Author: susanbonham

Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) Resources

susanbonham
AI generated image of a humanoid robot teacher with a pointer in a classroom, standing in front of a blackboard with equations
Image generated by DALL-E.

Whether you are a superuser or a novice, the number of resources on generative artificial intelligence can be overwhelming. EdTech and TCDC have curated some that we’d like to recommend.

  • How to access Copilot (Microsoft)
    • Interested in trying a generative AI tool or using it in your course? ChatGPT and Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) are currently available in Canada. Langara College students and employees have access to a premium version of Copilot through Microsoft Enterprise and the Edge browser. Microsoft’s FAQs provide information on how to access Copilot through Microsoft Edge. 
  • Practical AI for Instructors and Students (Ethan Mollick/Wharton School, August 2023)
    • If you’re looking for a great primer on AI, this series of five videos is worth the watch. Each video is approximately 10 minutes so the whole series can be viewed in under an hour. Topics include: 1) an introduction to AI; 2) what large language model (LLM) platforms like ChatGPT are and how to start using them; 3) how to prompt AI; 4) how instructors can leverage AI; and 5) how students can use AI.
    • Note: this series references four LLMs: ChatGPT, BingCopilot, Bard, and Claude. Bard and Claude are not yet available in Canada. 
  • AI Primer by Educause
    • This article is a reading (and viewing) list that links to resources that do a deeper dive into generative AI. A good resource for those who know the basics and would like to learn more.  

EdTech and TCDC also regularly offer professional learning opportunities on AI topics. Check the PD Events Calendar for current offerings.

As always, if you’re planning to integrate AI into your course, please be aware that: 

  • There are privacy concerns with AI platforms. We recommend using caution when inputting – or having your students input – private, personal, or sensitive information (e.g. resumes or other identifying data).  
  • For those using assistive technology such as screen readers, some AI platforms are more accessible than others. For more information, please see Accessibility of AI Interfaces by Langara Assistive Technologist, Luke McKnight. 

If you would like more recommendations for AI resources, or any other AI-related support, please contact EdTech or TCDC. 

PebblePad: Unlocking Learning Potential

susanbonham

PebblePad, Langara’s ePortfolio platform, is out of pilot phase and now one of our core tools. It’s well suited to support both open-ended creative assignments and guided authentic learning. If you are looking for a way for students to document, share, and reflect on learning experiences, or if you need them to evidence their skills, capabilities, and achievements, PebblePad can be a great fit. In this age of AI, instructors are also looking to PebblePad for process assignments. 

Use at Langara

At Langara, PebblePad is currently used to support teaching and learning in Nursing, Recreation Studies, Library Technology, English, Geography, Publishing, Co-op, and Supply Chain Management, with more instructors and programs coming on board every semester.

The Affordances of PebblePad

  • Empowers students by providing a private and secure space to actively engage in their learning journey, promoting a sense of ownership and agency.
  • Promotes meaningful engagement in learning through critical thinking and reflection, contributing to a deeper understanding and retention of knowledge.
  • Helps students make connections in learning across multiple contexts: between individual courses, over an entire program, and with knowledge gained outside of formal learning contexts.
  • Supports students’ transition to future employment or academic pursuits by enabling them to identify knowledge, competencies, and creativity and then to showcase their projects and achievements.

How to Learn More

If you’re interested in PebblePad, the next introductory workshop is on January 11th from 10:00-11:00. Participants will activate their accounts, learn the basics of PebblePad, discover how it’s being used in various departments, and get ideas about how it could be used in their own courses.

In addition to scheduled workshops, you’re welcome to reach out to EdTech anytime to learn more about PebblePad.

Brightspace – Introducing “New Experience” Discussions

susanbonham

As of August 28, 2023, Brightspace Discussions has a new look and feel, as well as some changes to functionality. Below we summarize the most important changes to the new version of Discussions.

Look & Feel

New Experience Discussions has been changed to bring it into alignment with how Assignments and Quizzes in Brightspace look and function. This consistency across tools is meant to make it easier for new users to Brightspace.

On the create/edit topic page, the main settings (title, grade out of, description, etc.) are on the left side of the page (1), and the more advanced settings (availability dates, restrictions, evaluation settings, etc.) are in the expandable tabs along the right (2).

Functionality

The are several changes to functionality and locations of settings that are significant in New Experience Discussions.

Automatically Create New Forum When Creating New Topic

All discussion topics need to sit within a forum (a container for topics). In New Experience Discussions, creating a new topic will automatically create a new forum of the same name. This eliminates the necessity of creating a forum prior to creating a topic. After the topic is created, instructors will be able to edit the name of the newly created forum or associate the current topic with another existing forum, if wanted.

