In the Jisc AI Team, we’re pleased to announce the launch of a second-year-long TeacherMatic pilot. We are currently piloting this with eight Further Education Colleges, and the initial feedback is very positive, particularly around saving time. We would now like to explore how well this translates to higher education so would like to work with higher educational institutions to evaluate the generative AI platform in this setting. Participants will get the chance to use the AI platform TeacherMatic which uses generative AI to help educators and managers create resources, and teaching materials and help with some administrative tasks.
The aim of TeacherMatic is to make those working in education’s lives easier by leveraging AI tools. The platform is designed to save time and assist with workload. TeacherMatic provides a toolkit that can create a variety of essential materials for educators, such as lesson plans, learning activities, plenary session activities, laboratory session ideas, and quizzes, as well as the ability to customise and personalise materials to meet the unique needs of students. Recently more generators have been added aimed to help management in daily tasks such as newsletter item generators, a CPD action planner, and project ideas.
We will select 8 institutions to participate in the pilot, each institution will be given access to 50 TeacherMatic licences for 12 months.
How will the pilot run?
The pilot will run in two phases, phase one will run between January 2024 and February 2024. Then phase two will run until June 2024.
Phase one
At the end of phase one in February 2024, between 5 to 10 licence holders from each institution will be required to take part in a focus group to review the TeacherMatic tool. Participants will be asked to give feedback about the ease of use and quality of materials created, whether they feel it has saved them time and if they would continue using TeacherMatic regularly.
Phase two
During phase two all licence holders will be expected to evaluate and review TeacherMatic resources and teaching materials in practice. Each institution’s pilot manager will complete a 1: 1 and all licence holders will be expected to complete a survey.
Expected Workload
As part of the pilot, we ask that participating institutions commit to the following:
Institutions will appoint a pilot manager who can commit:
- To facilitate and attend a training webinar held by TeacherMatic
- To manage and distribute licences
- To contribute and facilitate pilot reviews
Licence holders will need to commit:
- To attend a training webinar held by TeacherMatic
- To create and review content using TeacherMatic
- 5 to 10 licence holders to be able to take part in phase one pilot focus group review and evaluation in February 2024.
- To contribute to phase two review and evaluation in June 2024.
Timetable:
| What | Phase | Institution responsibility | Jisc responsibility | When |
| Formally enter pilot | Setup | A senior member of the institution and pilot manager will sign a legal agreement. | The Jisc team will provide and sign a legal agreement. | Start of December 2023 |
| TeacherMatic licence allocation | Planning | The institution and pilot manager will provide licence access to TeacherMatic. | The Jisc team will provide TeacherMatic licences. | December 2023 |
| Training | Planning | All attend TeacherMatic training webinar. | TeacherMatic will hold training webinars. | January 2024 |
| Use TeacherMatic to create and develop teaching, learning and assessment content | Phase One | The institution will use TeacherMatic to develop teaching, learning and assessment content. | The Jisc team will answer all institution questions. | January 2024 |
| Initial review | Phase One | The institution will commit to 5 – 10 licence holders attending a focus group to review the ease of use and quality of materials created, whether they feel it has saved them time and if they would continue using TeacherMatic regularly. | The Jisc team will hold focus group with each intuition with 5 – 10 licence holders. | Late February 2024 |
| Further use of TeacherMatic | Phase Two | The pilot manager will monitor use of TeacherMatic. | Jisc team will monitor the pilot. | March till June 2024 |
| TeacherMatic licence holders will continue to develop teaching, learning and assessment content. | ||||
| Collecting feedback | Evaluation | The pilot manager will meet with Jisc team to discuss and evaluate TeacherMatic.
TeacherMatic licence holders will contribute to TeacherMatic pilot review. |
Jisc team will hold interviews with each institution and collate reviews. | June 2024 |
Expressing Interest
For the pilot, we suggest that institutions focus on using TeacherMatic to develop content for a variety of faculty areas.
If you are interested in participating, could you please complete this form before the close of play on 24th November 2023 to express your interest.
We aim to have reviewed prospective institutions and have selected pilot participants by 30th November 2023.
You can find out more about TeacherMatic by visiting their website.
If you have any further questions for us, please email ai@jisc.ac.uk.
Find out more by visiting our Artificial Intelligence page to view publications and resources, join us for events and discover what AI has to offer through our range of interactive online demos.
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Get in touch with the team directly at AI@jisc.ac.uk