Artificial Intelligence (AI)

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While Generative AI technologies have existed for many years, recent rapid advances in the field have pushed these technologies into mainstream use across society. As higher education institutions grappled with these new technologies, initial responses focused on potentially significant threats to academic integrity. However, as our understandings have evolved, there is an increasing awareness that these developing technologies also present opportunities for teaching, learning, assessment and research in higher education.

Against this rapidly evolving backdrop, we in the Centre for Academic Practice (Trinity College Dublin) found ourselves faced with new challenges. How could we best support our educators to respond to the challenges of GenAI? How might we influence and support strategic initiatives and policy development regarding GenAI for teaching, learning and assessment at the institutional level? Conscious that our colleagues across the sector were facing similar challenges, we decided to initiate a cross-institutional collaboration with teaching and learning leaders from across the sector, where we could tackle this together!

In the denouement of the COVID-19 pandemic, talk of a return to “normalcy” in higher education belies the great challenges and ongoing disruptions that yet lie ahead for many institutions. Public perceptions of the value of postsecondary education continue their downward slide, placing institutions in the position of having to demonstrate their worth and find solutions to declining enrollments. Data and analytics capabilities continue to evolve, introducing new opportunities and new risks to the institution. Chief among these capabilities, generative AI promises to change teaching and learning in ways many of us have yet to fully understand or prepare for.

For this year’s teaching and learning Horizon Report, expert panelists’ discussions highlighted and wrestled with these present and looming challenges for higher education. This report summarizes the results of those discussions and serves as one vantage point on where our future may be headed.