Led by guest Hazel Farrell @renshigirl

Having started my career in higher education over 30 years ago emulating the old-style lecture model of my own undergraduate studies, I quickly reached a point where I wasn’t enjoying my job and my students couldn’t have been very inspired by my unengaging monologues. This marked the beginning of my personal quest to create positive and impactful learning experiences. My approach shifted to a collaborative model with peer learning implicit in this, while also developing more engaging learning materials and student-led assessments.

Technology has been integral to my ongoing evolution as an educator and therefore the emergence of GenAI into the education narrative was a wonderful moment for me. It presented as an accessible mechanism to enhance learning experiences with opportunities for personalised learning, instant feedback, and so much more. I became an early adopter and dived head-first into establishing an AI-enhanced classroom, which involved exploring the technology for teaching, learning, assessment re-design, marking rubrics, and feedback. Most importantly, I brought the students with me on this journey of discovery in an attempt to establish a culture of academic integrity from the outset. My approach to achieving this was a focus on transparency and collaboration, where we used GenAI together in the classroom and openly discussed both the benefits and challenges. My hope was to encourage responsible-use beyond the classroom, but I openly acknowledge that many of the AI-enabled activities were possible because of the small student numbers implicit in my discipline area.

Drawing on the learning from this GenAI exploration, I shared my experiences and student feedback widely in the higher education arena, and also channeled my knowledge into contributing to the development of guidelines and resources within the university to benefit colleagues and students. However, despite this proactivity and urgency I felt to inform myself and embrace GenAI, it became clear that many colleagues were not engaging for a variety reasons. A glaring gap emerged between the issuing of guidelines and resources, and the adoption of, or engagement with, same. The lack of acknowledgement by some that this disruptive technology is changing the landscape of higher education poses a problem in terms of the student experience, and the preparation of our learners for an AI-enhanced society. This is the quandary I am attempting to tackle this semester.

Biography

Dr Hazel Farrell is programme leader of the BA (Hons) Music at South East Technological University. Coming from a background in analytical musicology, Hazel is actively involved in technology enhanced learning with research focused on student engagement in creative disciplines. Recent explorations involve the use of generative AI to enhance learning experiences. In addition to her work on generative AI, she is also leading a research project on the integration of sustainability into higher education with specific focus on the arts. She is a recipient of the university’s Teaching Excellence Award and is a founder member of the SETU research group CASE (Creative Approaches to Student Engagement).