#altc25 Glasgow Conference Reflections

Decompressing from some excellent days at the Association for Learning Technology's annual conference in Glasgow. Here are some quick reflections on what I picked up. Programme was great (as co-chair some bias in that) and I probably missed many other useful nuggets. Thought venue and catering etc all excellent. Company as ever was splendid. I even managed to appear on ALTC Radio. 

Great to work with team at ALT and my co chairs to pull things together. I hope everyone had a great time 

Preconference Evening in NQ64

Looked inspired had a previous engagement but what a fun place. Made me think about Reclaim Hosting folks and other edtechs I know who collect, repair and build gaming machines as a hobby.

Day One 

Charles Knight 

Great keynote and call to action. Learning Technologists do , do magic - but they do need the right context. Good institutions succeed by giving staff and students agency and confidence and this is still possible in period of massive change. Good advice too though if magic is not achievable where you are move on to the next gig and light up another room.

Publication of New Jisc Beyond Blended Report and Assets 

An open set of resources and report to improve learning design across the sector. These can be repurposed and made your own. So well done on creative commons licence. Would be great to see QAA, SFC , HMIE were directing centres to resources like this.  Blended is about taking a whole institutional approach including working on co-creation with learners to improve the learning experience. All directors of teaching and learning, faculty heads and quality managers etc should know their way around this. 

Mark Bush - Inspera

Mainly a session around how to trust suppliers. An old chestnut. But sensing a market maturity in lots of discussions with suppliers and exhibitors over the two days of the conference. New entrants need to have a better solution to displace incumbents. As there is less money about, the sector generally tends to be much more risk adverse and not as willing to pilot new things and there is a constant concern about lock in (once you are on board, will tolls , licence fees simply climb with no clear escape route) or perhaps this is just a timely awareness. 

Where in Scotland APUC, in UK UCISA and organisations like ALT come in.  We do all talk to each other about suppliers and possible technical solutions.  

Online assessment systems like Inspera now handling 18.2 million submissions a year and operating in 26 countries globally.

Student Panel 

Was interesting as ever to hear level headed students taking a measured approach to AI adoption and mainly asking for more support around academic writing. And not really having clear answer on what is best way to communicate with them.

Edgehill University  

Attended interesting sessions on blended learning and costings.  The current ABC model struggles with spiral curriculums that exist in medicine and some other disciplines so does need different approach while keeping a laser like focus on not overloading students with content.  Edge Hill University has some useful resources to support collaborative development. 

University of Southampton

The University of Southampton have created a useful tool for helping with very vague faculty requests to create digital learning materials. Looks great it creates resource allocations. costs and realistic delivery timelines. I do hope academics take time to fill in the forms in properly.

University of Leeds 

Good story where learning technology was pulled back from faculties to become more centralised service- became design led strategic partners with much better focus on educational enhancement framework using institutional data to target academic teams that needed support.

Did a quick change and had great fun at dinner, awards ceremony and  Ceilidh - band were great and still home by 11pm. Congratulations to all winners and nominees. 

Day Two 

Launch of AmplifyFE Impact  Report

It was a privilege to get to say a few words and launch the #AmplifyFE impact report. Led in partnership with ALT and the UFI Vocational Trust it now embraces a community of around 3700 practitioners from across the UK.  A few more FE folks in Scotland should tune into this network. 

Gabbi Witthaus 

So grounded and so human. I do wonder that system still can seem so rigid, remote and hostile to learners.  Four dimensions work is really useful way to help teachers and students manage life and learning loads. Gabbi has kindly shared her keynote. 

Edinburgh Napier and Sciaten Partners

Great work around ethical use of AI with academics and students. Great too to see Open Scotland referenced in influences here. Some really useful resources to open up discussions about AI in curriculum and assessment here.  

Would be good to see more Scottish Colleges visible in supporting this work. 

