Image generated in Canva using AI in Education as a prompt.

Author: Nork Zakarian, Quality and Development Officer, CAVA

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has been named as one of the UK government’s ‘five technologies of tomorrow’ (Science and Technology Framework 2023, Department for Education) and it is already delivering wide societal benefits, across healthcare, climate science, and logistics. Within education, AI is transforming how educators and students interact with learning, presenting unique opportunities and challenges. This article explores AI’s role in Further Education (FE), particularly within Access to Higher Education Diplomas, and how institutions can shape AI integration responsibility and effectively.

AI and the Access to HE Diploma

Access to Higher Education Diplomas play a critical role in providing pathways for adults to enter higher education. With over 40,000 students historically enrolling annually nationwide, the demographic is diverse, including significant numbers from disadvantaged backgrounds, ethnic minorities, and those with disabilities or learning difficulties. The Diplomas support social mobility by equipping learners with the skills needed for university progression or employment across fields such as health professions, engineering, creative arts and computing.

Given the rapid integration of AI in education, FE providers and awarding bodies like Cambridge Access Validating Agency must navigate its challenges while leveraging its potential. AI is already being used to improve the accessibility of information for students with learning difficulties; provide virtual tutoring for flexible, self-paced study, and generate interactive content to engage students through simulations and gamified learning. As AI tools continue to develop and become more integrated into all spheres of life, it is essential that Access to Higher Education Diplomas equip students not only to use AI effectively but to understand and evaluate it critically.

CAVA’s Approach to AI in Education

CAVA is committed to ensuring that AI integration in assessment and learning supports student achievement while maintaining academic integrity. To achieve this, we have developed comprehensive guidance for our member colleges and institutions, focusing on responsible and ethical AI use. The guide prioritises the importance of students' independent work, proper referencing skills, and how AI-generated content can be incorporated appropriately into assessments to reflect genuine student achievements, while guarding against misuse.

Key aspects of this guidance include:

• Equity and Accessibility: AI has the significant potential to level the educational playing field. It can support students with special needs, non-native English speakers, and adults balancing work and study by offering personalised support, AI-driven tutoring, and accessible content creation tools.

• Academic Integrity: Ensuring a culture of academic integrity is a key priority. Undeclared AI use is classified as academic misconduct, reinforcing the importance of students developing their own skills. Tutors are encouraged to design assessments that require critical reflection, oral presentations, and practical applications to ensure authenticity and deeper engagement.

• AI Literacy: As human-AI collaboration becomes standard, incorporating AI literacy into assessment is essential. Study Skills units - which already develop seminar skills, critical thinking, and research capabilities - could evolve to include responsible and reflective AI use, preparing students for the workforce and higher education.

• Ethics and Data Privacy: AI’s adoption must prioritise safeguarding sensitive student and institutional data. CAVA’s guidance emphasises strategies to mitigate risks such as bias, misinformation, and privacy breaches, ensuring AI serves as a support tool rather than a replacement for critical thinking and independent learning.

At its core, CAVA’s approach reflects its commitment to social mobility and lifelong learning, using AI to enhance equity, accessibility, and high educational quality.

Collaboration and Sector engagement

CAVA believes that AI’s role in education should be shaped through collective dialogue. To support FE institutions in navigating AI’s opportunities and challenges, CAVA is actively engaging with colleges, awarding bodies and policymakers to:

• Assist institutions in developing clear AI policies and ethical guidelines

• Facilitate discussions on AI literacy and its role in assessment models

• Encourage collaborative learning environments where students and tutors explore AI’s potential together.

• Advocate for authentic assessment models that align with evolving workforce demands.

• Work towards a sector-wide statement of principles on AI’s use in education

• Promote a "human in the loop" approach, ensuring AI complements human creativity and judgment rather than replacing it.

Conclusion: Shaping the future of AI in FE

The evolving nature of AI raises questions about traditional assessment models. Should educators permit "hybrid submissions," blending AI-generated and original work? How can, and should, assessments prioritise future competencies, such as AI literacy, over past knowledge?

