Tips on using GenAI to make the university classroom more interactive

When used with sound pedagogical principles, GenAI has the potential to make the university classroom more engaging, inclusive and responsive to student needs. Here, we’ll explore how interactive tools can enhance participation, foster collaboration and create powerful learning experiences for both students and staff. 

Make personalisation practical 

Adaptive learning platforms such as Century Tech and Knewton are already showing how AI can personalise learning. These systems adjust content and pace in real time, based on students’ progress, providing immediate feedback and additional resources where needed. 

In traditional teaching, this level of personalisation would require impossible amounts of the educator’s time but AI can indicate which students are having difficulties, where they are, why and how to assist them. This supports more responsive teaching, allowing academics to adapt seminar activities or follow-up materials to specific students’ needs.

However, we need to see this as a supplement, not a substitute, for teacher insight. Data can highlight what students find difficult but only human educators can interpret why. Perhaps it’s a misconception, a language barrier, communication issues or lack of confidence. The most effective practice balances AI-generated analytics with the educator’s professional judgement. 

Encourage active participation 

Many academics face the same challenge: a small group of students dominates the discussion while others stay silent. GenAI tools can help redistribute participation. Platforms such as Mentimeter, Padlet (with AI integration), Polls Everywhere and Kahoot enable students to contribute ideas in real time, often anonymously, which lowers the barriers to engagement. 

• Conversations with bots: teaching students how – and when – to use GenAI for academic writing
• AI can help you unearth the story in your lectures
• How I use AI tools to enhance EFL students’ speaking skills

We’ve found that using these tools in both lectures and seminars significantly enhances interactivity. During a lecture, Polls Everywhere and Padlet can be used to pose conceptual questions or gather instant feedback, turning one-way delivery into two-way dialogue. 

In seminars, Padlet allows students to co-create boards of ideas, reflections or case studies, while Kahoot! brings a sense of playful competition to concept-review sessions. These tools encourage every student to engage, not just the most confident ones, and they create an immediate sense of shared participation. 

Importantly, the teacher’s role shifts from information provider to facilitator, guiding discussion, validating contributions and encouraging critical reflection on AI-generated or crowd-sourced responses. Used this way, AI becomes a bridge, not a barrier, between student and lecturer. 

Reimagine feedback 

Feedback is one of the most resource-intensive aspects of teaching – and one of the most pedagogically powerful. GenAI tools can enhance interactivity here too. Grammarly, Turnitin Draft Coach or Microsoft Copilot can provide immediate formative feedback before students submit work. This frees educators to focus on higher-level commentary, such as argument structure, originality and critical thinking. It also encourages students to take ownership of their learning by revising drafts iteratively. 

In practice, GenAI-assisted feedback loops can make students more engaged in the process, rather than seeing feedback as one-way transmission at the end. 

Nevertheless, practise with caution. GenAI feedback is only as good as the data it is trained on. Without guidance, students may over-rely on surface-level corrections rather than deep learning. What’s needed is induction and training – for both students and lecturers – on interpreting and applying GenAI feedback critically, institution-wide. 

Support inclusivity and accessibility 

An interactive classroom must be an inclusive one. AI-powered accessibility tools have opened new possibilities for participation. Text-to-speech, automated captioning and real-time translation make it easier for students with disabilities or those studying in a second language to engage with content and peers. Microsoft’s Immersive Reader and Google’s Live Captions, for example, can make seminars and recorded lectures accessible in real time. 

These tools not only comply with equality legislation but also enrich the learning experience for all students, making participation more equitable. For academic staff, using such tools requires both awareness and confidence. Universities can support this by embedding AI accessibility training into continuing professional development (CPD) and by sharing best practices across departments. 

Create GenAI-enhanced communities of practice 

GenAI is also transforming how academics collaborate. Learning analytics dashboards in systems such as Blackboard or Moodle allow module leaders to share data about engagement trends, assessment performance and student progress. This encourages cross-disciplinary dialogue about teaching practice. 

Amplify this by establishing internal communities of practice focused on GenAI. For example, regular “AI in teaching” forums or mentoring schemes can help staff exchange experiences, troubleshoot issues and develop new approaches together. Informal conversations over coffee, in staff meetings or online are just as vital for normalising experimentation and sharing lessons learned, and reinforces that AI in teaching is not a top-down initiative but a collective, evolving practice shaped by educators themselves. 

Balance innovation with ethics and trust 

But interactivity achieved through AI must be grounded in ethical reflection. Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, academics have raised concerns about students’ data privacy, algorithmic bias and academic integrity. We must be transparent about how AI tools collect, store and use data, to maintain trust between students and their educators. 

But we can turn these concerns into learning opportunities. Discussing the ethical implications of AI with students, for instance, the risks of over-reliance or the need for responsible use encourages critical thinking and digital literacy. In doing so, educators position AI not just as a tool for interaction but as a subject of intellectual inquiry itself. 

Moving forward: human-led interactivity 

Ultimately, GenAI can make classrooms more interactive but only when guided by pedagogical purpose, not technological novelty. The real transformation comes when academics see GenAI as a partner in practice: helping them create dialogue, deliver feedback and include every learner. What we need to see is investment – not only in GenAI infrastructure but in staff development, ensuring academics have the time, confidence and support to experiment safely. 

Pilot projects, peer mentoring and sharing good practice across faculties can help build academics’ knowledge and momentum, balancing out the fear of the unknown.

At its best, GenAI does not replace the human dimensions of teaching: curiosity, empathy and creativity. Instead, it frees educators to do more of what matters: engaging with students, nurturing ideas and shaping dynamic, interactive learning communities. 

Ijeoma (Angel) Ojukwu is a lecturer and Sam Opio is a lecturer, both at the School of Applied Management at the University of Westminster.

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.