Educational technology

US universities embrace laptop and phone bans, but professor suggests policies may be more about political positioning than pedagogy

AI-powered glasses may boost learning but they also pose obvious threats to privacy, academic integrity and the sanctity of the seminar room as a safe space to explore ideas. Are universities doing enough to head off the risks, asks Georgia Luckhurst – while Kieran Phelan suggests they are not

New Zealand case ‘the tip of the iceberg’, and banning the technology will not solve the assessment problem, expert warns

LLMs cannot be relied on to give accurate indication of student performance, researchers find, as universities explore ways of relieving pressure on markers

Academic integrity giant denies accusations as university declines to renew contract in favour of ‘other options’

Expert fears students are too often passively observing vital processes without gaining practical understanding but others say discipline should lean in to modern approaches

Several universities have committed to giving everyone access to latest technology, but expert says a more nuanced approach is needed

Rise in compromised credentials increasing risk of damaging cyberattacks, UK IT body warns

Rampant technology considered both essential knowledge and an employability threat, survey finds

Experts warn of increasing threat to systems used by universities at crunch points in the academic year after hundreds of thousands of student records compromised

Study finds detectors struggle to accurately identify amount of AI content when papers have been partially human written

Hundreds of thousands of email addresses understood to be affected in hack claimed by notorious ShinyHunters group

Head of learning initiatives for Google Deepmind says debates about use of new technologies should focus on how to embrace more holistic teaching methods

Offering microcredentials can help universities better prepare students for work, claims edtech firm leader, but degrees still ‘primary currency’

Audit of all UK institutions reveals lack of coordination in how student AI use is being managed, with 40 per cent lacking any public policy

Rise in top marks was most prevalent when students completed written tasks at home, says University of California, Berkeley scholar

Home-grown data storage could hamper ‘global cybergangs’ and boost productivity as well as security, according to former cabinet minister

With data potentially stolen from 200 million users at 9,000 institutions worldwide, staff and students told to be alert for more sophisticated attempts to steal data

Pan-European initiative EuroTeQ has made studying across the continent easier for students, but coordinating between nine different higher education institutions can be harder than building the digital infrastructure itself 

Universities looking to AI to defend against growing virtual threats

AI glasses and other smart apparel may be impossible to keep out of exams, adding to universities’ woes about the future of assessments

Despite a rebound during the pandemic, Australians increasingly shunning structured learning as AI raises questions about ‘credibility of degrees’

London School of Innovation set to launch in June after being given stamp of approval by regulator

Ivy League university also urged to look again at tuition costs, free speech rules and admissions policy after wide-ranging inquiry into declining public support

Expert says ‘coordination problem’ leaves degree courses out of sync with business needs

Calls to ditch AI because it is destroying students’ analytical skills ignore institutions’ questionable record at developing complex reasoning, says Ian Richardson

With undergraduates viewing education as a transaction and AI offering helpful summaries, reading is dying out on UK campuses, says Agnieszka Piotrowska

Extending UK government technology funding to universities could save sector millions of pounds a year, argues new report

Productivity gains from using technology to mark students’ work a ‘false economy’ given loss of skills and relationships, argues new paper

Pilot study that has seen UK institutions test software that can give students grades and feedback ‘confirming importance of educators in the process’, say organisers

Reliance on legacy systems and lack of investment in new technologies leaves universities struggling to meet demand for more personalised learning, report finds

Trials at UK universities sent automatic email prompts to those identified as at-risk by learning analytics data

New tool promising to watch lectures and complete assignments for students abruptly taken down amid concerns about cheating and data protection

Cheap research round-ups by ‘hallucination-free’ OpenScholar model preferred by experts, says Nature study

Scholars with large followings on app say it is a good way to change misconceptions about what they do

New technologies must be used in ways that ‘strengthen, rather than replace, human expertise’, report authors warn

Private chat forums are ‘valued learning environments’ that can help stop students falling behind, Australian study finds

Executive who oversaw Alexa and Prime as Jeff Bezos’ key adviser sets sights on establishing Coursera as ‘partner’ in technological development, rather than foe

Russell Group institution announces major pivot into digital teaching as universities evolve further beyond traditional models

Institutions urged to take a step back and think about what they are trying to achieve before ‘jumping on AI bandwagon’

To protect critical, context-rich thinking in HE, knowledge agency must be quickly reclaimed from Big Edtech, say Dirk Lindebaum and Gazi Islam 

No correct solution to the challenge of assessment in the age of generative AI, and academics must be given ‘permission’ to tailor their approaches, Australian researchers say

Fears raised over ‘culturally encouraged introversion’ but could study assistants help bridge gap between universities and Silicon Valley?

Let’s focus concern about AI’s energy and water use where it can make the biggest difference and demand accountability from developers, says Cal Innes

OpenAI builds tool to combat student reliance on AI answers, but insists that cheating requires ‘holistic’ approach from universities and tech firms

If we don’t develop policies now, being deepfaked and doxed will become an ever-present risk, say Janine Arantes, Andrew Welsman and Bec Marland

An Indian university founder recently quoted Google AI in defence of his institution’s failure to back an under-fire academic. The incident exemplifies the threat posed to viewpoint diversity on campus by our increasing reliance on a tool trained to favour the majority view, says Saikat Majumdar 

Researcher who waited nearly two years for rejection claims ‘nonsensical’ criticisms of his paper must have been chatbot-generated

Teaching assistants have demanded fair pay for years but industrial action has made little progress. AI offers a significant raise, notes Michael Buehler

This year’s marking season has confirmed for many academics that, less than three years since the launch of ChatGPT, AI use by students has become so rife that their submitted writing is no longer a reliable indicator of what they have learned. Three scholars offer their views on where to go from here

Restrictions on what models will discuss are necessary, but ill-informed blocks distort inquiry, say Lorna Waddington and Richard de Blacquiere-Clarkson

Increased use of words such as ‘delves’, ‘underscores’ and ‘showcasing’ identified since popularisation of large language models

Widespread use of new tools has ‘blurred lines’ between academic support and misconduct, study finds

Our paper was rejected on the basis of reviewer comments that were vague, formulaic, often irrelevant and occasionally inaccurate, says Seongjin Hong

Concerns piling on more tests may harm students as artificial intelligence forces re-evaluation of assessment methods

The tasks that can be automated or augmented are some of those that university staff undertake day in and day out, says Alexander Iosad

AI expert Tshilidzi Marwala calls for closer collaboration between universities and companies and rebalancing of AI power divide away from US and China

Surveyed Australians expect their universities to supply AI support despite concerns about its ‘veneer of learning’

The only way to prevent AI from undermining assessments is to design them that way, Australian researchers argue

University finances and ‘painfully slow’ accreditation processes contributing to UK lagging behind neighbours on AI training, experts warn