Paul Basich

Great session focussing on efficient ways of delivering blended learning. It is mostly common sense - but staggering to hear that some large institutions are just beginning to think about institutional templates in virtual learning environments etc. In some respects HE has a lot to learn about course design, teaching and learning from Colleges. In feedback highlighted that West Lancashire College has delivered to 10,000 online  learners in last 5 years - part of Newcastle College Group. 

ALT Strategy Session

Sort of what it said on the tin - in a world where everyone is now an 'expert on digital learning'  ALT needs to keep ahead of the pack. 

University of Glasgow - Jenny Crow

A nice bit of work echoing the mornings keynote and some of the themes from the student panel around experiments using whatsapp and other platforms to give learners a solid sense of belonging

Manchester Met - Andrew Larner

Great tool for suggesting new assessment designs using generative AI from Manchester Metropolitan University. Really worth exploring.

Exhibitors etc 

Great to see many established players and a number of new potential suppliers for Education sector - I did get around and say hello. 

Good to have lots of proper dialogues around sectoral challenges that were way beyond the 'sales patter' of old. Among the VLE suppliers still some frustration that institutions are not 'sweating' the assets and doing more with the great platforms that are available. 

Good to meet the team from Brickfield and hear about their tools for monitoring the accessibility of learning content.

Interested in Edina's new walled garden for trying out AI tools.

A shout out to Vevox their polling solution worked very well throughout the conference.

Nice to meet Estendio, Eduface, and Study Stash all harnessing AI to improve teaching and learning.

Endnotes 

It was great to have a number of colleagues along from City of Glasgow College but I do think Colleges generally should be more engaged with ALT and communities of practice. I'll keep pushing through ALT Scotland , CDN and the work with Jisc that is already in place. 

I miss social media Discord was ok but needs everyone on board. Remember you are all agents of change. Find each other on social media @joecar80.bsky.social

I listed seven things for delegates 

1. (Beyond) Blended Learning is the future !

2. Is your own practice open ? (Discover Open Scotland )

3. I hope you are all blogging and aggregating (ScotEdublogs) 

4. It ain’t a microcredential without a digital badge ( using 1Edtech open standards) and a platform that supports these. 

5. Hope you have figured out how to allow learners and staff to use AI ethically. Local models are the way ahead for many. 

6. In a world where everyone is now an expert on educational technology – ALT continues to be beacon in the darkness.

7. I hope you enjoyed Glasgow and haste ye back. 

An Unofficial Glance at things to get up to in Glasgow #ALTC25

 I am co-chairing ALTC25. Conference for UK Association for Learning Technology. I promised a Glasgow post on other attractions. 

There are loads of ways you can find out what is on in Glasgow while you are about for the ALTC Conference. But I thought I'd add my own wee list of places that I like.  Remember I am now a 60 something Glaswegian but I think the fun here can be pretty intergenerational. Whatever your thing is, you will find it in Glasgow. 

Here is a wee very Glasgow playlist of Glaswegian musicians over the years to speed you on way. 

I do hope if you are arriving early on Wednesday you are coming along to Riverside Campus of City of Glasgow College. To see the ships simulators. 

I am big into cultural activities art, theatre and drinking coffee etc too, but you will get these from the internet.  I do recommend the hop on hop off Glasgow City Tour bus as a way to get your bearings. If you are about on Saturday have a look around the Barrows Market in Glasgow's east end. 

Here are a list of eating and drinking spots that  I think are really worth finding and all within  range of  the conference hotel.  You can look them up. I'd catch the subway if going to west end , get on in city centre and get off at Hillhead. You can't get lost, one big circle. 

You can combine visits to these places with more cultural activities. 

City Centre Drinks 

Sloans  - Old coaching house - old intercity coach terminal.

Mono and Stereo -  Two related bars Vegan and Good music 

Potstill - Best Whisky Bar 

Horseshoe Bar - Authentic Victorian Glasgow Bar 

Lauriston Bar - Just across the river - best Guiness and frequented by Indie bands.  

