Complement, not replace: expert reveals how AI can benefit educators, students – podcast

It’s natural for educators to be cautious when it comes to using artificial intelligence (AI) in practice, particularly given the fact they are taught to be critical and evidence-driven. But while that may be the case, James Thorley, vice-president for APAC at Turnitin, says AI “is not going away” and can benefit both educators and students in a multitude of ways.

What’s key, he says, is that AI is seen as a complementary measure to unburden individuals from time-consuming, often menial tasks — not a replacement or “silver bullet”. 

In this podcast, Thorley highlights several benefits of AI, including some marking (e.g. short answer questions), ensuring academic integrity and eliminating what he calls “low-impact activities”. For Thorley, the goal of AI is to free up educators to spend more of their time on providing more meaningful feedback and instruction.

The vice president for APAC adds that AI can be highly beneficial for students too, with some automated feedback already available. He also says that AI is “not too far away from prompting students to review their citations” if there's a mismatch between in-text references and bibliographic entries.

Of course, data gleaned from AI can also provide insights educators would never have been able to access before. 

Do you have an idea for a story?
Email [email protected]