With more generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools and software being developed or improved upon daily, higher education professionals who don’t use this technology appropriately risk being left behind. Here are seven AI tools that you can use in your research, teaching and learning:
1. Idea generation with Gemini
Gemini is Google’s version of ChatGPT and can be used to generate research ideas and questions. You should experiment with different prompts related to framing your research question, because how you ask the questions can dictate the quality of the tool’s response.
For instance, the following two, similar, but different prompts, produce different results. Prompt one: “Could you help me frame a research paper using the following statement: how do negative experiences of sports in childhood impact on participation in sports in later life?” Prompt two: “Could you help me frame a research paper using the following statement: How does lack of physical literacy knowledge in childhood relate to sports participation in adulthood?” For each prompt, Gemini will give you different research objectives, literature review suggestions and methodology options.
While the underlying idea behind the prompts is similar (i.e., the comparison of sports participation in childhood versus later in life), we are investigating distinct factors impacting it (e.g., negative early experiences in sport versus lack of physical literacy).
A word of caution: when Gemini can’t find an answer in its databanks, it might hallucinate information, including references. Therefore, it’s important to double-check cited material for accuracy.
2. Research assistance with Elicit
Elicit finds papers relevant to your research question and provides summaries of the top papers related to your query. Type in your keywords of interest and then filter results by criteria such as relevancy or title. Elicit also enables bulk imports per research topic into your chosen reference management software.
3. Data analysis with Julius AI
Julius uses the power of computational AI to help you analyse your research data. Import your data and prompt the tool to help you extract meaningful insights. For instance, if you have a research study with “before” and “after” data and you would like to perform a paired-samples t-test, input the prompt, “Perform a paired t-test on the ‘before score’ and ‘after score’ columns”. Julius will then provide your p-value for that dataset.
You can also use Julius to customise your graphs, tables and charts, clean your data quickly and accurately or scan-and-solve mathematics, chemistry and physics problems.
4. Teaching assistance with Learnt AI
Use this tool to handle teaching tasks ranging from lesson designing and objective setting to games-based assessments planned to encourage in-class participation.
For example, select the “AI-Resistant Assignments” tool that allows you to create tasks that are designed to be resistant to solutions by AI tools, type in your topic and the age of your students before entering a simple prompt that aligns with a desired learning outcome, such as, “To explain blood pressure responses to aerobic versus isometric exercise”. Then, hit the “generate” button and the top two or three ideas will be listed. In this example, the students can choose between the following two options: designing and conducting a small group experiment to investigate these differences or writing a reflective essay integrating:
- Their personal experiences with both exercise types
- Analysis of how these experiences align with or diverge from scientific literature on the topic
- Application of this new knowledge to demonstrate how they will alter their future exercise design.
5. AI content detection with ZeroGPT
Upload your students’ assignment files to this tool to identify content generated by AI. ZeroGPT boasts high accuracy and multiple file upload capacity and automatically generates reports at the end of every detection. Each AI-written sentence will be selected, and a gauge with the percentage of AI text will be displayed.
6. RSS feed reader with Feedly
Rather than scrolling on social media, scroll through the latest research articles in your field instead with Feedly. You can create a customised research “for you” page, using Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, a web tool that allows users to follow and track changes on their favourite scholarly websites that are related to their area(s) of interest.
Any original articles that are published in the journals that you follow and that are relevant to your work come straight to your “for you” page. The free version can help you stay up-to-date with articles for one research project, which is ideal for PhD study, but you can choose to upgrade to a paid plan if you are a principal investigator who has multiple ongoing projects.
7. Mindmapping with Heuristica
If you or your students are visual learners or thinkers, you can use Heuristica’s AI technology to create mind and concept maps quickly and easily. This tool can help you better understand your thoughts about a particular topic and aids in information retention or idea generation.
The use of a mixture of AI tools as a supplement (and not a substitute) to your practice will enable you to drive research and improve your teaching.
Natalie K.D. Seedan is a sports sciences laboratory technician and part-time lecturer at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus.
If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.