McChuills - live music 

Clutha Vaults - live music 

Scotia Bar - live music 

Del Monicas - live music and dancing 

Buff Club - dancing and new Jazz club 

City Centre Eats 

Brutti Compadres - a bit of eats and drinks in nice old courtyard

Cafe Gandolfi - Up market Glasgow classic for arty folks 

Pisano - best pizza in town and great value 

Sugo - great pasta dishes and great value 

Margot - up market posh nosh 

Dhabba and Dhakin - North and South Indian restaurants near each other

Finnieston and Around - lots of wee bars mainly great eats 

Craab Shakk - tiny atmospheric fish and sea food straight from west highlands. 

Mother India and Mother India Cafe - best Currys in Glasgow - second one is tapas style.

Ox and Finch - very posh nosh and hard to get booking 

The Gannet - posh michelin type but good food.

West End/ Byres Road - near Glasgow University so loads of places to eat and drink

Oran Mhor - old converted church always lots going on 

Tennents Bar - classic Glasgow bar

Ubiquitous Chip - nice bar and posh nosh

Craab Shakk West End - larger sister restaurant of Finnieston one 

There are lots of great places South Side Glasgow too - you can discover them next trip 

#Scotedublogs #openscot - Why you should blog and Why you should join this Aggregator

If you dig back in this blog you will see that one way or another I have been blogging since the turn of the century. It's never without its challenges but for me it is a key part of open practice. It is a positive way of moving things forward. 

There was a sudden flowering of the Scottish Educational Blogosphere around 2005. In this context mainly school based folks. One of the great platforms that emerged from that period was and is  #Scotedublogs a simple aggregator of Scottish Educational blogs. 

As an educational blogger it was great to have some company along the way, at least for a short for a while. 

At one point I even managed  find some sponsorship to help it grow.

Championed by John Johnston one of the many unsung heroes in Scottish Education. 

It is probably needed again more than ever.  In time of enshittification etc It is good to have something that anchors the disparate but very authentic voices of those working across or around Scottish Education. We are doing a wee bit of a push to re-build this 'community' of Scottish Edubloggers. 

This sits well with lots of other things I support around Open Education. #openscot 

All you need is a blog or similar with an RSS feed.

And then all you need to do is make sure your blog is listed. 

Here are some suggestions.  

I could go on a bit of a rant 

1. If you work in and or around Scottish Education you should have a blog or similar.  A critical part of professional development review in my view.
2. If you train teachers or have a role in developing staff - you should be showing students and staff all how to blog and or create a shareable professional journal.
3. If you work for General Teaching Council in Scotland you should have made this part of registration a very long time ago.  
4. I am an old hand and still use Blogger - it serves it's purpose. But if I was to start again I would start by using free wordpress and then migrate to A domain of my own from Reclaim Hosting. ( I have my own domain already).  
5. Colleges and College staff have been particularly absent from the blogosphere. This currently means the sector is pretty much stifled as there are very few established voices talking about current College challenges in a sensible extended way.  

All I do is publish this blog - as it is listed in Scotedublogs it will appear on feed and be syndicated to Mastodon and Bluesky. 

 

Reflections on AI, Open Policy, and Educational Practice #oer25

An AI Created Logo

  

I had an opportunity to revisit my keynote from June in this online conference. Rather than repeating my presentation from the #OER25 conference, I’m provided a link to it in the session. My aim was to highlight my ongoing concern that our current focus on artificial intelligence may overshadow more meaningful discussions about collaboration, open policy and practice.

Great as ever to interact with passionate folks across UK education. 

Recent Developments Since OER 25

Since the OER 25 conference, there have been several notable updates:

• The Jisc Centre for Artificial Intelligence has continued to release valuable resources for the sector.
• However, recent data from Jisc and other surveys reveal worrying trends, including a lack of formal digital skills training for learners and persistent fatigue among academic staff regarding the rapid changes in the digital landscape.
• Possible game changer in Really Simple Licensing – see deck and news about substantial settlements for copyright breaches.
• I’ve highlighted what I think are useful updates from across the education sector in slides.

