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Blog

January 8, 2025 6 min read

Effective Use of AI in Higher Education

Industry:

EducationHigher Education

Solution:

Artificial IntelligenceHigher EducationStaff TrainingStudent Training

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is almost inescapable. It’s embedded in tools used in everyday life – from Google searches to Amazon and Netflix recommendations to mapping apps. AI is also rapidly reshaping the landscape of higher education, offering the potential to transform classrooms, administrative operations, and more. With the growing presence of AI, it is important for colleges and universities to establish guidelines for the responsible use of AI and help faculty, staff, and students understand how to use the tools and the benefits and risks of AI.

Vector Solutions recently partnered with Dr. Camille Crittenden, a Vector course author who has written and spoken widely on AI governance and applications in higher education, for a webinar to help higher education institutions navigate the new landscape of AI.

Benefits And Risks of AI In Higher Education

AI can be a useful tool in higher education. Crittenden says institutions use it primarily in three ways.

  • To support efficiency. Chatbots can be trained to answer questions about admissions, financial aid, library resources, etc. Instructors can use AI for functions like grading, tutoring, designing a syllabus, or even generating tests. It can also assist in drafting letters of recommendation or applying for grants. HR teams can use it to write job descriptions and performance evaluations.
  • To support students. If an instructor has a large class, it can be difficult to provide personalized support to every student. AI can provide custom tutoring to help students who need help with the material while reducing the workload for staff. It can also support first-generation students by sending them texts reminding them of dates and deadlines for forms they must fill out and other things they must do before classes start in the fall to help them feel prepared for college.
  • To support equity. AI chatbots can be set up to converse in multiple languages, and AI can support assistive devices and platforms, making learning more accessible to all students.

In some cases, AI has also been used to support student wellness. For instance, AI can provide students with an interactive chatbot that can give them general support around mental health issues and direct them to resources. It can be set up to identify red flags so it can put the student in touch with a live professional.

Although AI has many benefits, it also has risks. AI can be biased and can make false predictions. It’s important to fully understand what AI tools do, their limitations, and when humans need to step in.

Helping Faculty, Staff, And Students Navigate AI

Crittenden said that principles such as privacy, security, accuracy, and transparency should be considered when considering the use of AI. Several professional and academic associations provide recommendations and guidance on the ethical use of AI, and there has been discussion on the federal level of securing a commitment from leading AI companies to manage risks posed by AI.

Some ways institutions can support staff and students when it comes to AI are:

  • Create committees and share best practices. Faculty and staff want guidance around AI – how to use it and what they should allow students to use it for. Creating an AI committee or working group can help the university develop and share best practices that fit the needs of the institution and its faculty and staff.
  • Build awareness about AI policies and protocols. Colleges and universities can expand existing policies to include AI – for instance, policies that require disclosure if AI is used in a paper or project – and raise awareness among staff and students about these policies.
  • Train staff and students how to use AI effectively. It’s important for faculty, staff and students to have foundational knowledge of AI and its potential benefits and risks. “You’ve probably heard that adage that a person’s job is not going to be taken over by AI, but it’s going to be taken by another person who knows how to use AI,” Crittenden said. Even if staff choose not to use AI tools for their own jobs – for example, with lesson planning or grading – they should be familiar with how AI tools work. In the classroom, students should be taught which AI tools to use – for instance one tool might help them check spelling and grammar and another might be more useful to help them brainstorm ideas or organize their research. Also, they should understand rules around AI and what they are allowed—and not allowed—to use it for.
  • Security and infrastructure. If faculty members want to do AI-assisted research and want to upload massive data sets, the university will need to make sure it has the computing infrastructure to handle those needs and that all data is kept secure. Institutions must look at infrastructure software considerations, secure data storage, and high-performance networking requirements.

Using AI can have significant benefits for institutions, as well as for faculty and staff. It can streamline processes and make instructors’ jobs easier. Teaching students how to use AI can help them with their assignments and research and help prepare them for the workforce. Developing guidelines and responsible-use policies around AI and educating staff and students about AI’s benefits and risks will help higher education institutions successfully navigate an increasingly AI-driven world.

How Vector Can Help

Vector Solutions provides online courses to support higher education institutions on a wide variety of topics related to safety and compliance. It has recently launched two new courses explicitically focusing on AI. The courses help higher education institutions learn how to integrate AI tools into teaching practices to enhance student success and streamline workload management.

  • Using AI in Higher Education is a new course for faculty and staff members that introduces AI. It covers its components, the benefits and risks of using AI, and how to use AI responsibly and ethically in the classroom.
  • Leveraging the Power of AI for Students is a new course that prepares students to embrace AI’s opportunities whilending its risks. It covers AI and digital citizenship, the importance of verifying AI-generated information for accuracy and privacy concerns, ethical decision-making and responsible use principles, and the opportunities and challenges of using AI in education.

Learn more and schedule a demo

About the Expert

Dr. Camille Crittenden is the executive director of CITRIS and the Banatao Institute and co-founder of the CITRIS Policy Lab and EDGE (Expanding Diversity and Gender Equity) in Tech at the University of California, Berkeley. She was chair of the California Blockchain Working Group in 2019–20 and co-chaired the Student Experience subcommittee of the University of California’s Presidential Working Group on Artificial Intelligence. She continues to serve on the UC AI Council.

Before coming to CITRIS in 2012, she was executive director of the Human Rights Center at Berkeley Law, where she helped develop its program in human rights, technology, and digital media. She has written and spoken widely on these topics, as well as AI governance and applications in higher education and technology applications for civic engagement, digital equity, and government transparency and accountability. She was assistant dean for development with International and Area Studies at UC Berkeley and in development and public relations at the University of California Press and San Francisco Opera. She earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University.

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