The latest AI Design Assistant feature has been enabled in Blackboard.

AI Conversations provides a chat bot for students to interact with as part of a learning activity.

There are two AI Conversation options:

• Socratic questioning
  • This encourages students to think critically through continuous questioning prompts
• Role play
  • This allows students to play out a scenario with the AI persona designed and created by the instructor

Once set up, students can engage in these activities to further their knowledge and understanding of the topic.

Students type a response to the questions posed by the AI chat bot. At the end of the activity, students respond to a reflective question to outline how the conversation helped with their understanding of the topic.

We will be showcasing AI Conversations at our online Mini Conference on Wednesday 18 December. Further information is available on our blogpost.

Our E-learning Enhanced: Introduction to the AI Design Assistant training has also been updated to include AI Conversations. You can book your place on the course on the Events and Training booking system.

For further information, see Blackboard’s AI Conversation guidance.

Other AI Design Assistant tools available in Blackboard include:

• Generate Learning Modules
• Generate test questions and question banks
• Generate keywords for the UnSplash image library
• Generate Journals
• Generate Discussions
• Generate Assignments

We have pulled together some examples below to demonstrate how you might want to use the AI Conversations tool.

1.     Socratic questions:

Ask your students to give their thoughts on a topic. For example, what is your current understanding of the impact of climate change?

This type of activity allows students to reflect on their own knowledge and to respond to the questions that the AI chat bot asks.

2.     Role play:

Set up a role play activity for your students to engage in and think about how they might apply the topic to a specific scenario.

For example, you could use AI Conversations to diagnose a patient, provide a solution to a client, or explain a theory.

Designing your activity

Whilst planning and designing your activity, you want to consider:

1. What are the learning outcomes of the activity? What are you hoping students will be able to do after engaging with it? How does this activity integrate with the rest of the course?
2. Have you tested the activity yourself? The scenario and persona can take some refining so make sure you test this out. You can do this without releasing it to the students.
3. Have you outlined to students how long they should spend on the activity? There is currently no time limit or text length limit so make sure students’ expectations are managed. You might want to specify how many interactions with the tool you expect.
4. Stick to formative style practice activities that help consolidate learning and give reflection opportunities.
5. Outline to students the benefit of engaging with the activity – this will help to maximise engagement.
6. There is the option to include a reflective question at the end of the activity for students to outline how the activity helped to further their understanding; consider using this option to ensure the activity meets your requirements.

See our webpages for help with AI Conversations and the AI Design Assistant.

We’re keen to work with colleagues on designing meaningful activities. If you’re interested in this, or have any questions about Blackboard, contact elearning@aber.ac.uk.