Perspectives on AI Use in Education

I recognised during my last session that not everyone shared my optimism about the role of AI. However, I do not believe that the use of AI results in catastrophic cognitive offloading. I do believe we need to navigate it to get the best for learners, teachers and our institutions, 

I strongly support the need to guide learners in the responsible and ethical adoption of AI tools. From Jisc surveys it looks as though this is still not happening.

Looking Ahead: A Challenge

Here is one challenge I want to leave you with—not focused on AI, but on the importance of ensuring that your institution has both a policy and a platform that actively supports open practice, as well as the creation and sharing of open educational resources.

I covered this at end of last keynote – we need to refocus on how we open up , how our institutions open and how we support our colleagues to work in the open.

It seems crazy that UK is now recognised in top 5 countries for adoption of AI when the educational establishment has hardly moved on adoption of UN principles around open practice and open educational practice.  Though I  know what a struggle it was latterly within an institution to get systems and people to support open practice. Closed mindsets are not conducive to learning, sharing and collaborating.  

How do we open up

•  Ensure your institution has a clear policy supporting open practice and use and sharing of open educational  resources. Including clear guidelines on creative commons and open licence.
• Resist AI hysteria and manage your way through this. 
• Make sure staff at all levels and all students are digitally literate and can manage their digital footprints.
• Ensure that your institution has an open repository , that your virtual learning environment supports  the open sharing of courses, that staff and students have a publishing space to share their reflections and academic practice.
• For learners that should be a place of their own, a blog or similar – not simply an institutional e-portfolio. The best place that will support them professionally and as lifelong learners.
• Model these behaviours be an open practitioner

Last goodie arrived as I was writing this up here is feedback from from UK Department of Business and Trade who trialled Co-Pilot across the department. 

 

 

OER25 Reflections: Open Practice and AI 

Since 2010, I’ve only missed a handful of the #OER conferences. Over the years, I’ve chaired, curated, and presented, but this year was different. I had the privilege of delivering a keynote, and with it, the chance to speak up for the vocational college sector. It’s a world of practical solutions, limited resources, and a different focus on learning. Perhaps a world less threatened by AI - we do things, demonstrate skills and create things - we don't write essays about how we might do things. 

A Keynote in Good Company

It was great to share the keynote stage with my friend and colleague Helen Beetham. Helen’s keynote was a masterclass in critical thinking, measured, cautious, and deeply principled. Her stance on AI in education was almost a full rejection, grounded in ethical concerns, systemic critique, and a call to resist the current trajectory of big tech. Focusing on the darker undercurrents of AI: copyright violations, exploitative labour practices, environmental degradation, and surveillance. 

Her outrage over AI systems targeting Wikipedia contributors was particularly horrifying. She advocates a boycott of current AI models and recommends the AI Now Institute’s 2025 Landscape Report as a roadmap for resistance.

Helen’s own writing, especially her piece on “Marking the Government’s Homework,” is essential reading for anyone grappling with the ethics of AI in public services. Her Substack is loaded with thoughtful critique.

You can explore both of our jumping off points  here. 

I hope I offered a useful counterpoint: someone who’s on the AI train, but still mindful of the price of the ticket. I really think we still have a lot more to do around equity, sharing and empowering learners. 

My slides including additional support materials are included at end of this blog post. I really don't think AI will damage the human brain - but it was interesting that someone suggested that untested and unsound it could create a scandal on scale of  thalidomide. I remember being told that too much TV would rot my brain too. 

That is the level of contention around adoption of AI in education. At least there is discussion and policy movement here. My presentation reflects a lack of movement around Open Education policies in Scotland specifically but around the UK too.  

Missing My Sense Filter

I have to mention the absence of my Open Scotland co-founder, Lorna Campbell. Lorna is a fixture at these events and serves as my sense filter. She was unfortunately laid low this year, but her blog post, “Stepping Back and Speaking Truth to Power,” offers a moving reflection on the conference and her own journey. 

AI: The New Scary Kid on the Block

Artificial Intelligence is undeniably the new disruptive force in education. But there’s a real danger that open education and open practice will be bullied further into the margins. We  across the UK lag behind global peers in adopting coherent policies around open educational resources (OER) and open practice.

