Responding to the challenges presented by Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), this project involved the creation of a GenAI national network from across the Irish TU sector in September 2024 with representatives from all N-TUTORR partner institutions. This project had many successful outputs that including; The development of a national hub to provide open-access GenAI resources, An Assessment Redesign Framework, a GenAI short online course and recommended GenAI Student Guidelines. In addition to this, the project group have organized ‘AI Play’ Workshops and Hackathons at national and international levels, developed an AI Tool and AI Chatbot, produced a crowdsourced e-book, and hosted AI Clinics to support faculty in navigating AI implementation.
These initiatives collectively critically inform good practice in the use of GenAI in higher education and the project outputs will continue to foster ethical and informed engagement with GenAI in higher education into the future delivering the best possible informed and responsible graduates into the workforce.
In the space of two years, GenAI technologies have become embedded in our society and continue to increase in prevalence, as the technology advances and becomes more accessible. The impact on the education sector is very high , stimulating the necessity for change and for dedicated teams such as the GenAI:N3 network to support this evolution. This project is an excellent example of how expertise and significant collaboration from a community of educators can provide critical and practical supports and resources for colleagues in the rapidly changing area of GenAI technologies. These resources are multi-disciplinary and relate to all faculties and fields of study.
This project has successfully nundertaken the following initiatives:
- Establishing a national network across the TU and wider HE sector
- Creation of a GenAI:N3 national hub (website) with open and accessible Gen AI resources
- Development of an Assessment Re – design Framework and short online course for educators
- Development of Student Guidelines and accompanying short online course for students
- Facilitation of a series of ‘AI Play’ Workshops and Hackathons across the HE sector, both nationally and internationally
- Creation of an AI Tool and an AI Chatbot
- Production of a crowdsourced e-book to showcase outputs and learning from the project, expert articles, case studies, and resources
- AI Clinics for staff to drop in and discuss their issues and experiences with the technology
While this project initially directly involved the N-TUTORR partner institutions, the aim of creating broader impact on the HE sector was integral as national and international partners featured as guest speakers, consultants, and facilitators. This was a core consideration in ensuring all resources created for the project were Open and accessible through the project website. .
Also, the dissemination of knowledge was a critical aspect of this project, and this has been achieved through conferences both at home and internationally – with many examples across the TU collaborative group.
Over a timeframe of 4 months, educators from Technological Universities (TU’s) across Ireland, for the first time in the sector, collaborated to share knowledge and resources on Generative AI (GenAI) in higher education to ensure best practice and academic integrity. The project initiative included an innovative “GenAI Hackathon”, that ran across all TU campuses, introducing staff and students to GenAI tools, followed by “GenAI Play” workshops fostering significant discussions on its impact on educational integrity and ultimately, assessment redesign. The critical issue now as we move forward is literacy, and this project enacted a collegial combined approach to this literacy in the TU sector, while also ensuring adherence to the EU AI Act. ATU ran a very successful Hackathon in Nov 2024 and a series of onsite AIPlay workshops across 5 campuses, and are continuing rolling out these workshops to meet demand .
The feedback from these events was overwhelmingly positive, with staff welcoming information and support. Interestingly, students were also very engaged and interested in proper reliable guidelines and signposts and especially, guardrails. This guidance was greatly appreciated and facilitated through workshops, seminars, and expert international guest speakers. In parallel, the group developed a crowdsourced GenAI eBook and a website containing valuable resources to support best practices. This novel innovative collaborative approach within’ the TU community, facilitated engagement with GenAI in higher education, promoting awareness, increasing educators’ knowledge and critical literacy around GenAI across many institutions.
All Resources mentioned in this article are available at the GenAI Website Link : www.genai.ie ( Planned Completion date April 2025 )
