Generative AI in Learning + Teaching

How is generative AI reshaping higher education, and what role can educators play in guiding this transformation?

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) marks a fundamental shift in how we create, construct and distribute knowledge. For built environment disciplines, GAI offers tremendous potential to transform both educational practices and professional work, while raising important questions about creativity, authorship and the changing nature of expertise. Rather than seeing GAI simply as a tool for efficiency, BEL+T's research explores how it can be thoughtfully integrated as a presence in learning — moving from initial concerns about academic integrity toward developing frameworks for meaningful collaboration between humans and AI.

What does BEL+T investigate in this area?

BEL+T examines the implications of genAI for built environment education through:

  • Surveying educators' perspectives, attitudes and confidence levels on generative AI to inform professional development that supports thoughtful approaches to AI in teaching and learning
  • Creating typologies for understanding and evaluating student-AI collaboration drawing on established groupwork frameworks
  • Supporting educators in designing learning experiences that develop both AI literacy and disciplinary expertise
  • Developing approaches to assessment that recognise the transformative impact of AI and actively engage with its possibilities and challenge

How are these contributing to high-quality and relevant learning experiences?

BEL+T has developed the following outcomes from this work:

  • Guidance on Generative AI, offering educators valuable insights into generative AI principles, applications, disciplinary and professional impacts, pedagogical approaches, assessment design and academic integrity.
  • An innovative typology for understanding and assessing student-AI collaboration through individual, cooperative and collaborative modes
  • Professional development workshops focused on assessment design, curriculum integration and shifting learning outcomes

What is next on the horizon?

BEL+T will continue to:

  • Deliver targeted workshops addressing key areas including assessment design, curriculum development, and evolving learning outcomes
  • Develop guidance for subject coordinators on determining and communicating appropriate AI use in assessment
  • Research emerging applications of GAI in built environment education (and practice?)
  • Develop guidance for students on how they can build their AI literacy and use GenAI to scaffold their learning.
  • Investigate the impact of generative AI on student wellbeing

BEL+T Projects

  • The Waterline Survey project investigated educators' perspectives, attitudes, and confidence levels regarding generative AI in higher education. This initiative informed professional development programs that support educators in making thoughtful decisions about AI in teaching and learning. Through analysis of educator responses, the project explored concerns around academic integrity, student learning, and pedagogical practice, while also identifying opportunities for enhancing educational experiences.

  • Building on parallels between group work and genAI interaction, BEL+T produced a framework for evaluating and authorising student use of genAI in assessment. This framework presents a typology that views the student-AI relationship through the established lens of group work dynamics, identifying three distinct assessment types: individual, cooperative, and collaborative. The typology provides educators with clear guidance for understanding the roles and interactions between students and genAI, while offering practical insights for task design and learning objectives.

  • The BEL+T Guidance on Generative AI aims to help educators in built environments disciplines navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of AI in education. The guide addresses both the opportunities and challenges that genAI presents in built environment disciplines, offering practical insights for subject coordinators and teaching staff at the University of Melbourne and beyond.