A capacity-building workshop on “Leveraging Generative AI for Pedagogical Excellence in Higher Education”, is in progress. It has been organised by the Directorate of Higher Education (DHE), Government of Goa and Goa state Higher Education Council.
The workshop is being conducted for different disciplines of higher education across the week till 15th June. The event, held during the vacation period, saw voluntary participation from 288 educators across various disciplines of 65 higher education institutions (HEI)s in Goa, eager to enhance their teaching methodologies with cutting-edge AI technologies.
The commencement of the workshop was marked by an inaugural ceremony in the presence of the dignitaries. Bhushan Savaikar, Director, Directorate of Higher Education said AI is transformative technology and transcends from being a mere subject to becoming an integral part of various disciplines to improve the pedagogical output. The resource person of the workshop, renowned AI expert, Dr. Suresh Namboothiri, Founder of Espoir Technologies, in his opening address, provided invaluable insights into the application of generative AI in education and research.
Dr. Kavita Asnani, Associate Professor at DHE and the main coordinator of the event, emphasised the significance of AI as an augmentative tool in higher education. She said teachers are not meant to be AI experts, they are meant to be experts at teaching. Therefore, they must use AI technology to add value to their teaching content and effectively improve teaching and learning for enhancing pedagogical practices. Dr. Asnani also highlighted the importance of effective prompting to ensure high-quality AI output.
The workshop was structured around discipline-specific clusters, ensuring tailored training in generative AI to meet the unique requirements of each academic field. The workshop received participation from the clusters as:
• Science: 80 participants conducted on 10th June 2024
• Commerce and Management: 60 participants conducted on 11th June 2024
• Applied Science: 51 participants conducted on 12h
June 2024
• Health Science: 17 participants conducted on 13th June 2024
• Social Science: 40 participants conducted on 14th June 2024
• Languages, Law & Humanities: 40 participants registered to be conducted on 15th June 2024.
Each cluster received focused training on how to apply generative AI in their specific academic contexts, from designing lesson plans to conducting evaluations and creating presentations. This discipline-specific approach ensured that the training was interactive, relevant and immediately applicable.
The workshop also featured the release of discipline-specific handbooks by the dignitaries present. These specialised handbooks, designed with AI prompts, aim to facilitate the learning and application of generative AI in academic settings across various colleges.
Feedback from the attendees was overwhelmingly positive. Faculty members praised the comprehensive and hands-on approach of the sessions, appreciating the well-organised
structure focused on prompt engineering. Many suggested that the session on AI integration in teaching and learning could benefit from being extended to a two-day format, given its depth and potential impact.
Participants expressed strong enthusiasm for the workshop, particularly valuing its emphasis on AI’s potential to enhance pedagogical practices through personalized learning and ethical considerations. The insightful and engaging content received widespread praise, with faculty members confident in applying the knowledge gained to both academic and administrative
tasks.
The DHE plans to evaluate the effectiveness of the training through subsequent reviews at the respective institutions. This initiative marks a significant step forward in the adoption of advanced AI technologies in higher education, fostering an environment of innovation and enhanced learning experiences. Overall, the workshop conducted by DHE was a resounding success, setting a strong foundation for future advancements in integrating AI into the educational landscape.