As AI reshapes education, designing engaging assessments that deter misuse while promoting critical AI literacy is essential. By incorporating AI literacy, addressing ethical considerations, and fostering future-focused assessments, we can prepare adult learners for a world increasingly shaped by AI.

CAVA remains committed to supporting responsible AI integration in FE. If your institution is exploring AI in assessment and would like to engage in this discussion, please reach out, we would love to take part in the conversation.

Keywords:

1. Generative AI

2. Access to HE Diplomas

3. Academic Integrity

4. AI Literacy

5. Further Education sector

6. Adult Education

AI continues to develop at a rapid speed, presenting both exciting opportunities and unique challenges within education. As part of our commitment to staying at the forefront of these developments, we wanted to share how we've been integrating AI into our work, ensuring its safe and effective use to support our team and members.

Over the past year, we have continued to find ways to implement AI tools into our work, without removing the personal approach we pride ourselves on. Last year we shared guidance on generative AI, and believe this is still a relevant and useful document. We continue to review and update it where relevant to reflect on recent changes.

Integrating AI into our Workflow

As a team we have started to integrate AI into our workflows, particularly around event preparation. We use ChatGPT to support the creation of scripts based on our team’s notes and discussions and eventually transform these into visually engaging slides and social media posts with tools like Canva Magic. By automating some of the more routine tasks, we can focus more on content quality and delivery. 

While we continue to embrace AI, we are meticulous about safety. We never input personal information into AI tools, instead, a human staff member handles sensitive details manually, ensuring data is protected. Every AI-generated output continues to be reviewed by a team member to ensure it meets our values and standards. This ensures that AI supports, rather than replaces, the human touch in everything we produce.

CAVA’s 2024 annual conference

Looking ahead, we’re excited for AI to once again feature at CAVA’s annual conference. This year we are focusing on the future of teaching and assessment, with a clear understanding that AI will have an impact. We also have a specific workshop on using AI within education, where attendees will have the opportunity to explore AI and how they can use it.

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly grown in various sectors, including education. Understanding how different demographic factors influence the adoption of AI among teachers is crucial for developing strategies to maximise its benefits. Georgia Green, CAVA’s Communication and Events officer, recently focused on this very topic, examining how age, gender, teaching experience, and academic stream impact teachers' use of AI in the classroom. The findings provide valuable insights that can help educational institutions tailor their approaches to integrate AI more effectively.

Research approach

This research was undertaken as part of Georgia’s dissertation for her Masters in Psychology. She produced a survey to gain information about educator’s demographics and how it correlated to their use of AI. She shared it with various schools and colleges around the country, as well as sharing on social media. Overall, data was collected from 98 participants from a range of ages, gender and academic stream. 

Key Findings

Gender Differences in AI Adoption

One of the most striking findings was the disparity between teachers identifying as male and female in using AI. The data revealed that men are significantly more likely to incorporate AI tools into their teaching practices than women. This gender gap suggests a potential area for intervention, perhaps through targeted training and support programs aimed at encouraging female teachers to engage with AI technology.

Age as a Determinant Factor

Age emerged as a critical factor in AI adoption, with younger teachers being more inclined to use AI than their older counterparts. The analysis indicated that age 34 appears to be a pivotal point, after which AI usage begins to drop. This lines up with the digital native generation, aligning with the broader pattern of technology adoption, where younger individuals are often more tech-savvy and quicker to embrace new technologies.

Experience Level and AI Usage

Experience in teaching also plays a significant role in the use of AI, with less experienced teachers more likely to utilise these tools. However, it's important to note that age and experience are closely correlated. This near-perfect correlation makes it challenging to determine if the willingness to use AI is driven more by age or by teaching experience. Nonetheless, the data clearly shows that those newer to the profession are more open to integrating AI into their classrooms.

