Student Changemakers projects on AI

In response to the challenges posed by Generative AI the UCL ChangeMakers team led a co-creator project to address concerns and misconceptions about AI in Higher Education and bridge the gap between staff and students. The project introduced four themes: assessment, feedback, learning support and exploring AI, offering a range of ideas for staff to adapt. In response to the original call and the £600 stipend for student involvement the team received a substantial number of applications from both staff and students. They are now sharing the results through a series of blog posts and lunch time sessions.

Changemakers supported 61 projects, which involved collaborations with 83 students. There were projects across all UCL Faculties.
The 61 projects fell under these themes:

• Assessment and Feedback – 17
• Learning Support – 15
• Exploring AI – 29

• • Using AI tools for Science Communication projects in Natural Sciences – Dr Amy Unsworth and student Ben Vengerik share the findings from their project on using AI tools for student Science Communication projects in Natural Sciences
  • Will AI prompt educators to create better problem-based-learning assessments? – Rashmi Mathews, Dominic Wong and Neil Roberts share learnings from their ChangeMakers AI Co-Creator project exploring how Chat-GPT got on with some problem-based-scenarios. Their learning from this has informed a number of practical suggestions for educators to think about when considering their own assessments in light of the advances in AI.
  • What is gained and lost from the writing process when using AI tools? – Peter Puxon, Ayanna Prevatt-Goldstein and Jessica Brooks in conversation with their three ChangeMakers Co-Creator students Anenyah Venkatesan, Zsofia Varga and Yishan Li. They reflect on what is gained and lost from the process of writing and reading after engaging with AI tools to work on an assignment.
  • How and why we’re co-creating the response to the use of AI at UCL – Abbie King reflects on how the team launched AI Co-Creator projects to unite staff and students in addressing AI-related challenges.
  • AI Assessment Hackathon – Academic staff from the Faculty of Medical Sciences and the Institute of Education (IOE) facilitated an AI assessment hackathon, aiming to investigate innovative ways of incorporating language models into assessments.

The lunchtime sessions will take place during October and November. More details are available on the AI co-creators site.

• Session 1: “Nothing replaces a student’s brain, it doesn’t have the flair a student has” – co-creating our approach to AI through dialogue, Wednesday 26th October, 1-2pm
• Session 2: ‘The blandness is its formulaic style’: insights to help understand the impact of AI on assessments, Wednesday 1^st November, 1-2pm
• Session 3: ‘If you go into Chat-GPT assuming you know what it’s doing, you are going to get a lot of things wrong’: understanding how we can support students to use AI well, Wednesday 15^th November, 1-2pm
• Session 4: ‘AI is going to completely change our education and our working lives’: exploring what AI means for us, Wednesday 22^nd November, 1-2pm
• Session 5: ‘We need to be aware of the impact and limitations that AI is going to have in our professions and in education broadly’: AI, Careers and the impact on professions, Wednesday 29^th November, 1-2pm

Here are my slides from session 2.