In advance of April’s #LTHE chat on X, the cross-institutional team behind the Advance HE Collaborative Development Fund project Towards inclusive intelligence: a comprehensive examination of GenAI attitudes among HE stakeholders, lead by Dr Sara Preston, explore staff and student perspectives on the evolving relationship between GenAI and educational practice.
Since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022, and the world becoming aware of large language models, higher education institutions have been grappling with the implications of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools in learning and teaching and their impact on higher education. Over this time, a range of institutional perspectives have emerged, from the early calls to ban AI in education, to more measured approaches.
Most institutions have now introduced or updated policies to cover the use of GenAI and have been providing guidance and support for staff and students on how it can be used in education. However, given the changing spectrum of GenAI technologies, keeping up to date can be challenging.
Against this background, staff and students understandably have a range of viewpoints and experiences in relation to GenAI. Whilst some portray this as a polarised debate, the reality is more nuanced. Neither staff nor students are a homogenous group, instead comprising of people with a range of digital and information literacies, capabilities, perspectives and experiences.
