Becoming School GenAI convenors: A journey

In this case study, we propose to share our reflections on how our shared interest in GenAI at the beginning of 2023 developed into creating a space and a shared role within our Business School. Adopting an autoethnographic approach, we detail our personal journey in the environment where the GenAI tools evolved rapidly and unpredictably offering interesting challenges and opportunities. This example may provide a useful benchmark for colleagues establishing similar roles and spaces in their own business school communities.

Initially, we felt an excitement around the potential for GenAI tools to transform educational practices and systems. Through preliminary research and own experimentation, we gained enthusiasm about opportunities to impact our own teaching methods and curriculum design. However, we also experienced a fair amount of confusion in early 2023 about whether and how these tools could be effectively leveraged to enhance student learning outcomes. The main initial concerns centred on the academic integrity of the assessments that we offer, as traditionally home-written essays are a popular type of assessments in business schools.

Despite unanswered questions, we engaged colleagues in discussions about the promise versus limitations of GenAI, trying to understand their perspectives and learning from their experience. We have observed polarised attitudes, reflective of the challenges of the topic and of the importance to have a guided constructive dialogue. The emerging GenAI education-centred literature, including faster-published blogs and other non-traditional journal contributions, played an important role in the evolution of our understanding. We will show that the shift from lack of literature and analysis on GenAI tools in education in the early 2023, there was an explosion of such scholarship towards the second part of the 2023, reflective of the scale of the challenge faced by the sector and of the need to have a specialised interest to follow these developments.

Towards the start of the 2023-2024 academic year, the institutional guidance began to emerge, but the specifics and clarity of implementation were still lacking. Our formal role of GenAI Co-Convenors was established. These new role focused specifically on GenAI education and policy, establishing spaces for continuous dialogue, sharing practice, and providing training opportunities for staff.

We found encouragement among some colleagues, interested in adopting GenAI tools, using them in teaching to improve students’ experience, understanding and embedding the new skills, potentially extremely important for students’ employability. However, we also faced constraints both due to the inertia common to many HEIs, lack of resources, and legitimate concerns about risks and challenges posed by GenAI.

Thus, our first goal is to critically analyse our journey on how the rapid development of GenAI shaped our aims and perspectives on the goals of education. Our other aim is to show how new roles and discussion spaces can emerge in business school context. Overall, using the example of GenAI, we propose to have a discussion about the wider aims of HE, as well as the challenges the sector faces when needing to adapt to quickly changing environment, given the usual institutional inertia.