Exploring the Integration of Large Language Models in Higher Education: Challenges, Opportunities, and Ethical Considerations

In-person: UBCV

This event is part of the 2024 Celebrate Learning Week, taking place from May 6–10, 2024.

Recent advancements in Large Language Models (LLMs) have ignited substantial interest among educators and higher education institutions. While LLMs offer promising capabilities to support various aspects of learning and teaching, their integration into educational settings presents inherent limitations and risks that necessitate careful consideration, thoughtful analysis, and effective mitigation strategies.

This session will spotlight Dr. Salehian Kia’s project on developing the GenAI chatbot to facilitate self-regulated learning and explore the interactive dynamics between students and the GenAI chatbot. The project aims to delineate ethical approaches to promoting students’ meaningful engagement with this emerging technology and to address and deliberate on numerous challenges and constraints linked with deploying LLMs in higher education. It emphasizes scenarios warranting caution, instances where LLMs face architectural constraints, and areas where their utilization may entail risks, thereby requiring prudent mitigation measures and strategic planning.

These challenges encompass but are not limited to biases, ethical quandaries, interpretability issues, and pedagogical constraints that affect the effective deployment of LLMs in educational environments. Participants will gain actionable insights into navigating the intricacies surrounding LLM deployment. Consequently, they will be empowered to make informed decisions regarding the integration of AI technologies into higher education settings, thereby enhancing the capacity of higher education for more adaptive and personalized learning on a large scale.

Facilitators:

• Fatemeh Salehian Kia, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, School of Information, UBC
• Noureddine Elouazizi, Senior Strategist, Artificial Intelligence and Innovation in Learning Technology, Faculty of Science’ s Centre for Learning and Teaching (Skylight), UBC

Note to Non-UBC Participants:

In order to register for this program, non-UBC faculty, staff, and students will need to create a UBC Basic CWL. To do this, please go to the CWL page and scroll down to the accordion tab that reads “Basic”. Follow the instructions there for creating and activating a Basic CWL, then please return to this page to register for the program.