Post and Completion

The Post and Completion settings are where you can allow anonymous posts and specify posting requirements. In New Experience discussions, only one of the following three options is possible:

1.     Default participation, which is a new option and has been added so that the default settings are clearly stated. The default settings do NOT allow for anonymous posts or require that users must start a thread.

2.     The option of Allow learners to hide their name from other learners is the setting that allows anonymous posts.

3.     The last option is Learners must start a thread before they can view or reply to other threads.

Manage Restrictions (replaces “Topic Type”)

The default for discussions is an “open topic” that all learners in the course can participate in; however, accessing the Manage Restrictions settings allows instructors to restrict discussions, if needed, so that learners can only see and reply to their own group or section’s posts. To set topic restrictions in New Experience, go to the Availability & Conditions settings on the right side of the edit page and look for Manage Restrictions.

Note: In Classic Experience, topic types could not be revised once set; however, in New Experience topic restrictions can now be revised up until a topic has an associated post, providing greater flexibility.

Restricting Topic and Separate Threads

To restrict a topic so that learners can only view threads from their group or section, go to Manage Restrictions and choose the option Restrict topic and separate threads. Then select which group category or section will have their threads separated.

Restrict Topic

To restrict a topic so that only selected groups or sections can view a topic and all threads, choose the radio option Restrict topic in the new Manage Restrictions workflow. Then select which sections/groups can see and participate in this discussion.

Availability Dates

Managing availability dates in Discussions is now similar to Assignments. Once a start or end date is added, additional settings can be adjusted to specify how learners see and access the topic outside of the availability dates.

Questions?

If you need assistance with Brightspace Discussions, please contact EdTech.

Generative AI and STEM

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Background

Artificial intelligence is not new. It has been part of our personal and work lives for a long time (autocorrect, facial recognition, satnav, etc.) and large language models like ChatGPT have been a big topic in education since version 3.5 was released in late November, 2022. Large language models (LLMs) are trained on enormous amounts of data in order to recognize the patterns of and connections between words, and then produce text based on the probabilities of which word is most likely to come next. One thing that LLMs don’t do, however, is computation; however, the most recent Open AI release, GPT-4, seems to have made strides in standardized tests in many STEM areas and GPT-4 now has a plug-in for Wolfram Alpha, which does do computation.

Chart from Open AI: exam result improvements from ChatGPT 3.5 to 4

Andrew Roberts (Math Dept) and Susan Bonham (EdTech) did some testing to see how ChatGPT (3.5), GPT-4, and GPT-4 with the Wolfram plugin would handle some questions from Langara’s math courses.

Test Details

Full test results are available. (accessible version of the problems and full details of the “chats” and subsequent discussion for each AI response are available at the link)

The following questions were tested:

 

Problem 1: (supplied by Langara mathematics instructor Vijay Singh)

 

Problem 2: (Precalculus)

 

Problem 3: (Calculus I)

 

Problem 4: (Calculus II)

 

Discussion

Responses from current versions of ChatGPT are not reliable enough to be accepted uncritically.

ChatGPT needs to be approached as a tool and careful proof-reading of responses is needed to check for errors in computation or reasoning. Errors may be blatant and readily apparent, or subtle and hard to spot without close reading and a solid understanding of the concepts.

Perhaps the biggest danger for a student learning a subject is in the “plausibility” of many responses even when they are incorrect. ChatGPT will present its responses with full confidence in their correctness, whether this is justified or not.

When errors or lack of clarity is noticed in a response, further prompting needs to be used to correct and refine the initial response. This requires a certain amount of base knowledge on the part of the user in order to guide ChatGPT to the correct solution.

Algebraic computations cannot be trusted as ChatGPT does not “know” the rules of algebra but is simply appending steps based on a probabilistic machine-learning model that references the material on which it was trained. The quality of the answers will depend on the quality of the content on which ChatGPT was trained. There is no way for us to know exactly what training material ChatGPT is referencing when generating its responses. The average quality of solutions sourced online should give us pause.

Below is one especially concerning example of an error encountered during our testing sessions:

In the response to the optimization problem (Problem 3), GPT-3.5 attempts to differentiate the volume function:

However, the derivative is computed as:

We see that it has incorrectly differentiated the first term with respect to R while correctly differentiating the second term with respect to h.

It is the plausibility of the above solution (despite the bad error) that is dangerous for a student who may take the ChatGPT response at face value.

