Seminars

Every term, the Unit for Academic Teaching and Learning arranges online seminars via Zoom, usually at noon (12 sharp, ending at 1 pm, at the latest), The list below will be updated continuously, with more seminars.

No registration required.

Seminars are held in Swedish or English.

All seminars take place in this Zoom room.

Thursday, 21 September, at 12:00: Simulated interview data with AI: problem or opportunity? (in Swedish)

Speaker: Lennart Rolandsson, Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in didactics, with a focus on technology didactics, at Department of Education.

Today, students can conduct interviews with non-existent humans: you assign a chatbot a role with associated characteristics, and then ask questions that are guaranteed to provide answers. This type of data collection produces a result in the form of unique texts that resemble genuine conversations between interviewer and informant. Students can also post-construct audio files using other text-to-speech (AI) technologies. During the seminar, Lennart shows how students with this method can create sharper interview questions. The possibilities are very attractive, as you can create interview situations that reflect the most common answers, and in a relatively short time create relevant questions: you chat for a while with the chatbot, which gives you an understanding of which questions are relevant/interesting to ask. In principle, students can create an interview guide. During the seminar, possible risks of cheating with the method are also discussed, such as genuine interviews being replaced by fictitious ones.

Tuesday, 10 October, at 12:00: Challenging the boundaries of AI in higher education : an experiment with ChatGPT for training in scientific approach and academic writing (in Swedish)

Speaker: John Sedin , lecturer at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences

In the project, the possibilities of using ChatGPT to support students ' learning process when investigating a scientific question in the field of neuropharmacology were explored . Students were asked to search for relevant and up - to - date sources from the PubMed database , and then use ChatGPT to generate and structure their texts . During the process , the students were trained to critically review the text and to handle references .

During the seminar , we will dive deeper into the challenges and opportunities that this project has revealed , discuss educational implications , and consider how we can continue to leverage AI in creative ways in future courses .

Monday, 6 November, at 12.00: Assessing AI (in Swedish)

Speakers: Mats Christiansen and Lena Normark, lecturers at the Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences

At the end of December 2022, questions from a take-home exam in palliative care at Uppsala University were added to ChatGPT to have them answered, and to test its ability to answer the questions correctly. Teachers also wanted to compare the answers in the marking template with the students' answers, and with the answers generated by AI. It turned out that ChatGPT passed the exam. Some answers were incorrect, but other answers were very good and well reasoned, and significantly longer and better structured than those of the students.
At the seminar, two teachers discuss the consequences that the results may have for teaching and assessment on the current programme.

Tuesday, 28 November, at 12:00: Arguing for your choices: using ChatGPT for exams in Semitic languages (in English)

Speaker: Anette Månsson, senior lecturer in Semitic Languages at the Department of Linguistics and Philology

Teaching a language where the availability of translations is enormous, and wanting this to be examined through home exams has always been a challenge. Rather than examining proficiency in translation, reflection on grammar and arguing for choices is in the foreground. In this presentation Anette will give examples of some experiments with using ChatGPT as part of the exams in Semitic Languages, and share some of her impressions of the students' reception of this.

Tuesday, 5 December, at 12:00: AI Tools and Information Retrieval: Benefits and Risks (in Swedish)

Speakers: Malin Barkelind and Görel Sundström, Librarians at the University Library, Learning and Research Support Division

Search has become easier in recent decades, and the trend is moving towards a human voice providing a single answer to a question, rather than a list of documents. How can we make knowledge easily accessible and lower barriers by using AI, without compromising on source criticism and scientific rigor?

During autumn 2023, the seminars will revolve around different aspects of AI

We are particularly interested in getting in touch with teachers who have started to use AI tools (i.e., also other than ChatGPT!) in their teaching. There is a great need for concrete examples of the opportunities and challenges AI can offer higher education. If you want to share your own experiences, or know of other good examples that deserve dissemination, write to mats.cullhed@uu.se and we will find a time for a seminar!

Content owner: Charlotte Sundström 06 september 2023