FERSON LEVERAGING AI IN HIGHER EDUCATION Having previously led the development of global online programs at two major universities, Dr. Aldridge has deep experience in guiding higher education’s adaptation to — and adoption of — major technology shifts. Now, she is a thought leader on how best to integrate computational science, machine learning and artificial intelligence into universities’ curriculum, teaching and overall operations. “At Jefferson, we work hard to make sure our graduates are prepared for the future of work in an era of — I’ll call it — ubiquitous computation,” she explains. “We want them to be facile and comfortable working with new technological resources like AI; and teach them to balance technologies’ strengths and weaknesses by applying empathy, creativity, intuition and human caring.” The university has also created resources that help faculty and researchers learn about and make best use of emerging computational science applications and technologies. Those include, for example, the AI and Deep Learning Networks Program and the AI Center of Excellence, which help faculty create novel content through machine learning. “But those are just down payments on what we know, intuitively, there will need to be a significant, long-term investment in new technical capacities and resources,” Dr. Aldridge notes. Starting this fall, Jefferson will also offer new academic programs in general computation and data analysis and in discipline-specific areas such as computational biology. “We are also adding teaching on specific data-based capacities to a range of courses where computation may not previously have been relevant — capacities such as creating multimodel large language models and using prompt engineering to shape Generative AI models in real time.” As a thought leader, Dr. Aldridge is also asking her peers this provocative question: How best can we proactively guide AI’s use in higher education and shape its impact on our students, faculty and institution — instead of just passively reacting to what comes next? She believes the answer requires pursuing several specific objectives. “First, we must ensure that across our curriculum we are preparing today’s students to use AI in their careers — in particular, to add human-skills value that enables them to succeed in parallel with employers’ expanded use of AI. Second, we need to employ AI-based capacities to enhance the effectiveness of the education we deliver to our students — and to strengthen their capacity for meaningful, lifelong learning. Third, we must employ AI to address specific pedagogical and administrative challenges, ranging from improving learning outcomes to maintaining our campus facilities.” MOVING FORWARD Achieving those objectives — alongside dealing with the slew of other challenges universities are grappling with these days — will not be easy. Which leads back to the question Dr. Aldridge is frequently asked: Why take on such an enormous task? “This is a pivotal point in time for both higher education and a university, like ours, that possesses unique characteristics, strengths and opportunities,” she observes. “Jefferson’s mission of improving lives compels us to both positively impact the people, communities and those our graduates will serve, and also help improve the quality of higher education and healthcare delivery for generations to come. “Given that context, how could I not be excited about this role and the opportunity it presents to help shape the future?”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzA2NDY0