Monday, November 4, 2024

Teaching and learning in the AI era: How the University of Sydney is empowering staff and students with AI across the institution – Microsoft Australia News Centre

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Developing innovative use cases

So far, the University’s ICT team has built 33 minimum viable products on its Azure platform. One of the most successful solutions is Cogniti, an AI assistant for students, developed by Danny Liu, Associate Professor of Educational Innovation.

Cogniti allows teachers to create their own AI chatbot ‘agents’ that can be steered with specific instructions and resourced with specific contextual information from units of study. These agents can be embedded into the University’s learning management system, providing a seamless experience for students – they do not have to sign up for a separate account, and the institution provides their AI access.

Teachers have full visibility over conversations with Cogniti agents, and students can flag and give feedback on AI messages.

“Using Cogniti, students can get instant, personalised support, guidance and feedback, including explanations of key concepts and coaching on study techniques,” says Cook. “It can also boost staff productivity by helping teachers with time-consuming tasks such as creating rubrics to establish criteria for assessment.”

Jim Cook, Innovation Lead

Since Cogniti’s soft launch in October 2023, educators from 30 institutions in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore have created more than 600 AI agents using the solution. These AI agents have engaged in over 31,500 conversations with more than 10,000 users and answered thousands of syllabus and content questions.

Cogniti has also improved personalised feedback for thousands of students, including those who used Cogniti agents during a workshop to develop occupational therapy intervention plans in the University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health.

“I thought the AI was very good,” says one student. “There was a balance between challenging our suggestions that encourages us to think and back up our ideas, and affirming our suggestions with add-ons that improve the strategy delivery.”

Cogniti is currently used across 300 units of study and the University expects this number to double by the end of 2024.

Another successful project on the University’s Azure platform is the generative AI policy navigator developed by the University’s Digital Innovation team. This tool, built using Microsoft’s public sector Information Assistant accelerator, simplifies staff access to the university’s 360 policies.

“Navigating our extensive policy library can be challenging for our 26,000 staff. However, as they become literate in working with generative AI and ask the policy navigator the right questions, they can gain some real value from it,” says Cook.

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