INFINITE project, which aims to empower the Higher Education (HE) community to make the best use of AI for teaching, learning and assessment focused on the research and analysis of the current status of AI usage in HE across Europe in its first months.
As one of the partners, ALL DIGITAL carried out a desk research, systematic literature review (SLR), and surveys targeting HE academics and students in Belgium, one of the focus countries of the project.
With this article, we are happy to share our findings from this research phase with a comprehensive overview of the current perception, applications, challenges, risks, and impacts regarding the use of AI in HE within the context of Belgium, as well as the need for skills and training expressed by the HE community in order to make the best use of AI in HE.
The role of AI in HE
A position paper[1] published in 2024 by itec, an imec research group at KU Leuven, offers a comprehensive overview of challenges and opportunities for learning, teaching and training in the era of AI. With reference to several other research papers, this position paper highlights four key perspectives for the contribution of AI to modern education at all levels:
- Preparing learners for the AI driven future (making them aware of opportunities and challenges/implications/risks)
- Learning about AI (understanding AI techniques, models and algorithms, as well as gaining skills such as data analysis, problem-solving and computational thinking)
- Learning and training with AI (from the perspective of learners: using AI tools for personalised learning experiences, from the perspective of teachers, trainers and school administrators as well as policymakers, automating administrative tasks, such as planning, scheduling, and communication)
- Using AI to gain insights into the learning progress (using dashboards to facilitate collection, measurement, analysis and reporting of learner data via learning analytics to improve the learning experience and receive guidance and recommendations. AI can be particularly helpful in the identification of patterns and trends within large datasets, particularly in higher education where thousands of learners may enrol in the same course. The automation of these tasks can leave more time on other areas where human interactions, empathy and socio-emotional skills remain irreplaceable)
This position paper highlights that the role of AI in education should not be narrowed down to the adoption of AI technology in the educational context, and it should be rather used to empower the educational ecosystem.
The paper categorizes the AI tools used in education by using the following AIED systems taxonomy:
| Student-focused AIED |
| Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS), AI assisted Apps (e.g., math, text-to-speech, language learning), AI assisted Simulation (e.g., games-based learning, VR, AR), AI to support Learners with Disabilities, Automatic Essay Writing (AEW), Chatbots, Automatic Formative Assessment (AFA), Learning Network Orchestrators, Dialogue-based Tutoring Systems (DBTS), Exploratory Learning Environments (ELE), AI assisted Lifelong Learning Assistant |
| Teacher-focused AIED |
| Plagiarism detection, Smart Curation of Learning Materials, Classroom Monitoring, Automatic Summative Assessment, AI Teaching Assistant (including assessment assistant), Classroom Orchestration |
| Institution-focused AIED |
| Admission (e.g., student selection), Course-planning, Scheduling, Timetabling, School Security, Identifying Dropouts and Students at risk, e-Proctoring |
A refined version of the AIED systems taxonomy (borrowed from Holmes and Tuomi, 2022) as taken from the position paper.
Perception of the use of AI tools in higher education
Both literature review and survey results indicated that the HE community in Belgium is open to the use of AI tools in education and willing to discover new tools, clearly recognizing its potential to improve the teaching and learning experiences.
The use of AI in education is generally perceived in relation to the use of GenAI tools, especially on the side of students, who are already using these tools in their daily learning and research tasks. Therefore, there are increased efforts from the side of HE staff to explore both advantages and potential pitfalls of these tools with a view to develop clear guidelines for the use of these tools in their organizations.
One of the good practices in terms of definition of guidelines for the use of AI tools, more specifically GenAI tools, in higher education is the case of KU Leuven, one of the major universities in Belgium with focus on innovative research, promoting a responsible use of GenAI in education instead of banning it. The university is open to the use of GenAI technology concerning education and research and encourages the students, teaching staff and researchers to handle this technology in a responsible and critical way by offering them a wide range of knowledge on the topic, along with clear guidelines for each group.
Ability to use AI tools in general
Based on literature review and survey responses, a wide range of AI tools that can be used for a variety of purposes in education are publicly available and easily accessible for the use of HE staff and students.
However, based on the survey responses, both groups recognise the importance of testing the tools, need guidance in critically evaluating existing tools and need to gain skills for creating AI tools based on modification of open-source tools.
Use of AI tools for pedagogical practices
Based on survey responses and desk research, HE staff recognise the pedagogical affordances of AI and are ready to develop effective pedagogical strategies or tools for integrating AI tools into specific subject areas. There is a specific interest and need for further guidance and capacity building to explore the use of AI tools to create personalised learning experiences and assessment.
Use of AI tools for professional practices
This aspect of the use of AI tools for professional practices is not an area widely researched in Belgium based on our literature review. Based on survey responses, HE staff are generally able to use the AI tools for curriculum design, as well as their daily academic and administrative tasks, however they are not sure how to enhance collaboration with other educators, to enhance organisational communication and ensure the learner agency and accessibility while interacting with AI.
