What role should artificial intelligence play in higher education? From ChatGPT to DeepSeek, generative AI (GenAI) tools of all kinds are forcing a rethink of university teaching, assessment, research and administrative work. Find out how to build AI literacy across an institution, use GenAI to support learning, harness AI tools as teaching and research assistants and manage the risks posed by GenAI and other AI technologies.

Artificial intelligence in higher education

Artificial intelligence is seen as an almost magical solution to complex problems in fields as diverse as computer science and art, and from finance, economics, natural and medical sciences to linguistics.In the education sector, especially engineering and computer sciences, AI is a vibrant and attractive subject for students; AI brings possibilities for developing new intelligent tools and building successful careers. Across disciplines, AI is integrated into systems to improve learning methods and allow better interaction between professors and students. AI can be used to develop innovative teaching and learning practices that raise the quality of education.Spotlight collection: a greener future for higher educationGreener life science labs: the challenge to save energy and reduce wasteBuilding futures: how estates directors can deliver net zeroAs it becomes ubiquitous, why not also consider how to make AI green and sustainable?Teaching AI alongside its environmental impactThe workshops or seminars that introduce notions of artificial intelligence to our students could also address the risks and challenges that AI poses for the environment.These are, for the moment, opaque to the public and most students, even those who are fascinated by humanoids, electric cars, androids and other AI-enabled miracles. This is indeed the consequence of courses given by academics and educators who focus only on the advantages and applications of AI and not its limitations, risks and challenges.Students should be encouraged to ask:What are the costs and risks of implementing AI?What risks does the exponential development of this technology pose to our environment and our dear planet?From our experience in the department of engineering of the University of Luxembourg, the teaching of AI and its uses should also highlight its drawbacks and limitations, especially since most users of this advanced technology are replacing, without thinking too much (because they are uninformed about the consequences), conventional algorithms and solutions with AI.How does AI impact the environment?Learning outcomes for AI courses should take its costs and risks into consideration.Big data is not freeAI relies on a large amount of data to learn and reproduce models adapted to the studied system. In other words, the effectiveness of its results depends on the quantity as well as the quality of the data. Complex problems require enormous amounts of data and, of course, exceptionally long and tedious calculations. For example, during the training phase for image recognition software, the algorithm analyses many images; each pixel, including its intensity and colour, is considered to detect patterns. Once the software is trained, many calculations are still needed (pixels, distances, pattern comparisons, normalisations, gradients, etc). The computing power requirements for AI are linked to the data amount and are growing exponentially. Data collection and storage are not free, either; they consume personnel and IT resources. Moreover, often, the data collection needs sensors, generally connected by advanced communication technologies. These technologies represent between 6 and 10 per cent of global electricity consumption, and 4 per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions. This figure increases by 5 to 7 per cent each year. In 2018, OpenAI found that the amount of computational power used to train the largest AI models had doubled every 3.4 months since 2012, which translates into exponential energy consumption over years. Home office equipment accounts for about 9 per cent of the average household electricity bill. Office equipment accounts for about 11 per cent of electricity usage in the tertiary sector. Irresponsible use of AI can increase these numbers significantly.AI algorithms are expensiveComputer time for AI requires powerful and even gigantic computers capable of processing big data and making intelligent decisions in real time. This explains the high electrical energy consumption and CO2 emissions of computers when running AI programmes. In this context, it is also important to mention that manufacturing a computer can emit almost 940kg of greenhouse gases, without mentioning its assembly and transport!&nbsp;Let’s go over an example: Twitter uses AI to classify tweets in real time, displaying the ones that drive the most engagement. It needs huge computer power to estimate each tweet’s impact in real time: it counts the words; identifies the language, slang, punctuation, keywords and grammar errors; and links it to the context (time, country, hot topics, audience, etc).Metals costMetals such as silver and gold play a significant role in developing new AI technologies. Indeed, the excellent electrical performance of computers and numerical products requires precious metals, such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium. The environmental impact of metallurgy is made mostly at the time of the extraction of ores, which&nbsp;consumes a lot of energy and water. For example, gold mining requires an average of 140,000 litres of water per hour, which is the annual water consumption of a three-person household! This huge quantity of polluted water is then stored and partially reprocessed. Its absorption by the water table can cause irreversible environmental damage, such as pollution of waterways and arable land.Students need to understand AI’s limitations and its advantagesThe impact of the energy voracity of AI on the planet, which is already in pain, is growing. It’s crucial to make students aware of the advantages but also of the limitations of AI. Integrating green AI into teaching programmes is an effective tool to raise awareness among students who are, and will be, the users and developers of AI. As a practical tip for making AI more sustainable at the university level, we could encourage students not to dive directly into AI-based solutions but to carefully consider conventional approaches and algorithms, which require less energy consumption. Also, projects that are based on AI must be followed by a study on its impact on the environment.Inès Chihi is assistant professor in electrical measurements and sensor technology in the department of engineering, and Inma Peral is a research facilitator&nbsp;in the&nbsp;Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine, both at the University of Luxembourg.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Can artificial intelligence be as green as it is integral to solving complex problems? As universities integrate courses on AI into different fields, they also need to show students its risks and costs, particularly for the environment

Go green, AI!

