Teaching Beyond the Curriculum
Abstract
The logarithmic growth in the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) such as Chat GTP, Bard and DALL-E over the past two years has caused a tsunami of discussion about the future of academia, students, employability, and the world. Many Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) were taken by surprise by the sudden engagement by students with Chat GPT at the start of 2023, and the summer of 2023 saw a plethora of amendments and revisions to academic framework regulations. For many if HEIs, GenAI is viewed as a series of existential threats: students “will” immediately use GenAI to write their coursework for them, none of the plagiarism detection software packages are remotely sophisticated enough to detect it, degrees and diplomas will become meaningless, and the ivory tower will fall (and with it ,all semblance of a sophisticated society). Many businesses of the other hand as embracing the use of GenAI as a tool to write reports, carry our research, and free the time of employees for different tasks. Law firms are starting to use GenAI to produce draft briefs, marketing companies to produce advertising strategies, architects to generate innovative building designs, and so on. To say that the business world has embraced GenAI is to say that it has embraced the Internet. This paper uses existing literature to trace this dichotomy, and explores how HEIs can better use GenAI to upskill students and prepare them for the employment opportunities which will actually exist in a few years’ time.
Simon Sneddon is an Associate Professor of Learning & Teaching and Deputy Head of Law at the University of Northampton. His teaching and research span environmental law and justice, firearms crime, and learning and teaching – the latter focusing on the appropriate use of technology in Higher Education.
Roshni Khatri is an Associate Professor in Learning and Teaching, and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Health Education and Society at the University of Northampton. Her research interests include the use of technology to enhance curricula and curriculum design using active blended learning.