Use of AI tools by students for learning
As both literature review and survey responses indicate, students use AI tools to get familiar with the subject matter they are learning and for content generation and translation purposes. They particularly have different levels of abilities in using the AI tools for mentoring, self-assessment and collaboration. This seems to be not much explored area.
AI tools used in HE
Our research identified a long-list of AI-based tools that are used in the Belgian HE landscape including chatbots and assistants for research, writing, translation, speech recognition, speech-to-text conversion, screening, statistical analysis, visual design, instructional feedback, assessment, course generation and learning analytics.
There are also AI-based tools developed by Belgian researchers/start-ups such as:
- Dodona (an intelligent tutoring system developed at Ghent University for computer programming providing real-time data and feedback to help secondary and higher education students learn better and teachers teach better),
- Space 2.0 (an AI agent using Large Language Models to create a virtual client for psychology students at HOWEST University of Applied Sciences to practice their conversational skills)
- Linguineo (an online supporting platform developed by a Belgian start-up using chatbot and speech recognition technology for language learning).
Risks and challenges of using AI
Both literature review and survey results show that the HE community in Belgium clearly recognizes that there are certain implications, risks and challenges of using AI.
While the HE academics and staff feel confident about discussing the risks and challenges, they need clear guidelines and capacity building to take prompt action and propose modifications to address these needs.
Main challenges and risks mentioned commonly in literature review and survey responses are around the topics of:
- Ethical, legal and data protection issues,
- Diversity in educational backgrounds and skills of students,
- Different kinds of perceptions among the HE staff (scepticism towards AI among some members, while others want to embrace the AI technologies),
- Challenges for collaboration among HE staff (variety of tools and paid tools),
- Lack of time to explore and test the best AI tools that match the needs,
- AI not being a trustable resource,
- Potential risk of AI tools to hinder creativity among students or critical thinking in learning activities.
Skill and training needs
The literature review highlighted the need to guide both students and educators on the benefits and limitations of AI tools in order to learn and use AI ethically and ensure academic integrity.
The topic of skill and training needs was particularly explored in the survey yielding a good insight in needs of both groups. Key skills and training needs mentioned by HE academics are:
- Critical thinking in choosing and using the AI tools,
- Understanding the inner processes of tools and of effective, ethical and sustainable ways of using them in education,
- How to use, customise and combine AI tools to for personalised and adaptive learning, feedback and assessment of students,
- Knowledge about legal and ethical aspects of AI,
- Training on specific tools and best practices of use of AI in higher education.
Students are generally interested in skills related to the use of AI tools for searching, writing, creating content, summarising and analysing, with specific reference on how to use the prompts.
On the other hand, the research centres and universities offer a wide range of training programmes for the use of AI in education. One of them is the AI in education training programme offered by itec.
Online training on AI in education by itec. Click here to access.
Flanders AI Academy (VAIA) also provides a repository of trainings offered by various universities on the use of AI in HE with focus on the topics such as using AI-based tools for developing lessons, learning the basics of AI prompt engineering and language teaching.
Conclusion
The HE community in Belgium is positive and optimistic about the potential of using AI in higher education as long as its implications, risks and challenges are clearly defined and understood by everyone using these tools.
The use of AI in higher education is understood a broader concept than simple adoption and use of tools; it is seen as an opportunity to enhance and transform teaching and learning experiences, to gain insights into the learning progress and to support educators to save time for repetitive tasks to focus on other key tasks that requires human interaction.
While we faced specific challenges and limitations in reaching out to a wider audience and scanning available literature in a limited period of time, we believe that the findings in the national report provides important insights and clues both for Belgium and beyond to build up the future project activities based on actual needs and expectations.
Our key findings point to the following needs from the side of the HE community:
- Development of reliable and easily accessible resources with tools and good practices to facilitate the staff and students to keep up with the pace of AI technologies,
- Training and capacity building opportunities to empower HE staff to understand how AI tools work and equip them with necessary knowledge and skills to use AI responsibly understanding the legal and ethical implications,
- Providing guidelines and training opportunities for HE students on how to make the best and responsible use of AI tools for their learning,
- Efforts should be made also to create a common understanding of the use of AI in HE to make collaboration possible among HE staff in using AI tools.
The INFINITE project has a great potential to empower the HE community in relation with the above-mentioned needs through the development if the AI Literacy Toolkit, AI Digital Hub and capacity-building courses for HE academics and students. The Action Plan for HEIs will also serve as an important input towards a common understanding and collaboration across the HE institutions.
[1] Van Schoors, R., & Fastré, A. (Eds.). (2024). Itec Positioning paper: Learning, teaching & training in the era of Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and opportunities for evidence-based educational research. Kortrijk: itec, an imec research group at KU Leuven. Retrieved from https://itec.kuleuven-kulak.be/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Positioning-paper-itec.pdf
[2] (2024). Ontdek de toekomst van onderwijs met AI! Retrieved from https://www.vaia.be/nl/opleidingen/ontdek-de-toekomst-van-onderwijs-met-ai