Innovations in Teaching and Learning Luncheon - AI's Implications for Higher Education: Now and in the Future with C. Edward Watson

Lunch is included.

Generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others, have had an astonishingly quick impact on the ways we learn, work, think, and create, and this evolution is clearly apparent on college campuses.  As early as January 2023, approximately 9 out of 10 college students reported using ChatGPT, and that number, as well as student competency with AI, has only grown since then. AI is present in our college classrooms, and there is also growing demand for graduates who possess AI competencies and literacies.  Drawing from the presenter’s new book, Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning(Johns Hopkins University Press), this keynote will explore the evolving AI landscape and detail the companion challenges and opportunities that are emerging for higher education.  While academic integrity and AI detection will be discussed, the core focus of this keynote will be on concrete approaches and strategies higher education can adopt, both within the classroom and across larger curricular structures, to best prepare students for the life that awaits them after graduation.

About the speaker:

C. Edward Watson is the Associate Vice President for Curricular and Pedagogical Innovation and Executive Director of Open Educational Resources and Digital Innovation at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). He is also the founding director of AAC&U’s Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum. Prior to joining AAC&U, Dr. Watson was the Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Georgia (UGA) where he led university efforts associated with faculty development, TA development, learning technologies, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. He continues to serve as a Fellow in the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at UGA and recently stepped down after more than a decade as the Executive Editor of the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.  His most recent book is Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning. Dr. Watson been quoted in the New York Times, Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Campus Technology, EdSurge, EdTech, Consumer Reports, UK Financial Times, and University Business Magazine and by the AP, CNN and NPR regarding current teaching and learning issues and trends in higher education.