At the start of May, we held our first Artificial Intelligence drop-in clinic. The session lasted for an hour and focused on providing a space to ask questions about AI in education. The drop-in clinics will run each month and complement our AI literacy series of monthly webinars. The idea is that you can simply drop in and ask questions about how to use AI tools and anything related to our AI literacy webinar series and future training needs. We thought it would be useful to summarise the questions and answers from the session.
Questions and answers from the clinic
Question: Can I ask a question about Microsoft Co-pilot? Specifically, how do we address concerns about data privacy and security? I work at a university, and while we are told to trust Microsoft’s commercial license, there’s worry about data breaches and attacks from external organisations. How much can we trust current AI providers to protect our data and student details?
Answer: There are really two parts to this question – privacy and security. On the privacy front, the standard version of Copilot that most institutions have as part of their Microsoft academic license provides ‘commercial protection’ which means that the data isn’t used for training. This provides good data privacy, but not the very strongest data protection from a legal perspective. To get this, you need Copilot for 365 – the details of this are documented here. Whichever version you have though, your data won’t be used for training the model, so data won’t leak that way.
Data breaches and attacks are a slightly different issue. Most institutions trust Microsoft with large amounts of their institutional data, and using an LLM from a provider such as Microsoft Copilot gives the very highest assurance of protection against data breaches and attacks.
Question: Are assessments of units/modules changing significantly due to AI? How are educational institutions adapting their assessment methods in light of generative AI tools?
Answer: This in an area of huge interest and discussion, but at the moment we don’t have any firm data on where universities and colleges are with this. We do, however, have an example of the kind of work happening in this space. See our guest blog ‘Assessment Menu: Designing assessment in an AI enabled world’ by Isobel Bowditch as an example.
Question: How can generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Co-pilot be effectively used in education to support teaching and administrative tasks?
Answer: Generative AI tools can be used to summarise documents, generate multiple-choice questions, and provide activity ideas for formative assessment. People have been creating content like presentations and assisting with tasks like responding to simple emails. However, it is essential to review and validate AI-generated outputs to ensure accuracy and relevance. Educators are also using these tools to brainstorm ideas and create more engaging and culturally relevant teaching materials. One approach I quite like is to ask an AI tool to provide feedback on some written text and ask it to proofread for UK English. I have found that this helps me to improve my writing rather than asking an AI tool to just reword
Question: What is the impact of AI on educational workload and training? Does integrating AI increase the workload initially, and how does it help in the long run?
Answer: The learning curve associated with understanding and using AI is very shallow, it is not like, say learning Excel from scratch. Training is crucial to grasp AI’s capabilities and limitations. Over time, AI integration is showing that can streamline tasks, making administrative duties simpler and improving efficiency. Sharing best practices among educators can also facilitate smoother adoption of AI tools.
Students have reported that AI can reduce stress. For example, we interviewed a student who enjoyed using ChatGPT to get instant feedback on his work and the subjects he was learning. He used it like a personal tutor to explain topics and concepts in different ways. The student found that this approach reduced his stress levels, improved his working methods, and ensured he was on track for his deadlines and had thoroughly reviewed his work.
Question: What are some alternative AI tools for educational purposes besides ChatGPT and Microsoft Co-pilot?
Answer: Alternatives include Google Gemini and open-source and can be tailored to specific educational needs.
There are AI tools specifically designed for education, such as TeacherMatic, which generates content like lesson plans, class discussion topics, and assessment rubrics. Blackboard Anthology Ultra also utilises AI to build course content with its AI design assistant and can generate assessment rubrics and questions.
Personal preference and specific use cases often determine the best tool for a given task. Exploring different options can help educators find the most suitable AI solution.
Question: What are the risks and considerations when using AI tools in education? How should institutions address these concerns?
Answer: The main concerns include data privacy, security, and the potential for AI to produce biased or inaccurate outputs. Institutions need to think about having safeguards in place to mitigate these risks. Additionally, the cost and accessibility of AI tools are important factors. Educators and institutions need to balance the benefits of AI with these considerations to ensure safe and effective use of the technology. We have written a blog post about this.
Question: In the GDPR there is a caveat saying that any decisions made by a computer can be requested to be re-reviewed by a human. This was written pre-AI, but would this apply to AI?
Answer: GDPR does indeed apply to all forms of AI, including generative AI.
Question: We are currently looking at Microsoft Copilot which is around $30 a month per licence, is there a better or a cheaper way?
Answer: Microsoft have confused everyone by naming so many products Copilot. In the education space, the two main ones to consider are ‘Copilot’ (the basic version) and ‘Copilot for Microsoft 365’. For clarity, it’s Copilot for Microsoft 365 which is $30 a month, and unfortunately there is no way of getting this cheaper. The basic version of Copilot, which can access the internet, is based on GPT4 and provides commercial data protection is part of most institutions Microsoft license already, so no extra cost for this. See Licensing Options for Generative AI.
Question: Are intuitions actively asking staff to attend training on AI or prompt engineering?
Answer: Yes, many are running initial training based on capabilities, limitations of AI, AI safety and then moving on to prompting. Some are holding hackathons with a scenario to look at how to use generative AI and create content. We also have the AI literacy webinar series and a series of blog posts called Empowering educators by harnessing generative AI tools with example tasks and step-by-step guides plus two Mooc courses, one called Artificial Intelligence and ethics and An introduction to Generative AI in education.
Question: What AI developments have there been within the last week of note?
Answer: One we have come across is Synthesia and AI-generated avatars, which now display emotion. We are also seeing more integrated use of AI tools into other platforms.
Question: How can I summarise a PDF document?
Answer: The example demonstration we looked at involves utilising Microsoft Co-pilot in a web browser. If you open a PDF in the browser, then open Co-pilot and type in the prompt: “Please summarise the document open on the left into 8 key bullet points.” This prompt can be changed to suit the level of summary you require.
What’s Next?
We have our next Artificial Intelligence Drop-in Clinic on the 27th of June, 11:00 – 12:00. The idea is that you can simply drop in and ask questions about how to use AI tools and anything about the AI literacy training and future training needs.
How to register:
Register for our next clinic and be part of the conversation: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/training/artificial-intelligence-drop-in-clinic
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.
For regular updates from the team sign up to our mailing list.
Get in touch with the team directly at AI@jisc.ac.uk