AI and Libraries 5: Student Learning and Generative AI (GenAI)

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 A post by Michelle Breen for the AI and Libraries seminar University of Galway, November 2024

A walk through any of our libraries observing student behaviours as they work on assignments or a chat to any students currently in third level will reveal the myriad GenAI tools that students are using for their academic work. A 2024 survey by Campus Technology on the use of GenAI by University students found that 86% of them are using GenAI (Kelly 2024). Even with the high costs associated with being a university student, some pay monthly fees for the premium versions of these tools, such is their value to them in their academic work.

GenAI use by students in higher education is a hot topic. Godsk and Elving in their 2024 work found that many educators they surveyed shared concerns about the transparency, accountability, and reliability of ChatGPT answers and also confirmed that they are worried about permissible use and cheating. An IEEE study (Laato et al. 2023) examined a Bachelor-level computer science curriculum from a Finnish university and examined the impact of ChatGPT on the course. While some of the findings relate specifically to Computer Science as a discipline, the research surfaces more generalisable downsides and implications for students' learning in higher education where AI-assisted learning becomes commonplace. For example, “LLMs may summarize or understand some parts of the material wrongly”, “uploading copyrighted course material there for processing may be an ethical or a legal issue”, and “reading summaries as opposed to full texts may hinder the ability to understand the nuances in the given topic” (Laato et al. 2023, p. 229).

While there is no hard and fast rule about the use of GenAI tools in our Universities, lecturers are permitting their use in many cases. For brevity, and we can delve in more detail in to the pros and cons at our seminar in Galway, some of the benefits of using GenAI for coursework are as follows:

  1. GenAI can inspire students by providing new perspectives and ideas. It can help them to brainstorm topics, generate outlines, and even suggest creative approaches to their assignments, fostering a more innovative mindset. 
  2. Gen AI tools can save students time in formatting and citation generation. This allows students to focus more on critical thinking, maybe even have more time for reading and for interacting with the content once the traditional stumbling blocks of ‘the blank page’ and tricky referencing are in hand.
  3. By using using GenAI tools for drafting and editing, students can learn to improve their writing; or at a minimum, present a better standard of work. Using Jenni.ai or Perplexiti.ai for drafting can be a help. This needs to be considered very carefully in the context of the discipline within which they are studying – an English writing module may not welcome the GenAI tool doing the work but perhaps in a scientific subject it could improve the written work of a student who might otherwise struggle with writing. The tools will offer suggestions on grammar, style, and structure, helping students to refine their work and develop better writing habits over time.
  4. Personalized learning is facilitated by GenAI tools as they can adapt quite readily to individual learning styles and needs based on the prompts they are fed.  They can provide personalized feedback and recommendations, helping students understand their strengths and areas for improvement. These benefits can enhance the student’s learner experience, making learning more efficient, engaging, and personal.

Given the prevalence of GenAI tools in higher education, libraries are centrally positioned to support and enhance student learning with these new tools. We can do that by firstly understanding learner needs and practices. Today’s students are diverse, tech-savvy, and often juggling multiple responsibilities. They seek ways to work smarter, and faster, and will often look to the appealing technologies they hear about from friends or social media to get an assignment completed faster. As educators, we need to work with our professional networks, each other, and our students to help navigate the choppy and uncharted GenAI waters. We must help our students recognise that a fine line exists between being more productive and ‘cutting corners’, which can impact both their knowledge and skills that will be of use for their future careers e.g. critical analysis, reading and evaluation of sources. There is much to be learned by talking to students and tuning in to popular student platforms to understand some of these new GenAI tools and the ways in which they’re being used in information-seeking and scholarly work. Building our own knowledge and confidence is a crucial first step.

Task for readers

Your task, ahead of the CONUL Training and Development seminar on November 28th, is to watch this 11 minute video GenAI and student learning from the University of Sydney to hear about the ways students are using GenAI.

At our seminar, I'd pose the following questions for the roundtable discussion:

  1. Should libraries support the transformative impact that GenAI is and how students are learning? If so, how do they do this?
  2. How can critical research skills be preserved while supporting students with using GenAI tools to find, evaluate and use information?
  3. What knowledge and skills do Library staff need to support students with critical and responsible use of GenAI?
I look forward to the discussion with you in Galway on November 28th.

You can also submit a short response based on any of the above questions for purposes of the AI blog contest, submit link to blog post or shared document here  by close of business, 25th November (reminder: only those attending the conference are eligible, and only one submission per person).

References

References

Godsk, M. & Elving, P.R. (2024) ‘ChatGPT for learning in higher education: benefits, downsides, and implications’, Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 35(1), 31-69, available: https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/222471/ [accessed 18th Oct 2024].

Kelly, R. (2024) Survey: 86% of Students Already Use AI in Their Studies, Campus Technology, available: https://campustechnology.com/Articles/2024/08/28/Survey-86-of-Students-Already-Use-AI-in-Their-Studies.aspx#:~:text=Survey%3A%2086%25%20of%20Students%20Already,Their%20Studies%20%2D%2D%20Campus%20Technology [accessed 10th Oct 2024].

Laato, S., Morschheuser, B., Hamari, J. & Bjorne, J. (2023) ‘AI-Assisted Learning with ChatGPT and Large Language Models: Implications for Higher Education’, in 2023 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT), IEEE, 226–230, available: DOI: 10.1109/ICALT58122.2023.00072.

Liu, D. (2024) ‘GenAI and Student Learning’  TEQSAGov, available: Generative AI and reflective writing [accessed 4th November 2024].

O'Dea, X.C. and O'Dea, M. (2023) ‘Is artificial intelligence really the next big thing in learning and teaching in higher education? A conceptual paper’, Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 20(5), available: https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3205&context=jutlp [accessed 29th Oct 2024].

University of Limerick (2024) Ai on Campus Student Perspective [podcast], available: https://open.spotify.com/show/6fV9elHJcaXgbupQDjQDEL [accessed 29th Oct 2024].



Michelle Breen is the Head of Learning and Engagement at the Glucksman Library at the University of Limerick (UL) and is a member of a working group at UL that wrote the University’s new policy on Academic Integrity.  With Margaret Phelan, Digital Learning Specialist at the Glucksman Library, and colleagues from the University of Limerick’s IT, Academic Integrity and CTL departments, Michelle led a project at UL to provide a 5-day staff CPD offering called ‘Let’s Talk GenAI’ in May 2024, a course that saw over 200 staff at the University sign up for an introductory online course about Generative Ai. Since then, Michelle and her colleagues from the Library, Margaret Phelan, and Ailish Larkin have collaborated with the same campus partners on a 1-hour student workshop, also an introduction to Generative Ai.  

 Michelle is the Library Association of Ireland’s representative on the National Academic Integrity Network (NAIN).

With thanks to colleagues Ailish Larkin, Margaret Phelan and MaryClaire Kennedy at the University of Limerick for input to this blog post.

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