Institution:  University of Galway

Discipline:   Teaching and Learning

Author:  Iain MacLaren

GenAI tool(s) used:  MS Copilot

 

Situation / Context

This is a workshop session, developed under the auspices of the university’s Digital Champions (DigiChamps) scheme which organises and facilitates workshops, seminars, and other events which are open to any staff or student to participate in.

DigiChamps aims to build confidence in using technologies for study, teaching, employment, and creativity.  This particular event was part of a series throughout the academic year, held in Áras na Mac Leinn (student centre) over lunchtime (with pizza and refreshments provided). The pilot run of this workshop had over 30 participants (around 10 of whom were staff mix of academic and professional) and feedback has been used to refine the materials for future runs. It presumes no, or little, prior knowledge of the topic and offers hands on, collaborative activities.

Task / Goal

The aim here was to provide participants with broad general knowledge about AI and Gen AI in particular, and experience of working with a Gen AI tool for a number of different types of tasks, whilst sharing ideas with others. By the end of the session participants should feel a little more confident about Gen AI aware of its opportunities and limitations, know what is available to them in the institution and be interested in learning more.

Actions / Implementation

The venue was a classroom with seating arranged around tables for groupwork and the workshop session was structured as follows:

A general introductory overview (slide presentation covering the distinction between AI and Gen AI, the range of tools, and some humorous examples of where things can go wrong)

A brief contribution from the SU Education convenor on academic integrity aspects

Short presentation of Copilot, the Gen AI tool available to all staff and students in the university

Activities:  each table/group has a set of activity cards describing different applications of Gen AI and the group is asked to work through these together, chipping in ideas and changing parameters/prompts.

The facilitators moved around ensuring engagement by asking questions, helping out, and encouraging everyone to participate.

The specific tasks were using Copilot to :

• Summarise documents and ask/answer questions based on these.
• Set up and playing a role-playing fantasy game to explore dialogue, rule setting, and the extent to which the conversation can sustain interest or focus.
• Design logos and then do a reverse-image search to see how easy it is to identify similar designs which may have in fact been in the training data of the AI.
• Prompt Copilot to be an Irish language teacher/tutor and explore its language capabilities.

A final plenary session where questions were discussed and comments made, facilitated by the main presenter and supported by colleagues,

The overall workshop timeframe was 1.5-2 hours, with a number of participants continuing discussion afterwards.

Outcomes

​​The intent here was to raise awareness, provide some initial experience of using a Gen AI tool, and support discussion and experimentation. The mix of participants was helpful, particularly (as is the intention of the wider DigiChamps scheme) having both students and staff present which can often help break down misconceptions and generalisations. In this particular workshop a number of the participants did have more extensive experience and knowledge of Gen AI and so were able to share that with the wider group, providing some effective illustrative examples of the issues in Gen AI in teaching, learning, and assessment.

The evaluation was on the basis of feedback and reflection of the facilitators, two of whom played observer roles during the presentation and sought input from the participants in each of the groups/tables, thus informing their overall reflection. The overall response from participants was highly positive with suggestions that such training should be more widespread and that guidelines need to be developed and shared across the institution, particularly with regards to what is legitimate use in the teaching and learning context.

The final outcome is a slightly revised version of the workshop and plans to deliver this experience again. The experience is also being written up as a contribution to a European project in which we are partners and the materials will be made available through open licensing.​

Reflections

​​As stated, this was a pilot and so we were keen to engage with the participants and listen to their suggestions and comments. Most of the attention was on the practical tasks, but these were used to stimulate discussion, raise other questions, and encouraged people to share their own experiences.  One of the key challenges is the continual development of the tools, meaning that future iterations of the workshop will most likely always have to be updated, but also the distinction between the officially licensed Copilot and the other tools which are more widely known and a little more emphasis could be placed on the importance of understanding the different implications of using different products.​

Digital Resources

NAIN, QQI. (2023). Generative Artificial Intelligence: Guidelines for Educators.

DigiChamps Toolkit for organising similar schemes/events.

Overview of DigiChamps

The slides used for the presentation and as the basis of the ‘activity cards’ are available here.

Author Biography

Dr Iain MacLaren, Director of the Centre for Excellence in Learning & Teaching (CELT), was the designer and main presenter of the workshop. But the session was co-facilitated and supported by Gráinne McGrath and Blaneth McSharry both of whom run the DigiChamps scheme and are members of staff in CELT.  In the pilot run of the workshop, Raimey O’Boyle, from the SU also presented briefly on academic integrity aspects.