Elevating data literacy and technology at Lingnan University
In a recent interview, Prof S. Joe Qin, President Designate and Acting President, unveiled his vision to integrate digital technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Lingnan University. This strategic initiative marks a transformative new era for Lingnan which boasts a rich legacy spanning 135 years.
Prof Qin notes that Lingnan faculty and students have to be AI literate. “There has been a huge acceleration in generative AI and what large language models can do,” he says, adding that what people call today’s Fourth Industrial Revolution is really an intellectual revolution driven by the recent tech breakthroughs. “It has become very close and is right in front of us, which makes it a hot topic for everyone in higher education.”
He notes, for instance, how quickly OpenAI’s ChatGPT signed up over a hundred million users in the first couple of months after its release last November. And, with almost equal speed, how universities which initially expressed strong reservations about this new tool, suggesting it would encourage plagiarism and mean students no longer wrote their own papers, decided to embrace it.
Prof Qin speaks at the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Applications hosted by LU in July.
“Lingnan takes that approach, and we have already purchased the licence for version 3.5 of ChatGPT for the whole university,” Prof Qin says. “We will be training faculty and students to use it and are figuring out new ways to assess assignments and support learning. One challenge is to redesign exams and testing instruments to assess each student’s real progress. You can’t entirely avoid that.”
If redesigning courses, faculty staff will receive broad guidelines and appropriate training via a series of in-house seminars and workshops. Something similar was organised to facilitate the switch to online classes and Zoom conference calls during the pandemic, but the new initiative will operate on a larger scale.
However, sometimes individuals will still have to put in extra hours and commit to teaching themselves.
“It’s a really good example for everyone at Lingnan to show that innovation and research are part of our lives, and that the dissemination of knowledge is no longer a static thing,” Qin says. “Also, society as a whole is changing and we have to recognise that.”
Looking ahead, Qin is keen to see other aspects of data literacy incorporated in all Lingnan programmes, so that students can interpret information and relevant models in more insightful ways.
“We will invest our own resources as well to buy AIGC licences,” Qin says. “It is a certainly an exciting time and another representation of knowledge, but I think of AI as a tool, an assistant, and that’s the way it should be.”
For the full article, visit https://www.ln.edu.hk/president/chatgpt/index.html