The challenge is that AI’s shiny allure and/or toxicity distracts us from the deficits in our current system. 

In higher education, the model was broken long ago. I had hoped that the arrival of the internet and search engines would revolutionise assessment and pedagogy. Instead, we’re still clinging to outdated frameworks while fearing that AI might “eat our content.”

Here is a summary of other sessions I got along to

One of the most inspiring initiatives I encountered was the Learning with AI PressBook project, where students create resources to help peers and faculty navigate AI tools. It’s a brilliant example of co-creation and learner-led innovation.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands continues to lead the way in open education. The NPULS platform encourages content sharing across tertiary institutions, a model that Scottish agencies like the SFC and QAA Scotland are only beginning to consider. We’re still stuck at shared services, never mind shared learning content.

The Open Textbook Library workshop was another highlight. Years ago, we worked to ingest open textbooks into our college library catalogue, and it’s heartening to see that momentum continue. The emerging Community of Practice for the UK and Ireland is a promising space for collaboration.

A standout session from Catherine Cronin, Louise Drumm, and Helen Beetham explored alternatives to AI through their “Generating AI Alternatives” workshop. It is a thoughtful and provocative way to spark debate around AI and OER. As is the  Scottish Tertiary Education statement on the use of generative artificial intelligence

David Callaghan's illustration summed up nicely some of audiences fears around AI 

Kate Molloy and Claire Thompson ran a super session on Adapt/Resist and Go Rogue Out on the edge demoed https://www.napkin.ai/ and other tools to help us reimagine the future. 

A wonderful over view of EDM122: Digital Literacies and Open Practice an open course. For teachers to reflect on their practice and become open practitioners https://blogs.city.ac.uk/dilop/sample-page/  

Amazing and a very practical workshop from Tim Fransen looking at how much energy and what the processes are that Stable Diffusion uses to generate an image output and tips for teachers and students on how to use these tools efficiently.

To quote Tim ' the workshop invites educators to move beyond binary narratives of ‘AI as threat’ or ‘AI as saviour’ and toward a more nuanced, informed, and open educational approach to understanding and engaging with these technologies responsibly' 

Really gave an accessible and reflective entry point into the inner workings of generative AI systems and how it works to create images not just text. I can see graphics , gaming and even computer lecturers interested in this deep dive.  Also great use of https://mmm.page/ a useful tool for OER creation. 

Reminded again of all the great work that Global OER Graduate Network does https://go-gn.net/

Attended two thought provoking sessions from Dominik Luks - one around how AI is supporting minority languages around the world and one seriously debunking some of the AI myths around its use of energy and water.  He even quickly used AI to create a more flexible programme App for #oer25 on the fly. 

An amazing Ukrainian librarian Dr Tetiana Kolesnykova spoke from the Scientific Library and the network supporting the University libraries of Ukraine with OER.  The University library has been bombed flat but learning carries on. Truly humbling. If you have a moment send Tetiana a message of support. Slava Ukraine !

Gratitude and Grounding

As ever, there were too many great sessions, great chats  and too little time. Hats off to co-chairs Sheila MacNeil and Louise Drumm and the entire organising committee for curating such a rich programme.  Well done too to ALT for continuing to keep the fires of open education burning in the UK. This community of change makers remains one of the most inspiring in UK around innovation in learning and teaching.  

Someone called me a “legend” on social media, caused much hilarity at home, but for now, I’m just grateful to have shared space, ideas, and optimism with so many passionate advocates for openness.

Looking Ahead

I’ll post my slides here , and I hope others will share theirs too. The conversations we started at OER25 need to continue, especially as AI reshapes the landscape of education. We must ensure that open practice doesn’t get pushed into the shadows. Instead, let’s use this moment to reimagine what openness can mean in an AI-driven world. I am looking forward to pushing the discussion on later in September and at OERGlobal Camp in November.

There are some other great blogs from #oer25 that capture much more than I can here. Love to all old friends and new.

