14 November 2024
Eden Catalyst Funding available for projects focusing on Generative AI and Education
This academic year, the LSE Catalyst Spotlight Fund is on projects focusing on Generative AI and Education. This might include projects focusing on assessment, teaching and learning, course and programme design, developing generative AI literacy or exploring student and staff experiences and perspectives.
Applications should follow the usual process for Catalyst funding, as outlined on the Catalyst website. All applications engaging with the theme of Generative AI will be reviewed for approval by a panel including Professor Emma McCoy, Vice President and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education), and Dr Claire Gordon, Director, LSE Eden Centre, early in Winter Term.
The closing deadline for applications to the Catalyst Spotlight Fund on Generative AI is Thursday 19 December 2024.
7 November 2024
The first article from The Genial Project is now available - "Approach Generative AI Tools Proactively or Risk Bypassing the Learning Process in Higher Education."
The growing reliance of students on GenAI for learning and assessment risks undermining the learning process in the absence of adequate support and guidance. Given the pressures on outcomes, students tend to focus more on assessment or performance than the learning journey. This raises some important questions: How can we bring GenAI into the curriculum in ways that genuinely support learning rather than replace it? Co-authored with Jon Cardoso-Silva, Marcos Ennes Barreto, Francesca Panero, Ghita Berrada, Sara Luxmoore. Data analysed in collaboration with student researchers.
More information is available via the PPR and LSE websites. The Genial Project was made possible via Catalyst funding -see the Catalyst website for more details.
2 October 2024
In June 2024, a group of academics from King’s College London and LSE came together to explore the future of the essay in the age of AI. The aim of the resulting manifesto (finalised in September) is to stimulate debate, foster reflection and provide educators and students alike with an analytical framework for reimagining the essay as a dynamic tool for learning and assessment in the AI era.
Read the manifesto
You can read expansions on the ideas of the Manifesto in both the LSE HE Blog and the LSE Impact Blog.
- GENIAL (GENerative AI Tools as a Catalyst for Learning) is a Collaborative Focus Group aiming explore the practical applications of these tools and understand how they might specifically enhance programming skills and critical thinking.
- ‘Talking Teaching’ is a new series of events hosted by LSE’s Education Career Track (ECT) network but open to colleagues across LSE and in wider HE with an interest in sharing practice and exploring different aspects of teaching and learning. The inaugural event on 2 November 2023 explored generative AI and Education and you can watch three presentations on the LSE Eden Centre YouTube channel.
- This report outlines the findings of a student-led research project exploring student attitudes towards academic integrity, assessment and artificial intelligence with recommendations for practice.
- The 2023 LSE Education Symposium was on the theme of assessment and had a number of speakers and sessions dedicated to AI. You can watch the opening address of the symposium here.
Latest from the LSE HE Blog
The LSE HE Blog has a number of posts exploring topics relating to generative AI and education - click here to explore.
Events and workshops
The Eden Centre organises and promotes sessions to support staff, share good practice and explore some of the questions, challenges and affordances posed by generative AI tools.
Upcoming workshops are linked below and we are also happy to work with colleagues to tailor and deliver any of these sessions in Departments.
If you have any queries about any of the sessions, or would like to organise one in your Department, please contact eden@lse.ac.uk.
Demystifying AI: an introduction to Microsoft CoPilot and other gen AI Tools
Friday 8 November (12-1.30pm)
With Microsoft CoPilot having recently been made available for all LSE staff and students, this practical workshop explores the fast-moving world of generative AI. Staff will have the opportunity to experiment with Microsoft CoPilot and other popular generative AI tools in a supported sandbox environment. The workshop will look at potential uses across teaching, research and assessment. Participants can jump start their engagement with gen AI tools, build confidence with CoPilot and further explore this fast-moving aspect of the education landscape.
Putting students at the heart of Assessment Design in the GenAI era
Wednesday 29 January (1-3pm)
To ensure the validity of our assessment tasks in the context of AI, we need to understand how AI can either hinder or facilitate the ways in which students demonstrate their learning in specific assessment scenarios. This workshop provides an opportunity for participants to evaluate their assessments from a student-centred perspective. They will gain insights into how students engage with formative assessment design and feedback, with a strong emphasis on effectively measuring the key aspects of learning in summative assessments.
Other potential sessions that might be of interest to Departments include
- Designing assessment across a programme
- Delivering assessment transformation and empowering staff
- AI in Marking and feedbackP
Please contact eden@lse.ac.uk if you want to discuss arranging a session.
LSE Change Makers' perspectives on AI and assessment
Some of our LSE Change Makers student groups considered the topic of AI and its evolving role in HE staff and student life in 2023/24, and fed back to their peers and the School leadership in ST. Below are the links to the papers and presentations:
Student use and perceptions of Generative AI in their career development
A comparative Study of Students' Attitudes to the Use of Generative AI and Academic Integrity
Understanding Students' View on LSE generative AI Policy
Videos from past events
You may also wish to explore the discussions which took place at our Winter Term Education Forum on generative AI and Education via our page here.