Academic Stream and Student Age Group

Interestingly, the academic stream did not show a clear impact on AI usage. However, there were patterns indicating that teachers instructing older students were more likely to use AI, with primary school teachers significantly less engaged with AI tools than their colleagues teaching FE or HE. This could be due to the perceived appropriateness or utility of AI in different educational contexts, where AI tools might be seen as more beneficial or easier to implement in FE and HE compared to primary education.

Implementations for CAVA

These findings can support CAVA and our members, by highlighting the importance of understanding and assisting staff who are not currently utilising AI. Many educators are unaware of the available AI tools or what they can do. Last year we released a blog post highlighting 5 useful AI tools for educators. These tools are still some of our favourite ones, and a useful starting point for anyone exploring AI.

Support moving forward may require practical demonstrations and time to experiment with these technologies. The research emphasises that colleges should focus their efforts on supporting their older and female staff members. By providing targeted training, showcasing AI applications, and allocating time for exploration and experimentation, institutions can foster a more inclusive and effective adoption of AI across all teaching demographics. 

  Insights from Georgia Green.

Since ChatGPT was released in November 2022, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a buzzword throughout not only education, but the world. It appears each week different tools are being released or improved and it is almost impossible to keep up. Due to the amount of tools and sites available, we find it can be overwhelming to know which ones are useful and specifically how you can use them.

Below we share a few of our favourite tools which we have identified to be useful to educators, especially those who work in further or higher education.

1. Chat GPT: Even though ChatGPT was not the first AI tool, it certainly was the one which drew attention to AI for most people in 2022. It is a large language model that can engage in conversations following simple prompts and questions. For educators, it can be a valuable tool in several ways including assistance in lesson planning, answering student queries, content creation and generic administrative tasks.

2. Canva: Canva is a design tool that was launched in 2013 and seems to be everywhere! On Canva you can create visuals, create documents and design presentations. They have been working on their AI platform - Canva Magic - which has been released recently and contains tools which can create photos and videos, transfer documents to different formats, convert a document into a different language and much more.

3. Classpoint: This educational AI tool is an extension for Powerpoint which enables educators to engage students by adding quizzes, polls, and other interactive elements to their presentations. This fosters active participation and real-time assessment, making lessons more engaging and informative.

4. Supernormal: Supernormal is a Google extension, which offers an AI personal assistant to take minutes from any Google Meet call. It records the general overview of the meeting, writes a brief summary as well as making note of what actions were agreed upon and who is responsible for them.

5. AI Educator Tools: Dan Fitzpatrick is the AI Educator. He has released a useful guide called the AI Educator Tools which is a ‘repository of AI tools for teachers’. Dan is constantly sharing useful tools and remains up to date on AI within education and different ways it can be used. He also has a Facebook group - The AI Classroom - filled with teachers sharing good practice of how they are incorporating AI into their classroom.

AI can be an incredible tool which supports educators in creating content, reducing how long it takes them to complete a task and creating personalised resources easily. Like anything, AI should be used carefully and always requires a human to sense-check what has been made.

If you are an Access to HE provider, check out our CAVA AI guidance for more information about how to use it with the qualification.

This year the CAVA annual conference, 'EdTech Opportunities for Access to HE' will focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and online delivery and their impact on Access to HE.

It will be a virtual conference, taking place on Google Meet on Friday 1 December 2023, starting at 09:30 and finishing at 15:45.

We are excited that Ben Whitaker from EduFuturist and Rachel Whitton, a Research Further scholar with AoC will be joining us as our keynote speakers.

We also have a panel of experts from both FE and HE, and a chance for you to network with FE and HE colleagues around the country whilst discussing the relevant topics.

During our AI focus, there will be opportunities to discuss:

• AI and its impact on authentic assessment

• Academic integrity and AI

• AI tools within the classroom

• Accessibility and equal access of AI

During our online delivery focus, there will be opportunities to discuss:

• Hybrid and hyFlex learning

• Retaining and engaging students

• The role of online delivery in personalised learning schedules

• Building effective online courses

You can find the programme and registration here. We look forward to seeing you there.