We do really need to take back the commons we are missing better use of social media all round. To change things and have a common front we need better solidarity. 

It is the start of session. How will your institution lead out an open educational initiative this year ? and how will you support and encourage teaching staff to become open practitioners ?   

https://catherinecronin.net/conferences/oer25-speaking-truth-to-power/

https://howsheilaseesit.net/oer/oer25-our-silence-will-not-save-us/

One Year Over the Top ; Reflections. The Joy of Not Being There: A September Without the Start of Term

I've been feeling a bit guilty. I've done a bit of work over summer but mainly I've just chilled.  It was strange coming back from a foreign holiday and not having to check emails - but a really nice sensation. 

This September, for the first time in thirty nine years , I am not preparing for the start of term. No staff briefings. No last-minute system tweaks. No wondering whether staff will be more engaged, more challenging, more everything - and what budget cuts are coming down the line etc and mainly wondering if the students will cope and will staff actually step them through induction or leave them to sink or swim. 

As I push on I am bringing opportunities back to the College sector and the folks I know will be receptive to new ideas.  

Time to for a quick reflection on what I said I would do and what I've actually achieved and what I have to catch up on - I am due a post both on ALT Scotland SIG meeting at end of June and on #OER25 which I keynoted at before heading off on leave. That will be my next tasks.

When I said my farewells I promised I would keep pushing on a number of fronts.  Here is a potted update and a report card. 

• UNESCO - Continue shaping bid for project around better understanding of the open source code available for creation and management of Open Badges in support of Micro credentials. Bid completed and I anticipate publication appearing before Christmas.  This from work in Bilbao 
• Continue work with UK Digital Badging Commission - input completed and work now published. Tied in well with UNESCO work and my fellowship with RSA. Led to some comms and  work with 1Edtech.  Scottish education seems miles away from adopting these approaches. 
• Hopefully continue to support work of QAA around Scottish Tertiary Quality framework. Delighted to say I now have a part-time role as a Quality Assurance Specialist for QAA.
• Champion Teachermatic and other AI approaches to changing learning paradigm. This is still work in progress have delivered a number of sessions and keynotes.
• Champion Canvas by Instructure . I am still due to do a bigger deeper blog on Canvas and why it should be platform of choice. But enjoyed working with Martin Bean in Scotland and enjoyed my time in Barcelona at #CanvasCon 
• Continue to support Open Scotland following Dubai Summit to encourage more Open practice in Scotland. I keynoted #oer25 in London in June ( post to follow) I've presented to Once for Scotland to see if we can re-engage policy makers across Scotland and hoping to pick up conversation with Lee Dunn in the current administration. I am presenting OERGlobal25 in November. 
• Encourage better understanding of Adaptive Comparative Judgement - this probably one area where I haven't really pushed on. 
• Offer informed input on shape and future of tertiary sector in Scotland.  I keep knocking on relevant doors. There really needs to be a wholesale change in approach. 
• Continue as Chair of Association of Learning Technology special interest group in Scotland and do a bit more community building for ALT. Held two meetings this year. Summary of online conference April  - report on June Stirling Conference to come and I am co-chair of UK ALTC Conference coming to Glasgow for first time in October. 
• Continue to offer support to  suppliers , institutions and staff who want to digitally transform their practice and the experience of learners. Some notable successes with Smart Technologies really down to quality of product and support available in Scotland and in dialogue with a number of other suppliers. I continue to work with lots of old friends from @Bett Conferences  and my network. 
•  I've run a couple of College sessions but sector could do with a few more - still not really seeing blended learning to the fore.  I think I could do more on that front. (if anyone wants a short workshop on digital transformation for managers or teaching staff - please just reach out) 
• FRSA - Support Glasgow branch around organising a series of events this and next year. Making progress civic reception at City Chambers and event at Citizens Theatre in planning - reaching out to Education contacts for RSA.
• Continue as Chair of IWasGonnae and Old Hall Scout Group. - both organisations thriving - really down to the energy and skills of the teams there. 

