GenAI continues to be a hot topic in the teaching and learning space. TEQSA has recently requested information from universities on their plans to mitigate its potential risks, and the recent JISC Digital Survey tells us that 40% of our students report using AI in their learning in the last year. In addition to the proliferation of third party tools on the market, our academic publishers have been developing GenAI tools for teaching and learning, but also some that assist in the doing and writing of research.
The Library has been monitoring the development and inclusion of this GenAI functionality and have provided on our website a list of these developments, including links to publisher-provided videos and information. This will be a handy resource to view each month to keep updated with the new tools coming in each discipline.
Benefits of publisher GenAI tools
One of the significant differences between the publisher tools and popular public GenAIs (like ChatGPT) is that the publishers use licensed content and can reference where the generated answers are coming from. This should ensure a higher level of accuracy and reduce the risk of errors, addressing concerns around AI ‘hallucinations’, which is still a common question from students.
As publisher content is trusted, curated and scholarly, the publisher GenAI tools will also have the advantage of accessing high quality information, compared to the largely unknown and non-scholarly data sources of public GenAIs. The publisher GenAI tools have access to paywalled content, which is different from the other tools which only have access to openly available content.
GenAI is coming to UTS Library
We are excited to announce that that the vendor’s launch of GenAI across the Library catalogue is expected to be later this year and exploration of this tool is underway. Imagine a GenAI accessing the majority of content across the catalogue, generating high quality summaries less than 500 words) and pointing to exact sources! Keep an eye out for further announcements on this functionality later in 2024.
Emerging discussions on GenAI and its impact
As I’ve been presenting publisher GenAI tools to Faculties, discussions have emerged around the potential impact on professions, future industry expectations, student employability, and how to ensure students use these tools responsibly to support skill development rather than becoming overly reliant on them. These considerations are likely to become increasingly important as we evolve our learning and teaching models. The Learning Teaching and Curriculum unit is working on identifying curriculum design principles that take into account GenAI and other external factors, guiding us towards a sustainable approach to learning and teaching at UTS.
Next steps
Each course has a different approach to GenAI use and advises students accordingly, so understanding which publisher tools are available will be important in the process of reviewing and updating curriculum. Many of these publisher tools are still in beta, or require an additional subscription, but some will be free and available soon. The Library will update its list of publisher GenAI tools on the website each month to keep you informed. Contact the Library to discuss GenAI publisher tools that may be essential for your teaching, so that they might be considered in the university’s approach for assessing, prioritising and funding new GenAI products.
In the meantime, keep referring students to the UTS Library GenAI Study Guide, to help them ensure their use of GenAI adheres to good practice for academic integrity.