Strategic leadership for responsible artificial intelligence adoption in higher education

Kudzayi S. Tarisayi

doi:10.55056/cte.616

Authors

Kudzayi S. Tarisayi Stellenbosch University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0086-2420

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55056/cte.616

Keywords:

artificial intelligence, higher education, leadership, strategic planning, responsible AI adoption

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform higher education through its potential to improve learning, research, and leadership in colleges and universities. This study aims to identify key themes, challenges, and recommendations related to AI implementation in higher education and leadership. A literature review was supported by 2 LLMs. The results show that AI is being used to personalize teaching, provide formative feedback, identify at-risk students, accelerate research discovery, streamline administrative processes through chatbots, and optimize resource utilization. However, the findings also highlight significant technical, ethical, cultural and resource challenges that institutions must overcome in order to successfully harness AI's enormous potential while mitigating risks. Empowering management through knowledge, funding, and support structures that promote good governance and responsible AI adoption is fundamental to successfully harnessing the enormous but still largely untapped potential of AI.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Abstract views: 2408 / PDF views: 1666

References

Abdous, M., 2023. How AI Is Shaping the Future of Higher Ed. Available from: https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2023/03/22/how-ai-shaping-future-higher-ed-opinion.

Akgun, S. and Greenhow, C., 2022. Artificial intelligence in education: Addressing ethical challenges in K-12 settings. AI and Ethics, 2(3), pp.431–440. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-021-00096-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-021-00096-7

Anderson, R.E. and Dexter, S., 2005. School Technology Leadership: An Empirical Investigation of Prevalence and Effect. Educational Administration Quarterly, 41(1), pp.49–82. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X04269517. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X04269517

Artificial intelligence in education, 2023. Available from: https://www.unesco.org/en/digital-education/artificial-intelligence.

Bates, T., Cobo, C., Mariño, O. and Wheeler, S., 2020. Can artificial intelligence transform higher education? International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 17(1), p.42. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-020-00218-x. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-020-00218-x

Bearman, M., 2019. Key Concepts in Qualitative Research Design. In: D. Nestel, J. Hui, K. Kunkler, M.W. Scerbo and A.W. Calhoun, eds. Healthcare Simulation Research: A Practical Guide. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp.73–78. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26837-4_10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26837-4_10

Berkman Klein Center, 2023. Ethics and Governance of AI. Available from: https://cyber.harvard.edu/topics/ethics-and-governance-ai.

Chamorro-Premuzic, T., Wade, M. and Jordan, J., 2018. As AI Makes More Decisions, the Nature of Leadership Will Change. Available from: https://hbr.org/2018/01/as-ai-makes-more-decisions-the-nature-of-leadership-will-change.

Collins, C. and O’Riordan, R., 2022. Data triangulation confirms learning in the zoo environment. Environmental Education Research, 28(2), pp.295–317. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2021.1974351. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2021.1974351

Creswell, J.W. and Poth, C.N., 2024. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. 5th ed. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Crompton, H. and Burke, D., 2023. Artificial intelligence in higher education: the state of the field. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20(1), p.22. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-023-00392-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-023-00392-8

da Silva, J.E., da Luz Scherf, E. and da Silva, M.V.V., 2019. In tech we trust? some general remarks on law in the technological era from a third world perspective. Revista Opiniao Juridica, 17(25), pp.107–123. Available from: https://doi.org/10.12662/2447-6641oj.v17i25.p107-123.2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12662/2447-6641oj.v17i25.p107-123.2019

Denzin, N.K., Lincoln, Y.S., Giardina, M.D. and Cannella, G.S., eds, 2023. The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. 6th ed. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Dimitriadou, E. and Lanitis, A., 2023. A critical evaluation, challenges, and future perspectives of using artificial intelligence and emerging technologies in smart classrooms. Smart Learning Environments, 10(1), p.12. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-023-00231-3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-023-00231-3

Ferrara, E., 2023. Fairness And Bias in Artificial Intelligence: A Brief Survey of Sources, Impacts, And Mitigation Strategies. Available from: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2304.07683. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2196/preprints.48399

Flanagan, L. and Jacobsen, M., 2003. Technology leadership for the twenty-first century principal. Journal of Educational Administration, 41(2), pp.124–142. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230310464648. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230310464648

Gandomi, A. and Haider, M., 2015. Beyond the hype: Big data concepts, methods, and analytics. International Journal of Information Management, 35(2), pp.137–144. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2014.10.007. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2014.10.007

Hagendorff, T., 2020. The Ethics of AI Ethics: An Evaluation of Guidelines. Minds and Machines, 30(1), pp.99–120. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-020-09517-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-020-09517-8

Howard, J., 2019. Artificial intelligence: Implications for the future of work. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 62(11), pp.917–926. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.23037. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.23037

Lederman, D., 2018. Online Education Ascends. Available from: https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/11/07/new-data-online-enrollments-grow-and-share-overall-enrollment.

