News Story

Exploring Innovations in Education: A Seminar on AI and Learning

Nancy Pontika, Wednesday 30 Oct 2024

On 23 October 2024, the OU Library Atrium hosted a compelling seminar featuring short presentations from leading researchers in the field of AI and education. The event, running from 13:00 to 14:00, showcased insights from several experts, including Dr Aisling Third and Prof Miriam Fernandez from KMi.

Dr. Third presented on the transformative potential of large language models (LLMs) in adult education, sharing exciting experiments conducted at the Open University. She demonstrated the AI Digital Assistant (AIDA) and AI Module Writing Assistant (AIMWA) projects, which explore the use of generative AI to support OU student learning and course development. AIDA is currently being trialled on the OU’s OpenLearn platform, enabling students to ask questions about their course, generate practice and revision activities, rephrase concepts in simpler or more detailed terms, and engage with live-generated AI video avatars. AIMWA has been successfully tested to support the development of materials for OU modules and short courses, drawing on existing material and scholarly publications. This helps course teams avoid the “blank page” problem, create alternative text versions for purposes such as accessibility, and generate practice activities like quizzes.

Prof Fernandez discussed the current work of the OUAnalyse team including: (i) the Early Alert Indicators Dashboard (EAID), a tool aimed at alerting our Associated Lectures when students are at risk, helping to increase student retention and address awarding gaps at the OU (ii) a student-facing version of the EAID, currently under the 2nd year pilot, aiming to help students monitor their progress, enhance learning motivation, and encourage remedial action to improve study habits and performance, (iii) an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Dashboard, aiming to provide module teams with actionable insights to reduce existing awarding gaps at the OU and (iv) a Responsible AI framework for Learning Analytics in HE, providing Higher Education Institutions with actionable guidance on hot incorporate responsible AI principles into their LA initiatives.

Additional presentations included contributions from David Hayes, Dr Michel Wermelinger, Dr Mirjam Hauck, and Dr Haider Ali, who collectively examined the challenges and opportunities posed by generative AI in learning and teaching. This engaging session fostered discussions on innovative strategies to enhance education through technology.