I've done lots of travelling over the year for business and fun and hosted some guests in Glasgow. 

Here are two happy snaps of 

Kim William Gordon, PhD from EdTech Research Labs St Louis USA

Maria Soledad Ramirez Montoya, UNESCO Chair Open Educational Movement for Latin America

Just Once for Scotland and busy week

It was great to have an opportunity to talk to peers across the public sector in Scotland about Open Scotland to the Just Once for Scotland forum.

Though we have communicated with all the main educational agencies over the years and corresponded directly at cabinet level. It was interesting to hear an almost complete lack of awareness of UNESCO's mandate around Open Educational Resources.  

Feedback on session was immediate. Collaboration and sharing and approaches like this are just what is needed particularly at a time of limited resource.  I'd argue that adoption of the UNESCO principles are sensible in any event and so long over due. I hope I've made some impressions this time. 

Anyway I attach slides from session - borrowing heavily on 10th anniversary session of Open Scotland ( It is now the 12th anniversary) delivered to local authorities and agencies across Scotland. This is an interesting and useful forum and worth signing up for. 

For a country that makes big claims on Education as a public good. We are still too introspective and generally in the very slow lane when it comes to changes like this. 

I'll reflect on that when I talk at #oer25 in London next month.

This one of the sessions or activities I was involved in last week. 

•  Chaired a great quarterly review of IWasGonnae charity making great progress and getting super plaudits. Well done to Stuart and team - for making Chair job easy.
• Finalised speakers and arrangements for Association of Learning Technology gathering at Stirling University on 16th of June.
• Had first chairs meeting for ALT UK conference that is coming to Glasgow in October 2025 
• Had final meeting too of organising committee for #oer25 looking forward to seeing old friends and new in London at the end of the month. 
• Attended RSA gathering at Glasgow Art Club - planning event for FRSA members for Glasgow 350 anniversary in October   

A short history of the development of a College based AI policy

A colleague got in touch with me to ask. 

" When the college was creating the guidance for GenAI use what informed this? I’m trying to collect some policy documents for my dissertation on GenAI policy and wondered if you might have any suggestions. I assume SQAs policy was considered but did you use any policies from the Scottish Government, EU, other governing bodies etc "

I thought it was worth sharing the response. I am still watching education asking some of the correct questions but still mainly circling the wagons. 

This story starts in April 2021 pre Chat GPT and being asked to respond and shape a College response to the assumed incidence of the rise of contract cheating across the College. At the time we knew and worked with colleagues in Scottish HE where contract cheating was a thing and we knew how it generally manifested itself.

In short what prompted the initial guidance on artificial intelligence - the first College in the UK to offer some,  was in part some frustration with a new member of SMT from HE who was insistent  that a large number of students at City of Glasgow College were buying essays from essay mills at £50 and more a pop. While we had the knowledge that something else was actually going on. The College at this point kept no central records on instances of academic misconduct. 

We had data to show that this was not happening. We knew from HE that most of the bought in essays raised at least a few flags in plagiarism detection. We knew too that staff teaching generally smaller classes in FE were reasonably vigilant and knew their students.

However, we did know learners were starting to use Microsoft, Google , Grammarly and other tools to ‘improve’ their essay writing. We wanted to do some work around this to support teachers and students. 

For students this would be around when and how to acknowledge that they had used tools to support their essay writing. For teaching staff to raise staff awareness that these tools were in use, it was manageable, permissible and actually supported learners' accessibility needs. We were rolling out Canvas a new VLE in this time frame too and we were very focused on accessibility. 

We spoke to students through the students' association who confirmed that students used a range of tools. There was actually a very low awareness of essay farms. The students highlighted that while there were free tools they were very unlikely to pay for essay creation. They had legitimate fears too that the existing plagiarism software would catch out learners who commissioned essays in this way. 

But more concerningly they were worried about using some of the assistive tools to support their additional learning needs. 

It was clear that the institution and the staff were being blind sided by some of these developments. 

