Putting the AI in Academia: GenAI's impact on education

Generative AI has had a stunning impact on many industries and sectors, but few have felt the shockwave more than education. It seems like within the first 12 hours of ChatGPT’s launch, students were already testing its ability to produce essays, articles, discussion posts, and all of the other detritus of academia.

I teach at the University of Denver, and in the last 18 months or so, AI has moved from a lecture theme in computer science to a fog that’s spread across every corner of our physical and online campus.

But here’s the thing: It’s not all bad. In fact, as we collectively learn the strengths and weaknesses of generative AI systems, this will force a revolution in education. Done right, students will have an endlessly patient, remarkably smart private tutor that’s just as available during 2:00 am crunchtime as it would be mid-afternoon on a rainy day. AI companions can help students explore concepts and ideas, offer key points and considerations for the most complex of topics, and even critique and offer insightful feedback on essays before they need to be submitted for a grade.

AI is also a revolution on the teacher’s side of the lectern, with powerful tools readily available to help create lesson plans, fine-tune assignment rubrics, inject an often-needed dose of humor or fun into a mundane lecture, and so much more. However, just as students can misuse these tools, I believe that professors and teachers leaning on AI tools for actual grading and assessment will be misusing the technology.

Let’s go back in time for a moment…

Do you remember the grind? The “general education” classes and “electives for credit hours” that define too much of an undergraduate college experience? One of the other changes that generative AI is fueling – I hope! – is that academic institutions will be forced to reconsider the entire concept of a bachelor’s degree.

In case you can’t quite remember all the courses you took back in college, a typical undergrad degree consists of 40-45 courses, of which 30%-50% are in your major. That means that a four-year degree typically demands that a student spend at least two years studying other subjects.

But today, the AI-powered student experience can change this dramatically. No more struggling with incomprehensible professors and unintelligible (or unavailable) teaching assistants, as students can have their own subject matter expert just a few keystrokes away.

Imagine that each student has an AI pal that increases its knowledge as courses are taken, so that in the first year, the AI’s interaction with the student is focused on basic concepts, but by the third year, it can synthesize the content of a half-dozen courses and offer customized tutorials and advice for the student at the exact point where they are in their academic journey. Not only that, but this AI pal will “graduate” with the student, so the college grad can continue using it as an expert advisor even after joining the workforce.

This is a completely different way of looking at higher education, and really, of looking at all education, and it’s powered by the generative AI tools that we professionals are already using. Oh, and this AI buddy won’t write essays, but will be quite capable of prompting students to think for themselves and ensure that they don’t omit critical facts and events.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’ll be back in a few weeks with further thoughts about how to steer education in this direction, along with some tales from the trenches as an instructor at the undergraduate and graduate school levels. I hope you’ll join me on this adventure!