Access to the Wolfram plugin in GPT-4 should mean that algebraic computations that occur within requests sent to Wolfram can be trusted. But the issues of errors in reasoning and interpretation still exist between requests sent to Wolfram.

Concluding Thought

It will be important for us educate our students about the dangers involved in using this tool uncritically while acknowledging the potential benefits if used correctly.

Want to Learn More?

EdTech and TCDC run workshops on various AI topics. You can request a bespoke AI workshop tailored to your department or check out the EdTech and TCDC workshop offerings. For all other questions, please contact edtech@langara.ca

Fostering Learner Engagement with ePortfolios

Fostering Learner Engagement with ePortfolios

susanbonham

EdTech is pleased to welcome Dr. Gail Ring and Dr. Melissa Shaquid Pirie Cross to campus to share their expertise on ePortfolios on November 21st from 11:00-12:00 (in person and online).

Registration Information

Here’s what they’ve shared about their presentation:

True learning ePortfolios provide students with multiple opportunities to revisit and reconsider the evidence of their learning experiences and present that learning to an external audience. As ePortfolio practitioners and evangelists, we have long believed in the power of ePortfolios to facilitate student learning, agency and engagement. We also understand that the practices of folio thinking, and the benefits that can be achieved by those practices, often requires a pedagogical shift from both faculty and students.

In this presentation we will share stories that demonstrate how portfolios can contribute a more learner-centered, process-oriented approach to teaching and learning supporting:

  • Reflection by giving students an opportunity to pause and reflect on their accomplishments, which often reveals new learning that can contribute to the development of their professional and digital identities.
  • Integrative learning over time, across contexts, and with intention (Patton and Reynolds, 2014) through Portfolio development and folio thinking practices.
  • Engagement of faculty in professional development applications and uses that lead to the integration of portfolios into instruction and assessment throughout the curriculum.

The result of these efforts include reflective, evidence-rich portfolios that have future value for both students and the university to showcase learning successes throughout/across the learning journey.

We will share a variety of examples that encompass everything from preparation for university to preparation for career. The examples presented will demonstrate holistic learning and lifelong folio participation practices.

Bios: 

Dr. Gail Ring, Director of Service and Partnerships for PebblePad, North America

Gail has had an extensive career in higher education. In addition to her work as an educator, she has founded and directed a number of teaching and learning centers. Formerly, she was the Director, Portfolio Program, Clemson University. For more information about Dr. Ring, including her research and publications, please see her professional portfolio.

Dr. Melissa Shaquid Pirie Cross, Implementation Specialist for PebblePad, North America

In addition to being an educator, Melissa has had roles as a public relations and retention specialist, a coordinator of dual enrollment programs, a director of student and academic services, and a faculty training and development coordinator in several community college and public universities. She has taught with portfolios extensively at Portland State University and is passionate about sharing her expertise with folio pedagogy.

PebblePad Brief: Activity Logs

susanbonham

Langara’s pilot of the ePortfolio learning platform, PebblePad, is now in its second year. This is the third in a series highlighting some of the platform’s features. Whether you’re already using PebblePad or considering using it at some point in the future, our hope is that the PebblePad Brief series extends your understanding of the platform’s capabilities.

This month’s “Brief” is going to focus on activity logs. Whether you’re asking students to track how many minutes or hours they spend on a task, or you have developed a “point” system based on your own criteria to log an activity, this can all be digitized and linked to a PebblePad workbook. In addition, instructors can run reports to get a snapshot of how the entire class is progressing towards their targets.

Please watch the video for an example of how this works, or read the article below.

Activity logs can be used when you want a student to document how many times they’ve engaged in an activity, or how much time they’ve spent on the activity.

Time Sheets

Let’s look at an example of how this works. In a practicum, a student may have to complete a required number of hours in their placement… let’s say 120 hours.

In their practicum workbook, the student goes to a page called “Activity Log”. Here they find a link to their timesheet.

They click on the link and enter their time:

When they go back to the workbook it tells them how many hours are now left to complete. Since they should be in the workbook regularly doing other course-related tasks, this makes it very easy for the student to keep track of their hours.

These types of workbooks are usually shared with the instructor for feedback and assessment. That being the case, it’s easy for the instructor to see whether the student is on track to complete their hours. There’s a demonstration of how instructors can monitor activity logs in the video above.

Feedback on timesheets has been positive from both students and instructors who have used them in PebblePad. It’s easy for students to track their hours right where they’re completing the work for the course, and it’s easy for instructors to check on the students’ progress towards the goal.

If you have questions about PebblePad or any other learning technology that EdTech supports, we can be contacted at edtech@langara.ca