CEI Newsletter
Introduction
In the rapidly evolving landscape of higher education, educational technology (EdTech) tools are not just supplemental; they’re becoming central to delivering innovative and effective teaching and learning experiences. Generative AI, as a frontier technology in EdTech, introduces new dimensions to both opportunities and challenges. As we navigate this new terrain, it is imperative to understand how these tools can transform educational practices and outcomes.
Contents
1
The Education & Generative AI (EDGE-AI):
First Year Milestone Report
2
Grading with AI:
Revolutionize Your Assessment Process
3
Cyber Physical Learning Alliance series:
The Future of Education
4
Teaching Excellence Alliance (HKTEA) Symposium 2024
EDGE AI
The Education & Generative AI (EDGE-AI):
First Year Milestone Report
Generative AI presents both significant potential and challenges within the educational landscape. Understanding its impact on learners and integrating it effectively into active learning are crucial as we move forward. The Education & Generative AI (EDGE-AI) Fund, launched in Spring of 2023, seeks to support academics dedicated to informing and shaping the best practices for GenAI in higher education.
Objectives of EDGE-AI Funded Projects
The fundamental objectives of the EDGE-AI Fund are to encourage faculty and teaching staff to:
initiate and experiment innovative ideas in their teaching with generative AI tools
promote innovation in curriculum design that creates new and engaging learning experiences
develop new assessment methods that leverage on the affordances of generative AI
facilitate professional development and knowledge transfer
Funded Projects
CEI has supported a wide range of innovative projects, each exploring and developing best practices for GenAI in higher education. Funded projects cover an array of applications including developing new teaching tools, establishing ways to integrate AI into current subjects and courses, and critically researching the potential impacts GenAI has on learning.
Scroll down to learn more about these projects and gain insight into CEI’s commitment to effective teaching and learning practices.
EDGE AI
Innovation Exchange:
EDGE-AI Roundtable Workshop
Having reached the one-year milestone since funding the first batch of projects, it’s an opportune time to convene all project leaders to discuss their objectives, challenges, and impacts. Here is a recording of the event.
A lot of insightful discussions at the event couldn’t be shared through the video, so our Research Assistant, Zack, created a report summarising the discussed topics, identified themes, and some guidelines for using GenAI in education, which is a must-read.
The Tin Man Dilemma: Why AI Needs a Heart to Win Our Trust
Prof Brad Bitterly, Prof David Hagmann, Miss Mingyu Li
EDGE AI
Navigating the Future of Learning
with Generative AI
Besides the Roundtable event, we also hosted a sharing session where two of our EDGE-AI projects shared their progress, findings, and how these insights can help shape the new landscape of generative AI in teaching and learning.
Here is some information for the two projects:
Applied GenAI in Project-based Learning Environment
Dr Jac Leung
Educators stress ethics and human oversight in AI. Jac’s workshop on AI-Powered Design Thinking explores Gen-AI tools in learning, enhancing idea generation, decision-making, and user research through hands-on activities.
Generative AI can provide individualized feedback at scale, but it’s seen as less benevolent and trustworthy than human feedback. To minimize this risk, instructors should avoid using AI in highly empathetic contexts and inform students that AI feedback has been human-reviewed.
If you missed this wonderful event, you can watch the recording here.
Grading with AI: How to Save Time,
Improve Feedback, & Increase Consistency
This spring semester has been bustling with activities, and we’re eager to share more with you. An interesting project led by Prof. Joon Nak Choi and our director Dr. Sean McMinn focuses on using AI in grading student assignments. Here are some information of the workshop where they shared this project.
Grading and assessment continue to be significant challenges for many educators. It requires considerable time and effort to grade assignments. It requires even more time and energy to provide quality feedback, resulting in few instructors offering as many suggestions for improvement as they would like. Finally, even the most committed educators can lose focus after grading tens or even hundreds of essays, which may lead to inconsistent and unfair evaluations. Employing an AI grading assistant for preliminary essay assessment before human review can conserve educators' time, enhance the quality and timeliness of feedback, and promote consistency and fairness in grading. More broadly, AI-assisted grading presents an opportunity to reconsider the role of assessment in education and start realizing AI's considerable potential to transform the learning experience.