For the many academics out there who feel the online teaching and/or learning experience isn’t quite cutting it, the hologram professor project – which we began at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico in 2018 – might offer some succour.The hologram professor is an innovative educational experience based on “telepresence” and, crucially at this juncture for higher education, it can recreate the natural dynamics of face-to-face environments – by creating a hologram of the lecturer in multiple classrooms at once, offering greater closeness and warmth for distance learners compared with current videoconferencing systems. Knowledge and experiences can be exchanged in real time while students interact and carry out activities in their classrooms. Here, we break down the nuts and bolts of the project.How does the hologram professor experience work?Students sit in “receiving” classrooms with up to 30 students per room – but on different campuses of the Tecnológico de Monterrey. The professor, meanwhile, is in a “transmitting room”, watching, teaching and interacting with students on all these campuses just as in a face-to-face class.The hologram professor transmission technology allows students to see the professor’s image live, in anatomically correct dimensions, projected to multiple receiving rooms through a videoconferencing tool.The magic of the approach lies in the fact the students feel like the professor is in the room with them and can get immediate feedback from her or him. Along with the hologram of the professor, students follow slides and other content on large monitors in their classroom, while other screens show their classmates from other campuses.How to apply virtual reality to enhance learning experiencesWhat to do when technology fails: an educator’s survival guide for online classroomsImmersive tech in teaching and learning: first steps into the metaverseHow do I get started?As with any educational innovation, this will need to be supported by several areas within the institution. It will be key to form a team with IT staff to set up and enable the receiving and transmitting rooms. And there will need to be instructional support in terms of training and coaching teachers in the use of the rooms.In the transmitting room, the professor stands in front of a black background to deliver the lesson, and there are two monitors that show course materials plus the students in the receiving rooms. This set-up does not require any particularly spectacular tech – the transmitting room needs simply a computer with a videoconferencing tool, a regular video and audio system (camera, microphone, speakers) with good audiovisual quality, the black screen for the background and the two monitors.In the receiving room, students sit like they would in a regular class and can see the professor’s image projected on to a holographic screen. On other monitors, they can see the class content and their classmates in other rooms. This room must have a holographic screen, but other than that, again, the requirements are fairly basic – a video and audio system (camera, microphone, speakers) with good audiovisual quality, two monitors, a projector and a computer with a videoconferencing tool.Alongside the professor is a transmission coordinator who makes sure that all the sites are receiving the audio and video signals correctly and supports the professor in following up on what’s happening with the students on the different sites. Meanwhile, in each classroom is a facilitator who supports the professor in carrying out teamwork activities, experiments and other learning, as well as monitoring and moderating the group’s participation and, if applicable, administering exams.Even once the rooms have been converted for the project, they can subsequently be used for other purposes such as face-to-face classes and regular videoconferencing classes.What is the hologram professor’s role? Does it change the way lecturers teach?The professor teaches their class in a very active way but otherwise acts the same as they would in a face-to-face classroom. However, instead of a traditional blackboard or interactive whiteboard, the professor uses a touchscreen or tablet to explain the content of lessons, solve problems, show videos and more. The teaching needs to be very dynamic, and professors must design activities to involve all the students who are connected across the different sites as well as working with their local classmates.Can we really recreate a face-to-face environment without the physical presence of the professor?Yes. We used the “technological ecosystem for telepresence with hologram effect model”, which has four components.First, a pedagogical strategy that utilises active learning. Students carry out various contextual activities to build their knowledge. They are engaged in learning through activities and discussions in class instead of passively listening to an expert.Technology is the second component. In addition to the hologram transmission technology, the teacher uses the learning management system (in our case, Canvas) and educational interaction tools such as Miro, Menti, Kahoot, Quizzis, chatbots and augmented reality apps.Third is educational resources. Students access a variety of content in different formats; these resources help the students understand the lessons and content.The fourth component is interaction in live sessions. Teacher-student interaction is once again achieved in a natural and agile way: the student raises their hand and participation is carried out in real time; professors communicate with students using their names as if they were physically in the classroom, helping to create an emotional bond. These small gains, and more, help to engage students and result in their enjoying the class.Continuing to innovate is essential for universities, and offering several formats for teaching and learning cannot help but attend to a wider variety of students’ needs. The hologram professor model has proven successful and effective, but above all, it’s been well received by the students, one of whom said: “It’s very comforting. It’s been one of my favourite classes in my time at Tec. It feels innovative, and that makes you want to participate in and attend classes more.”Carla Victoria Ramírez López is leader of educational innovation and the hologram professor initiative at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico.Leticia Castaño Sánchez is leader of educational innovation at Tecnológico de Monterrey.Patricia Aldape Valdés is innovation director of learning experiences at Tecnológico de Monterrey.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Try becoming a ‘hologram professor’

