impact of artificial intelligence on higher education, now, we have new updates to share.

Since our last article, the StealthGPT team has integrated new, powerful tools to enhance student success into our kit. Higher education institutions are changing their views on AI. For example, Joseph E. Aoun, the president of Northeastern University, just declared "the fourth world is here".

Table of Contents

• AI in Higher Ed

• AI for Teaching and Learning

• Enhancing The Learning Process

• Enhancing the Educational Experience

• Preparing Students for the Real World

AI in Higher Ed

Aoun's idea of the fourth world is that artificial intelligence is different from the first three. These worlds are the physical, biological, and social worlds.

He has written a book about artificial intelligence in higher education. The book, called "Robot-proof", emphasizes what he calls "humanics." Humanics is the integration of technological, data, and human literacies.

Aoun explains how AI powered tools can help both students and faculty members. However, he prefers a conservative approach to changing higher education that ensures that students learn effectively.

Artificial intelligence AI tools can help students by creating templates or summarizing course materials. However, using AI this way is problematic to many in higher ed. Many, like Aoun, want to return to in-class assignments and use AI to tailor curriculums to each student's needs.

AI for Teaching and Learning

Many AI systems help improve student learning. Study tools, for example, make it easier for students to engage with and memorize course materials. Generative AI for flashcards, study guides, and quizzes are a positive use for AI that universities can encourage.

Generative AI can help teachers create class syllabi and personalize curriculums. If there are fifty students, each with different learning styles and strengths. Real time AI updates give teachers the chance to assign each student a unique quiz that helps them learn in their own way.

AI still has problems that hinder universities from using it. Those problems include generating wrong answers, bias in machine learning, not challenging students, and not representing diversity.

Enhancing The Learning Process

Imagine if each student had an AI agent, like a learning counselor that knew how they can improve both their grades and their knowledge. This AI agent wouldn't just tell a student how to study and what to study, but provide instant feedback for the student.

With an AI agent, students can engage with course materials on their own time and in the classroom. This way, students that don't feel comfortable in the setting of a classroom, can still make their presence felt.

Enhancing the Educational Experience

Teachers need AI tools to improve their field just as much as students do. Experts have speculated ways for teachers to use AI such as:

• Using AI to stay up to date with advancements in their subjects.

• Instant feedback to their address a teacher's strengths and weaknesses.

• Simulating students to tackle comprehension issues and learning how to ask adaptive questions.

• Class management and learning how to engage each student.

The educational experience pertains to more than just learning and teaching though, it extends to the entire student experience.

Mental health is another field AI will improve in higher education. Personalized AI agents can assist with a student's time and stress management to make higher education easier and healthier.

Preparing Students for the Real World

What concerns AI experts and academics most is if AI will hinder young people from entering the real world and job search. If AI stops students from developing critical thinking skills and makes them dependent on AI for an easy fix to any problem, they won't be prepared for the most demanding fields of expertise.

Then again, as those fields also integrate AI, it's essential for students to have the literacy skills that will be commonplace in every industry someday.

Aoun's predictions and analysis ring true here, higher education has to strike a happy balance between AI literacy and good ol' fashioned hard work. Not hard work for meaningless ends, things like scouring through your notes to make flashcards are over, but hard work like reading large texts, doing your own research, and writing your own essays from scratch, those are efforts that will always be valuable to students.