ANS Education & Outreach Seminar

How generative AI can enhance grader's assessment feedback at scale

Minh is an Educational Designer in the Educational Innovation team at the University of Sydney. Minh trained as a cell biologist and now works with educators to design and develop strategic education programs and initiatives including student transition, designing for diversity, and using generative artificial intelligence to support learning and teaching. Fran van den Berg is a lecturer from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences in the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney. Fran trained as an ecophysiologist and has a passion for spiders and other invertebrates and being outdoors in general. Her education research focuses on authentic learning experiences, feedback, and students in transition. 

Providing effective feedback that is personalised, encouraging, constructive and timely is a crucial contribution of educators to a student's learning journey. 'Cogniti' is a generative AI tool developed by educators at the University of Sydney, and gives educators the ability to provide large language models (LLMs) with specific instructions and resources (e.g., assessment instructions, rubrics, examples of good feedback) to achieve context and discipline-specific outputs that support students’ learning and development. 

Dr Bianca Guglietti and Dr Elysia Sokolenko, University of Adelaide

Maximising engagement and efficiency in hybrid neuroscience teaching

Bianca studied interventions in Parkinson’s Disease during her PhD, from targeting neuroinflammation to the development of novel cognitive training techniques. Elysia completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne, with a focus on cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and is currently coordinating a trial of non-invasive brain stimulation for people on the autism spectrum.  With a shared passion for teaching and community outreach, Bianca and Elysia are Lecturers at the University of Adelaide teaching in the School of Biomedicine across 1st, 2nd and 3rd year courses and together, coordinate 1styear Neuroscience.

The adoption of hybrid teaching models, which balance in-person and remote learning, has presented both challenges and opportunities. In response, a recent course redesign has prioritised optimising practices to integrate technologies with adaptable resources to improve efficiency for educators, enhance student engagement and ultimately improve subsequent learning outcomes.