Beaming a hologram of lecturers into classrooms offers greater closeness than video systems, say Carla Victoria Ramírez López, Leticia Castaño Sánchez and Patricia Aldape Valdés

Missing face-to-face interaction? Try becoming a ‘hologram professor’

A major challenge facing university careers services has always been how to deliver a service to all students without an army of staff allowing for one-to-one student engagement. Many have gone down the route of embedding employability in the curriculum (or extracting it) to make it structurally unavoidable and, while this approach supports the understanding and development of skills, it doesn’t guarantee that students will engage in personal career planning.How much individual career planning a student undertakes often depends on the level of career advice they received prior to arriving at university and how much social capital they have − those with less of either need more support with their career planning. And yet, prior to the pandemic, these students were often less likely to engage with traditional, in-person delivery by careers services due to busy lives filled with part-time work, family, caring commitments or commutes.While the pandemic has placed a great deal of pressure on careers teams to adapt, the sudden adoption of online delivery has also enabled greater student engagement. As HE shifts back to delivering teaching in person, careers services now need to consider what they will retain from the great online experiment of 2020/21.While this might seem to suggest that one-to-one guidance appointments will become even more important, removing the option for one-to-one appointments from your student booking systems and funnelling students into group guidance sessions could prove beneficial. Many students have similar careers questions and by nudging students into group sessions, it enables these to be answered in a way that allows students to engage with the careers team.In addition to scaling back one-on-one in-person sessions, another valuable tool worth investigating is AI, specifically chatbots.I first came across careers chatbots at an AGCAS conference in 2017 during a discussion about the fourth industrial revolution (which, considering current global conversation about the future of the workplace, feels like it has arrived). Four years on, prototype careers chatbots are starting to emerge, with organisations such as CiCi piloting them with adult clients.The development of careers chatbots could be considered a threat to guidance practitioners, but the reverse is true. Here are some of the advantages:There when you need themI’d argue that offering one-to-one careers appointments isn’t a scalable model and will mainly benefit those students with enough social capital to navigate the booking system, beat the rush for appointments and have the time for a conversation with a career professional during office hours. Chatbots, on the other hand, have huge potential to revolutionise careers provision, enabling personalised advice to be delivered at the point of need, 24/7.Nudging students in new directionsLabour market information (LMI) is a valuable data set for all students, particularly for those from lower socio-economic groups who are not able to draw on information about different professions from their social circles. Chatbots can make LMI accessible, surfacing information on requested career areas and then nudging students to consider alternative options by following up with automated suggestions of career areas they might not have considered. Bots can also encourage students to continue the discovery process by signposting them towards additional resources such as recorded employer talks or careers events.Helping prompt the right questionsStudents often approach careers teams with ostensibly simple questions that usually result in being directed to an information sheet or careers website. Bots can engage the student in a simple conversation to explore the thinking behind their initial question. For example: “How do I write a CV?” A bot might ask if the student has a particular company or job they’re writing their CV for. If the answer is “no” the bot can talk them through the benefits of tailoring a CV and encourage them to explore their career options in more detail, following up with suggestions on how to do this. A “yes” would generate a supportive response, directing them to more detailed careers resources and offering additional advice on next steps.Safety of the screenFor students who feel anxious about asking for help because they aren’t quite sure what question to ask, or even how a careers service could support them, chatbots provide an anonymous space to seek advice that may encourage further engagement with other elements of careers provision. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;So, does this suggest the death of the one-to-one guidance appointment in university careers services? Yes and no. Yes, as an option a student can self-select. But no, because there will always be space for individual guidance where students with complex situations or specific needs are identified by careers professionals during group guidance or workshops and then referred for a one-to-one. This, though, will be for a minority of students. On the whole, chatbots and group guidance are paving the way for careers teams to engage with more students, enhance social mobility and support transitions to the complex world of work – and that can only be a good thing.Caroline Tolond is head of careers and employability at Arden University.

The development of careers chatbots could be considered a threat to guidance practitioners, but the reverse is true, says Caroline Tolond

How AI and chatbots can deliver personalised career planning

Advice on using GenAI and other artificial intelligence tools to enhance higher education teaching, research, student support and more.

Artificial intelligence in higher education

Go green, AI!

Missing face-to-face interaction? Try becoming a ‘hologram professor’

How AI and chatbots can deliver personalised career planning

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