Elections will be held for the RRU Student Association and Student Representative for the Board of Governors in September 2023, and for the Student Representatives of the Academic Council in October 2023. As there is no information and references available for student representatives, I hope to share my experience with the candidates running for these elections. I have prepared a 22-page report for my work as an elected graduate student representative (2022-23) which is led by my passion to “uphold my value for a democratic system”. Please feel free to download and share it. For inquiries, please add comments below, or email them to me at mmyy95831@gmail.com.
I have sent out an email to 224 graduate students and received 17 responses, resulting in a response rate of 7.6%. While the response rate is pretty low, the feedback is diverse but well said. 3 agreed and 6 disagreed while 8 selected “depends” and 11 elaborated their answers with reasons. Below are the excerpts of their elaboration,
Respondent 1: … I do not support the use of AI Academically in any capacity. It limits critical thinking, research, and problem-solving abilities, which can make students overly reliant on Regenerative AI. This could make them less effective in their future work environments, which require them to be versatile and adapt to the changing environment with critical thinking skills
Respondent 2: Tools like generative AI technology help students get new and different ideas to build their cases. So restricting its use could do more harm than good. At the same time, it should be discouraged to use the content generated by AI as it is because it lacks the effort and perspective of the student, and the effort of other students who worked hard to produce original content may go unnoticed. All students should be trained or guided on how to utilize such tools within the academic integrity framework.
Respondent 3: I believe AI like chatGPT should not be used for the production of papers or assignments. From what I have seen and heard of ChatGPT is that it creates information that sounds correct but when an expert in the field reviews it, it is found to have inaccuracies …
Respondent 4: I do not know very much about it, and have never used it. That being said, if academia has worked well without it for so many years, we can do without it. I believe it could add a level of mistrust in students’ work.
Respondent 5: I think it is critical that students do their own research and writing, but I think Regenerative AI e.g. ChatGPT is useful for soliciting information … I note that ChatGPT information needs to be verified, so the onus is on the student to validate the information and its source. This can be time-consuming and not always in a productive direction. I have only used ChatGPT, so cannot comment on other tools. However, I remain firm that students need to do their own research, writing, and idea generation. Use Regenerative AI as a tool for learning.
Respondent 6: I’m a proponent of using AI to research ideas, basically use it like an advanced Google. However, to copy and paste content into a deliverable, whether you are a student or a faculty member is not appropriate …
Respondent 7: I’m between DISAGREE and DEPENDS. The only situation I can think of that justifies “DEPENDS” is using AI to aid in the preliminary research, and information-gathering stage for both RRU faculty/staff and students. For faculty members and staff, there may be other more mundane administrative tasks that perhaps AI could be used. AI should only be used in an “auxiliary tool” capacity, similar to using “Grammarly” to proofread one’s writing, or a dictionary.
Respondent 8: If it’s for gathering research to just read, which then the student themselves determines the relevance to their work I am in support of using it. If it’s to write anything for an assignment type of work, that is presented as their own work, I am against Regenerative AI.
Respondent 9: It really depends on how you are using the AI, simply copy-pasting the information you ask the AI to write in your academic assignments would be absolutely unjust for genuine writers. But if a person is facing writer’s block, it is the best tool to help you get started. So using AI just to write your paper more professionally is not bad in my opinion.
Respondent 10: It’s a matter of degree of reliance. Regenerative AI is one of many computer aids we have, eg spell check, in academic work. It’s more appropriate and practical to set the conditions and scope of use of AI as part of RRU policy. In particular, cases where AI is strictly prohibited, students and staff declarations are warranted.
Respondent 11: Relying solely on software can hinder a student’s thought process and limit their creativity in a project or research. The software may not always provide 100% accurate information.
I am glad to hear these well-articulated thoughts from our fellow students. We deserve more opportunities to discuss the use of generative/ regenerative AI. It is not only a policy matter for the post-secondary institutions. In fact, many listed corporations in various business sectors are integrating regenerative AI into their business process. Its use is a paradigm shift for students, educators, and society as a whole. The question is not “whether to use it or not”, but “how to get the best result from generative/regenerative AI”.
Regenerative AI, e.g. ChatGPT, is controversial in the education system around the world. Some universities in BC already put restrictions on its use in academic work.
