Evolving Tools Impact the Classroom

From the desk of Vice-President, Education & Students Taya Whitehead…

As we spend the summer months gearing up for another academic year, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a topic that has broad implications for teaching and learning.

While many of us already use AI through tools that have existed for some time, such as Grammarly, growing access to generative AI tools, which are used to create new content, raises questions for instructors and students around plagiarism, misinformation, implicit bias, digital equity and more.

The college’s AI working group recently launched a survey among school chairs to really understand how instructors use or are planning to use generative AI, what concerns people have and what types of training the college can provide to help instructors navigate generative AI in the classroom.

The results will help provide direction on this topic in the coming months. Currently, the committee working on the academic integrity policy is considering the implications of generative AI and its relationship to the policy, and the Teaching & Learning Centre is compiling resources for both students and instructors.

AI technologies are evolving quickly, and the college is taking a collaborative, exploratory approach to developing policies and guidelines that can help realize some of the opportunities and benefits of generative AI while minimizing the potential risks.

Learn more about the college’s approach to generative AI.