ChatGPT and assessments

 One of the main challenges facing educators when digital tools can be used for a host of writing tasks, is that of assessments. How can the integrity of assessments be safeguarded when students are able to use nefarious means to complete their assessments.

Over the last two months, there have been a large number of articles discussing the issue. 

- FENews proposes the use of a variety of question types, effective proctoring systems and different testing types e.g. using oral presentations or practice-based assessments instead of written exams.

- The conversation advices the need to rethink assessments. In particular, to ensure they are authentic i.e. connected to personal context or the course specific material. Project-based, group and inquiry/problem based learning are recommended.

- workhe.com recommends that educators trust their students and to take on the possibility of discussing with students, the pros and cons of using AI to augment, or scaffold their work.

- Pulse in the context of teacher education reminds us that learning is a process, not a product or artefact. Hence authentic assessments are the way to go.

- uts provides good ideas on how students and teachers can draw on AI to support their work. Good ideas include asking students to use ChatGPT to generate a response to the assessment and then set up the criteria to critique the response and provide feedback to improve on it. 

In all, it is important to include context into assignments and to ensure students take ownership and responsibility for their learning. AI in the form of Chatbots able to provide responses which mimic those of humans, are here to stay. They will also improve rapidly as they learn from the feedback to responses provide by users. Therefore, it is important to ensure educators understand the implications and work through the consequences. The opportunity is now provisioned to improve learning and assessment processes, so that assessments are for learning and not of learning. 

Awkward intelligence - where AI goes wrong, why it matters and what can we do about it

 This book by Professor Katherina A. Zweig provides an overview of AI, especially on the caveats of depending on its outputs and the need for ethics when drawing on AI as a collated / sifter / decision maker.

Of note is an explanation of the computer science behind the algorithms which underlie AI. This is of especial importance as new generations of AI, exampled by ChatGPT and the incorporation of this technology into search engines - see the article by the Guardian on Google and Microsoft's swift moves into integrating AI. The main caution is that the algorithms governing how AI generates it's outputs, are far from perfect. Decisions made on outputs from prompts entered into the system contain bias, as the outputs are only as good as the data from which the outputs generated are made.

The argument in the book is that AI may be best for situations where things are 'black and white' eg. as in playing chess or go. Given the inherent fuzziness of the human condition and the greyness / continuums of things for may situations, AI may not be able to respond authentically, ethically or creatively to challenges which do not have clear cut answers. 

Innovative approaches to Technology-enhanced learning for workplace and higher education

 This is a compilation of papers from the 'Learning ideass' conference held in 2022. The proceedings are edited by D, Guralnick, M. A. Auer, and A. Poce ad published as a book by Springer. 

There are 56 papers. The bulk of the papers come from the conference's main stream with 4 - 5 papers in two special tracks - emotional approaches and inclusive learning. 

Abstracts and references are available for all the papers. Several papers of interest to dip in and out of. 

Presentation on - AI-Powered Productivity: Unlocking the Potential of ChatGPT and Other Tools in your Training Business

 Notes from the presentation organised by Skills Education PD (Australia) with Tracy Sheen on zoom.

Approached AI from a small business perspective. Shared popular AI tools along with the websites which up-to-dates onAI apps/platforms. 

Began with a demonstration of ChatGPT. Assured everyone that AI has been around quite a long time but not as visible as with Chat GPT. Currently, available in the US of A, upgrade for US$20 a month provides quicker access at all time. Upgrades rolled out across all countries over the next few weeks. Consensus across the audience was that they would not pay for the service.

Of interest during the demonstration, is the iterative process of providing greater specificity with each prompt, to allow for generation of more refined output at each pass. Also, to use the content in several contexts - as per marketing spiel, suggest course names, as a blog, convert to email etc. Posits the need to focus on critical thinking to come up with the right prompts and then to use the right parameters to refine the outputs to meet envisaged quality/usability etc. of the product. ChatGPT's strength is to be a nudge/scaffolding tool to get things started.

Canva 'Magic Write'  provided as an example by one of the participants. Only available for paid educational account users. Similar to ChatGPT which works within a document. 

Grammarly or Quillbot have basic tools with more functions for the paid version provide further refinement to the outputs generated by ChatGPT. 

Cody provides the ability to collate and work on organisational / business documents. A database of company documents, policies, web content etc. can be drawn on to provide customised business documents.

Futurepedia and Futuretools collate AI apps / platforms as they are launched, have search tools to help find specific AI tools and archives AI related news. Many image and video AI generators along with the usual text generators. 

Recommends synthesia (paid subscription) as a video generator, especially if your video needs a customised avatar to present content. Customisation of gender, race, language, accent and add background music! Another option is pictory

otter.ai is a voice meeting notes and transcription tool suggested.

So, it is now possible to have AI generated content, presented by an AI generated avatar on an AI created video and have the video transcript AI generated as well. 

As always, what is the objective and how can AI be used to trigger creativity, save time / increase productivity, and generate content. Good session with lots of participation from everyone attending. 

Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education - open access

 This open access book published by Springer at the end of last year and edited by Olaf Zawacki and Insung Jung, collects a contemporary range of articles on open, distance and digital education. This field is very large and the book captures some of the work and projects undertaken.

The book has 80 chapters. An introductory chapter by the editors sets the scene and providers a summary of each of the six sections. Sections include:

- the macro level overview of the field with history, theory and research

- collated global perspectives and internationalization

- the meso level reports on institutional perspectives, management and organisation with leadership and change

- meso level infrastructure , quality assurance and support systems

- the micro level with learning and teaching including learners, teachers, media and technology

- design, delivery and assessment.

All in, a good range of articles to dig into as the need/interest arises. The entire book can also be downloaded as with each chapter.