Innovation in the classroom
Universities face a whirlwind of challenges. But with innovation in their DNA, they need to embrace change, especially with the recognition of AI's growing potential.
By Niamh Ollerton
"More than ever, innovations in teaching are supporting higher education institutions to prepare students for their future careers."
Universities and higher education institutions across the globe must adapt to the world they find themselves in.
Whether it is due to government policy, the Office for Students, international competition, the expectations of millennials or Generation Z or the opportunities new technologies offer - higher education institutions are surrounded by a multitude of external changes and challenges they must respond and adapt to.
Of course, adapting, learning and moving with the times is in the sector’s DNA - with universities and business schools utilising the innovative minds of the faculty, students and wider community to thrive.
For example, in 2016, IE Business School launched the WOW Room, a pioneering offering when students were first introduced to it. But with advancements in technology and learning hard to ignore, IE has continued to adapt its WOW room offering to transform students' learning experiences through elements that include AI, simulations in real time, big data analysis, interactive robots, emotion recognition systems and the presence of experts using holograms.
More than ever, innovations in teaching are supporting higher education institutions to prepare students for their future careers, equipping them with the skills and experience they will need to succeed - with a firm focus on AI and the possibilities it has for not only the working world, but in education moving forward.
There are myriad benefits to AI in the classroom. When accompanying human intelligence, AI can increase productivity, making certain tasks more efficient; create new roles, jobs and industries; give workers more time and space for engaging in higher-level or creative thinking; benefit leaders by offering greater data-driven decision support.
The need to prepare the employees of the future with a greater understanding of this technology - and those that may come after it - has never been more apparent.
"Regardless of whether people are uncertain of the technology, we know that gen AI isn’t going anywhere."
The growing potential of Gen AI
There is ongoing potential for generative AI to not only disrupt multiple industries, but also alter skill requirements and job roles - which is why higher education institutions are enhancing their offerings with learning opportunities that prepare future leaders with the ability to strategically leverage AI for the future of business operations and processes.
Of course, the portfolio of skill development priorities within universities and business schools will likely undergo change as the technology and our use of it advances.
AACSB notes: “Although generative AI can serve as a valuable tool in course design, it is essential that faculty continue to develop courses, ensuring their authenticity and educational quality.
“Faculty members are encouraged to innovate with AI solutions that can aid in activities like providing timely feedback to students, delivering sections of the core curriculum, supplementing asynchronous learning or co-teaching.
“These adaptations will require that faculty invest their time and energy into learning and that the school incentivises and creates space for faculty to experiment, test and learn.”
NEOMA Business School is one such institution utilising AI across its pedagogy. NEOMA’s MS in Data Analytics course led by Alain Goudey, Associate Dean for Digital and Full Professor (HDR) of Marketing incorporated the technology into its delivery and learning outcomes for students in 2023 - marking an exciting new chapter for the programme.
The course demonstrates to students the numerous ways in which they can utilise different AI tools - because there are so many more options than just ChatGPT - throughout the course and for the final project.
Students can use gen AI to assess every phase of their project. If they find a long survey, gen AI can summarise it; use gen AI to go far deeper into market analysis, enhancing their cross market understanding.
Goudey says: “They have so much power in their hands – far better than the previous generation of my students. And so, I want my students to be ambitious in their ideas, for example, if they want to create a website, even if they can’t code, they can with this tech.”
However, even though we live in a more technologically savvy world today with the vast array of tech at our fingertips - Goudey notes it doesn’t necessarily mean students know how to use these technologies in an effective way without being educated.
“At the beginning of the programme 100 percent of our students said they were using generative AI already, but when we looked at how they were using the technology, only 40 percent were switching within their group setting to use gen AI, and only 5 percent at the end of the day were using gen AI in a smart way,” he adds.
Across higher education, universities and business schools are making a more conscious effort to focus on necessary innovations to ensure students make the most out of this technology.
The University of Oxford is set to share in a £80 million investment to develop next-generation AI technologies, supporting nine new AI research hubs in the UK, one of which will be based at the University of Oxford’s Department for Computer Science.
The Oxford hub, led by Professor Michael Bronstein, DeepMind Chair in Artificial Intelligence, Department of Computer Science will focus on the mathematics and computational research which is foundational to AI, which could unlock new, more efficient AI systems. In particular, the hub will look for new AI breakthroughs by employing theoretical tools from currently underexplored mathematical fields.
“Mathematicians from a wide range of different fields – particularly geometry, topology and probability – will benefit from this gateway to new problems, applications, opportunities, and collaborations,” says Professor Bronstei.
“At the same time, researchers working in machine learning and AI will benefit from the transformative influx of new expertise, new ideas, and new tools. Overall, we expect a transformative cross-fertilisation.”
The role of AI in education has been a topic that has divided the opinions of many - but regardless of whether people are uncertain of the technology, we know that gen AI isn’t going anywhere.
“I believe business schools need to evolve to integrate all this type of tech deeply into the learning experience,” says Goudey. "We need to master AI tech, and develop our own tech, and that’s what we are trying to do at NEOMA.”