Leonhardt, M.D., Tarouco, L., Vicari, R.M., Santos, E.R. and da Silva, M.d.S., 2007. Using Chatbots for Network Management Training through Problem-based Oriented Education. Seventh IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT 2007). pp.845–847. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2007.275. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2007.275

McKinsey & Company, 2023. What is AI? Available from: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-ai.

McTear, M., 2021. Conversational AI: Dialogue Systems, Conversational Agents, and Chatbots, Synthesis Lectures on Human Language Technologies. Cham: Springer. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-02176-3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-02176-3

Mikhaylov, S.J., Esteve, M. and Campion, A., 2018. Artificial intelligence for the public sector: opportunities and challenges of cross-sector collaboration. Philosophical transactions of the royal society a: Mathematical, physical and engineering sciences, 376(2128), p.20170357. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0357. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0357

Nagaraj, B.K., Kalaivani, A., Begum, R.S., Akila, S., Sachdev, H.K. and Kumar, N.S., 2023. The Emerging Role of Artificial Intelligence in STEM Higher Education: A Critical Review. International Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Technovation, 5(5), pp.1–19. Available from: https://doi.org/10.54392/irjmt2351. DOI: https://doi.org/10.54392/irjmt2351

Neelakantan, S., 2020. Successful AI Examples in Higher Education That Can Inspire Our Future. Available from: https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2020/01/successful-ai-examples-higher-education-can-inspire-our-future.

Page, L. and Gehlbach, H., 2018. How Georgia State University Used an Algorithm to Help Students Navigate the Road to College. Available from: https://cutt.ly/1wjhNm4C.

Reventlow, N.J., 2021. How Artificial Intelligence Impacts Marginalised Groups. Available from: https://cyber.harvard.edu/story/2021-05/how-artificial-intelligence-impacts-marginalised-groups.

Rogers, E.M., 2003. Diffusion of innovations. 5th ed. New York, NY: Free Press.

Shilbayeh, S. and Abonamah, A., 2021. Predicting Student Enrolments and Attrition Patterns in Higher Educational Institutions using Machine Learning. The International Arab Journal of Information Technology, 18(4), pp.562–567. Available from: https://doi.org/10.34028/18/4/8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34028/18/4/8

Spice, B., 2020. New AI Enables Teachers to Rapidly Develop Intelligent Tutoring Systems. Available from: https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2020/may/intelligent-tutors.html.

Trafton, A., 2020. Artificial intelligence yields new antibiotic. Available from: https://news.mit.edu/2020/artificial-intelligence-identifies-new-antibiotic-0220.

Tulowitzki, P., Gerick, J. and Eickelmann, B., 2022. The role of ICT for school leadership and management activities: an international comparison. International Journal of Educational Management, 36(2), pp.133–151. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-06-2021-0251. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-06-2021-0251

Vaismoradi, M. and Snelgrove, S., 2019. Theme in Qualitative Content Analysis and Thematic Analysis. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 20(3). Available from: https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-20.3.3376.

Vincent-Lancrin, S. and Vlies, R. van der, 2020. Trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) in education. (OECD Education Working Papers 218). Paris: OECD Publishing. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1787/a6c90fa9-en. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1787/a6c90fa9-en

Vittorini, P., Menini, S. and Tonelli, S., 2021. An AI-Based System for Formative and Summative Assessment in Data Science Courses. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 31(2), pp.159–185. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-020-00230-2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-020-00230-2

Wang, Y., 2021. Artificial intelligence in educational leadership: a symbiotic role of human-artificial intelligence decision-making. Journal of Educational Administration, 59(3), pp.256–270. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-10-2020-0216. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-10-2020-0216

Xing, W. and Marwala, T., 2017. Implications of the Fourth Industrial Age for Higher Education. The Thinker, 73, pp.12–17. Available from: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3225331.

Zheng, H. and Webber, K., 2023. AI in Higher Education: Implications for Institutional Research. Available from: https://www.airweb.org/article/2023/03/30/ai-in-higher-education-implications-for-institutional-research.