Undergraduate and Graduate Student Perspectives

One of the most important – and often underrepresented – voices in institutional conversations about AI in teaching and learning is that of students themselves. Across Canada, post-secondary students are engaging with AI tools in complex, often contradictory ways: with curiosity, caution, and creativity. For some, these tools are seen as powerful aids to learning; for others, they are sources of stress, uncertainty, or confusion about what is allowed or expected.

As teaching and learning leaders, it’s important that we listen to and learn from student experiences with AI. Their perspectives can help us understand where institutional messaging is clear and where it isn’t. They can surface the unintended consequences of policy decisions. And they can point us toward practices that help students not only succeed in their courses but also develop ethical, informed relationships with AI as a tool in their learning and future work.

Anecdotally, we also know students are asking about the value and purpose of their education in a context where generative AI tools are able to complete most, if not all, of the assignments they are being given, or when AI tools can provide personalized learning on any subject. The questions AI raises for the purpose of post-secondary education are existential – what is the role of post-secondary when AI tools can, in many contexts, teach. Does the function collapse to (simply) awarding of degrees after assessing competency and mastery? (How) could the work of post-secondary shift or re-emphasize the civic values  of critical thinking, collaboration, problem solving and community-building? What role does the relational value of learning play in the work of post-secondary teaching and learning? These are not questions we can answer here, but they are the questions our students are asking – and our community are, or ought to be, debating. See sections ‘Next Steps for this Playbook’ and ‘What Comes Next’ for more thoughts on the uncertain future.

A 2024 KPMG Canada survey gives us a snapshot of how Canadian students are using and thinking about generative AI in post-secondary education. The survey found that 59% of students reported using generative AI tools for schoolwork. Many said these tools improved the quality of their assignments or helped them study for exams. But nearly two-thirds also said they weren’t learning or retaining as much, and 82% admitted to submitting AI-generated work without disclosing its use. While use of generative AI can support and deepen learning, there are also uses that hinder learning (see Bastani et al. (2024), Generative AI Can Harm Learning.)

While this is one survey and one snapshot in time, it does remind us that students hold nuanced views about AI use for their learning and that our approach cannot assume what students are doing with AI, or what they might want to do with AI.  A piece from Inside Higher Education, Struggling to Create AI Policies? Ask Your Students, points to one example of where a faculty member worked with their students to co-create an AI policy for the class and found it to be “stricter” than she would have prepared herself.

Finally, and with inspiration – one of the recommendations coming out of the folks working on the CRAFT framework – is the development and implementation of a students as partners program around generative AI.  Where students are necessarily and essentially co-creators of institutional work and direction on how AI is shaping teaching and learning.