This month we had around 60 attendees joining to discuss the use of AI in FE at our second community meeting.
We started with a brief presentation on some of the pilots run by the NCAITE team over the past couple of years to showcase the variety of tools we’ve seen.
Attendees participated in a poll based on responses from the DfEs call for evidence to determine which areas they had used AI tools in this year:
47 participated in the poll, respondents could select multiple uses if this was applicable and many selected two or more uses.
The response was interesting with an impressive spread over the different areas including some use of tools in live sessions. It was noted that there is a category missing here – personal use! And that use of AI in personal life can serve as a gateway to incorporating AI into professional life.
For our breakout discussion attendees separated into smaller groups and shared experiences of different AI tools and their uses. A variety of tools were named including some of the popular chatbot tools ChatGPT and Google Bard/Duet as well as more focused generative AI tools like TeacherMatic, Gamma, Curipod, and Tome.ai. Some members are also developing their own AI solutions too including chatbots and assessment platforms.
We then reconvened to share the highlights from the group discussions and several key themes emerged:
AI policy & guidance
Many colleges are currently working on developing and updating their AI policies.
There was an agreement that there is a need for guidance to support the creation of these policies, as there can be a reluctance to commit time and resources to providing staff/student training on AI until appropriate policies are in place. The guidance provided by JCQ and our recent Learner guidance for FE were mentioned as resources.
We will be continuing to publish more guidance around AI policy soon, including a set of AI principles for FE and a staff guidance template equivalent of the learner guidance linked above which we expect to release around February/March time.
Training courses for staff and students
Members were interested in whether there were any recommended AI/AI literacy training courses aimed at learners. There was a feeling that there is a lack of courses designed specifically for learners and/or users under 18.
King’s College London’s Generative AI in Higher Education course was recommended as well as exploring other university provided courses on FutureLearn. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania’s course was also recommended available on YouTube. For staff training, the AI for Educators path on Microsoft Learn was recommended.
Some members had experience in building their own courses too and acknowledged the difficulty in keeping these up to date with the rapid changes in AI tech.
AI detection tools
The topic of AI detection was raised and the ethical and data protection considerations around submitting student work to these tools was discussed. This included factors like obtaining student consent and protecting intellectual property rights particularly when considering use of detection tools besides Turnitin such as GPTZero.
Our latest recommendations on AI detection tools is available here, where we do consider the current options available. This is an area we’ll continue to revisit too with input from the community.
AI Resources Hub
Finally, we ended with a call out for contributions to our upcoming AI resources hub in which we are collating successful examples of AI use in education. If you have an example to submit please check out the linked blog and get in touch with us at NCAI@jisc.ac.uk.
Thank you to all who attended and engaged in the session, we hope to see you all again in our next meetup on February 27th 12.30-1.30pm where we will be delving into discussion on student use of AI.
Register here for February’s meetup.
We are keen for members to shape future AI in FE sessions, if you would like to raise a particular theme or topic for discussion, deliver a lightning talk or lead a discussion activity at a future meetup please send us an email to NCAI@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