I sought an agenda item in the coming Academic Council meeting (Jul 12) to discuss “the use of regenerative AI” in RRU. Please let me know your view by voting for the poll below
Polling
Instruction: comment to this blog by “a. Agree”, “b. Disagree”, “c. Depends”
Do you agree to allow RRU students and academic staff to use regenerative AI for academic work?
a. Agree
b. Disagree
c. Depends (please elaborate on your answer as far as possible)
If you have further questions or opinions on this issue, please do not hesitate to leave them in the comment box of this blog.
I am glad to see that RRU introduced Lily Chong, our elected student representative on the Board of Governors, in its LinkedIn post yesterday. It is the responsibility of the University to make the elected student representative known and accessible to RRU students. To contact Lily, you can visit her LinkedIn account and send her a message through her email address which is not yet included on the RRU official website.
As a follow-up to my survey in January 2023(WG 1), it was confirmed that the mid-course evaluation will be implemented in all courses being developed/updated. I am glad to see that RRU gives due respect to the student’s feedback and solicits their effort to improve their learning process (WG 4).
You may remember the survey on President Steenkamp’s reappointment last November as noted in my blog on Nov 20, 2022. To follow up(WG 1), I asked RRU through Lily Chong, the elected student representative in the Board of Governors(WG 3), for the progress. I am glad that “the reappointment process is working its way through the appropriate channels and is heading towards the conclusion”. The most impressive part is that “there was a high response rate to the survey with lots of student engagement, and qualitative responses were largely constructive and positive”.
I am sure that all RRU students are very concerned about the future of the University. Let’s look forward to the final result of the reappointment.
Ever since the beginning of my term, a few graduate students kept on telling me that they were annoyed by the teamwork as some members were not doing their job. I have discussed this with the RRU administration previously both in writing (Nov 28, 2022) and in our conversation (Jan 4, 2023). Today, I am glad to see that RRU Student Services is launching a research project to investigate the team experiences of RRU students and the result will be used for developing tools to “support accountability for student teams”. Below is a copy of the email,
Hello, RRU Students!
I am sending this message on behalf of the Team Coaching unit of Student Services to invite you to participate in their research project: Accountability Within RRU Student Teams. The goal of this research is to better understand your experience of student teamwork related to within-team accountability – so that tools, processes, and general approaches that support accountability for student teams at RRU can be improved or developed.
There are two ways to participate if you choose, and you can help by doing either or both.
A survey – The survey should take you about 10 minutes to complete, and your answers are completely anonymous. The survey will be open until April 30. LINK TO SURVEY. (Michael’s Note: the LINK to SURVEY is individual-based. Please refer to your email for your link.)
An interview – One-on-one interviews will be conducted by Tabea Berg, tabea.berg@royalroads.ca. Interviews will take about 45 minutes. You will be asked to share your perspectives, experiences, and opinions on within-team accountability, but to not identify any individuals. There are no right or wrong answers, and you can decline to answer any questions you don’t want to. Interview participants will be entered into a draw to win one of three $50 Save-On Foods gift cards. If you are willing to participate in an interview, please email Tabea directly by April 30.
For more information about either participation method, please see the attachments. You can also contact Tabea if you have any questions.
Thank you for considering participating. Your perspective matters, and your contributions are appreciated.
I attended another student support activity today in the same post-secondary institution. Animal-assisted activity is an evidence-based practice to enhance mental wellness. It is my first time to experience it. I felt welcomed by the friendly dogs. It is also refreshing to be in a group of dog lovers. Do you like to have a Pet Cafe in RRU? Tell me by writing comments below.
This Monday morning I attended a community painting activity at a post-secondary institution. The venue was surrounded by a garden and you could see grass and trees through the big window wall. With the theme of love, the activity was self-directed and you were free to draw whatever comes to your mind. Students came in from time to time to enjoy the quiet time. After the activity, we had lunch prepared by the organizer and chatted with each other. It is a refreshing experience to paint, share your ideas, and connect.
I wonder if we can have such an opportunity at Royal Roads University. We have a much more beautiful campus and we have spacious function rooms. What we need is a small amount of funding, materials for painting, and an organizer to kick off. Are you interested? Do you have any suggestions on how to improve wellness? You can send me your views by writing a comment below.
I was thrilled to attend TEDxRoyalRoadsU in February 2023, as it was a once-and-never opportunity to witness such a big event while studying at RRU. The speakers came from diverse backgrounds, including knowledge experts, entrepreneurs, business owners, and high school students. One of my takeaways is to talk to my 80-year-old self as recommended by a speaker. He challenged the audience, “What do you want to be when you are 80 years old? What should I do to achieve these goals right now?” These questions are thought-provoking. They freed our minds from the daily hassles and focused us on the most important things in our life.
