Key points:
- Student success staff would like more time to explore AI’s potential
- iWhy digital literacy is critical for academic advisors in 2024
- Identifying strategies to meet students where they are
- For more news on student success, visit eCN’s Student Success & Well-Being hub
Almost two-thirds (62 percent) of university student success staff believe AI could help them identify students who need support–and 69 percent of staff say they have used AI in their work over the past year, according to a survey from education firm EAB.
However, only around 20 percent of respondents said their institution is collecting information about how student success teams are using the technology.
“EAB’s survey shows that student success professionals are turning to AI to better support their students, even if their institutions are not encouraging them to do so proactively,” said EAB Director of Strategic Research Tara Zirkel. “Advisors and counselors want university leaders to provide training and help them put institutional guardrails around their AI efforts to ensure they use the technology responsibly.”
Moreover, 61 percent of respondents would like to be able to dedicate at least some work time to experimenting with AI technology, and the same percentage would like the opportunity to learn from peers who are using AI. Still, 71 percent of respondents say their institution never or rarely encourages student success teams to share what they are learning about AI with their peers.
Along with a desire for greater adoption of AI, student success professionals also expressed the need to exercise caution. Sixty-three percent of respondents said they feared AI might introduce errors in communication that could negatively impact students. Fifty-four percent worry that AI-generated content might contain more bias than content generated solely by university staff.
EAB’s report, “From Caution to Curiosity: Success Staff Weigh In On AI’s Role in the Future of Student Support,” also contains recommendations for helping universities develop a strategy to foster responsible adoption of AI across the institution. Those recommendations include the following objectives:
Centralize institutional AI efforts: Make AI a strategic priority by developing a cross-functional team that collects AI best practices and evaluates enterprise systems that use AI to help scale student support efforts.
Develop AI collaboration spaces: Create dedicated time for AI professional development and promote peer-to-peer sharing of strategies and best practices.
Debate how to do AI “right”: Openly address lingering staff concerns about AI risks and share examples of tested AI use cases.
This press release originally appeared online.
- Skills gap, outdated infrastructure hinder AI use - September 13, 2024
- Most students are using AI for academics - September 12, 2024
- 3 back-to-campus priorities for the new school year - September 11, 2024