CCD international seminar: Supporting students to use generative AI tools ethically and effectively in academic writing

Ursula Wingate, a Professor of Language Education at King's College London, will discuss supporting students in using generative AI tools ethically and effectively in academic writing. Drawing on the concept of translanguaging, she will first explore the role of a non-generative tool, machine translation, in assisting multilingual students with text composition.

She will then present the design, delivery and outcomes of a pedagogical intervention funded by the King’s College Teaching Fund. The intervention aimed to equalise opportunities for writers from diverse linguistic backgrounds and to enable digitally less experienced students to use the most effective tools for the enhancement of their texts.

Four student collaborators were recruited to assist in the implementation and evaluation of workshops on the use of AI tools. The workshops were informed by focus group discussions with students from both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The findings show a mismatch between evolving university policies and students’ perceptions and use of AI tools. Frequent changes in regulations also posed challenges to our development of the AI workshops. The talk will conclude with a discussion of AI policies and regulations and their impact on levelling the linguistic playing field for non-native speakers of English.

Zoom: https://ju-se.zoom.us/j/68893618604