We wanted to change the focus from simply tackling 

'academic misconduct' to one where we could promote academic integrity through changing learner and lecturers' practice. I think we achieved this in the end, but only to some degree. In medium term this will only come with improved digital skills for lecturers and students and fundamental changes in the overall approach to assessment. 

At that point Chat GPT appeared, things accelerated, and a form of hysteria started. 

UCL in London had early guidance on using and referencing AI but it was framed in very Higher Education, University language. It has been refined but still on their website. We took this and clarified it for College staff and students, discussing this with learners, as we moved along, giving UCL due attribution. 

We then shared this internally and externally on the Learning and Teaching Academy website.  The LTA website has since been updated and the supporting documents have disappeared onto the College intranet. I hope they have been refined to support this ever dynamic landscape. 

The original guidance for students that was created with input from staff and students based on the UCL model is linked here. 

In the background we met some turbulence. A small but vocal number of staff wanted the college to ban any use of AI tools and or wished for a fool proof AI detection engine. 

We spent a year testing the Turnitin AI detection tool and found it to be generating too many false positives and switched it off before Turnitin came back asking for another fee for this 'service'. We also highlighted that on occasions when Turnitin 'failed' it was indicating that the same assessment had been used for more than five years and required updating.

On occasion we were asked to investigate a claim by academic staff that AI had been used in the creation of some work and not attributed. In some cases we were able to show an academic how the history and tracking of changes works in word. It was all the learner's own work and/or whoever spent several days and hours authoring. 

We worked with Jisc and were the only College to run a Jisc focus group with students around their use of AI.  This helped further refine our guidance. The stats in the slide deck below reflect what students said they were already using in September 2023. It went through a number of iterations and versions but sums up the College's overall approach at the time. 

 

This led to our materials being shared more widely and I was involved with helping SQA create their initial policy and guidance. We shared our work too with the QAA , at the BETT Conference,  EdTech Europe and at other conferences. We were indebted to colleagues in these organisations and to Donald Clark who appreciated what we were doing and who we were doing it for - the learners.

We led  'delivery not delay', was a College mantra. We ran lots of workshops for staff and students around digital skills and literacy including the use of AI, these supported by the LT and Library teams. 

At the time of creation of this guidance, while UAL had some guidance, the work of SQA , Scottish Govt was just starting and in many cases we were involved in shaping policy there. 

The approach was informed by the work of Jisc and the research coming out of the Association of Learning Technology and from European policy documents. The EU work on AI is relatively new. At the time it was around making our AI work align with European Digital Literacy standards for education. Through the LTA teams work on Open Educational Resources we also had the opportunity to see drafts of UNESCO work in the AI space and that helped inform what we were doing. 

I think around this time, the College worked out that we knew what we were doing and we ran a workshop for the College Board around defining an appropriate risk for the College risk register. This in turn led to some workshops and specific support for the Colleges professional services staff. 

The guidance was also shaped by a concern to make sure that learners and teaching staff followed college guidance around using tools that were accessible and met GDPR standards. 

One regret, is that while we were the  first college to pilot Teachermatic I could not get the internal support to roll it out across the College, as for instance Clyde College did later. 

There is still heavier lifting required. The advent of AI needs some deeper changes to assessment. If anything it highlights that assessment of competence should be a more practical demonstration of a particular skill and not judged on a candidate's essay writing skill. 

This not to demean the skill of communication. The system simply needs to rethink the context in which it values and supports effective communication. Learners still need to learn to craft communications for a variety of audiences, including academic writing. 

Where are things now - with focus on AI and education. 

There is some quite mature guidance recently published by Edinburgh University shaped with Education Scotland and SQA guidance.

Jisc continues to offer excellent support through AI  

There are some excellent policy papers from Europe around AI literacy

UNESCO has a growing set of policy and guidance on AI and teachers

The College Learning and Teaching Academy website on AI has some further links.  

From the ALT Scotland latest gathering in April 2025  some useful links too. Specifically on AI and ethical use.

The College Development Network are running practical rather than policy workshops in May and June 25.