CPLA
Cyber Physical Learning Alliance Series:
The Future of Education
The other exciting thing we want to share is the series of workshops and talks featuring experts from the Cyber-Physical Learning Alliance (CPLA), including key guests from Tecnológico de Monterrey (TEC) and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), who will offer insights into the forefront of Cyber-Physical Learning (CPL). Through this series, we aim to deepen our collective understanding of CPL's transformative potential in higher education.
The sessions are designed to engage faculty members by showcasing innovative educational technologies and methods, such as living labs, learning analytics, and the use of portable EEG technology to assess learner concentration. These workshops equip faculty with tools to enhance teaching effectiveness and monitor learner engagement, and also foster data-informed decision-making. By utilizing empirical evidence, educators can tailor their teaching strategies to improve overall educational outcomes.
These talks are particularly relevant for colleagues experimenting with VR, AR, XR, and AI in their teaching, providing them with valuable insights into how these technologies can be integrated into educational practices. Each session will not only highlight groundbreaking research and applications but also encourage discussions about the ethical and effective use of technology in education.
Scroll down to to know more about the insightful talks!!
CPLA
Seminar 1: Enabling Educational Innovation
through the IFE Living Lab
This seminar explores the Living Lab Methodology at IFE, Tecnológico de Monterrey, where educational innovation is driven by practical experimentation. It covers the methodology’s history, application in education, stakeholder engagement, service evolution, success stories, and future directions.
CPLA
Seminar 2: Conduction Multimodal Learning
Analytics Research at IFE Experiential Classroom
This seminar explores multimodal learning analytics at IFE’s Experiential Classroom, Tecnológico de Monterrey. This modular space allows researchers, faculty, and companies to conduct educational research using multimodal technologies, covering learning analytics, student interactions, classroom analytics benchmarks, and the Experiential Classroom’s role.
CPLA
Workshop 1: Ideating a Future Classroom/
Living lab at HKUST
This is a hands-on guided workshop where participants will ideate together in small groups to discuss and generate concepts for a future classroom/living lab at HKUST. Participants will brainstorm and share ideas and features that a future classroom should have in the context of learning and teaching at HKUST. To facilitate ideation, examples of future classrooms of higher education institutes in Singapore will be shared. Through this workshop, the inputs collected will be used for future planning.
CPLA
Workshop 2: Assessing a Learner's
Concentration Using a Portable EEG Headband
This workshop explores concentration assessment using portable EEG technology. Participants will help develop a concentration assessment model through a multimodal learning analytics experiment. Brainwave activity and self-reports will be collected using EEG headbands during tasks, with data processed using IFE Living Lab’s innovative algorithms.
Teaching Excellence Alliance (HKTEA)
Symposium 2024
HKUST was well represented at the Hong Kong Teaching Excellence Alliance (HKTEA) Symposium 2024 held on 24 June 2024. The primary objective of this symposium is to showcase the exceptional work of the members of HKTEA and its CoP as well as fellow teachers from different institutions in promoting high-quality teaching over years.
Presentations from HKUST faculty members and students included:
Mr Jac LEUNG, Lecturer, Division of Integrative Systems and Design
FITE-IICA: Developing an AI Platform to Promote University Students’ Reflective Capacity
Dr Aftab AMIN, Teaching Associate, Division of Life Science
Application of Virtual Reality Technology and Gamification Pedagogy for the delivery of Animal Dissection, Anatomy and Physiology Education in Science
Mr Jungjin PARK, PhD student, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Immersive Technologies in Higher Education: What’s Next?
Professor Meike SAURWEIN, Lecturer, Division of Environment and Sustainability
Ms Evelyn Yu Shan PANG, Teaching Associate, Division of Environment and Sustainability
Unified for Change: Interdisciplinary Efforts in a Sustainability Education Community of Practice at HKUST
Presentations from HKUST colleagues included:
Dr Beatrice CHU, Head, Professional Development, Center for Education Innovation
Co-Creating the Future of Education: A Student Partnership Project
Dr Sean MCMINN, Director, Center for Education Innovation
Developing a Co-designer ChatGPT Platform to Support Instructors in Their Course Design
Mr Isaac Ka Chun WAN, Instructional Designer, Centre for Education Innovation
Enhancing Video Lecturing through Interactive Video Activities and Video Analytics
CEI | Center for Education Innovation
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The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong
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