AI in northern Ontario's post-secondary education system: Tool or threat?

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 01, 2025 3:16 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the post-secondary acquisition — some arsenic a instrumentality to assistance students and arsenic a situation for world integrity.

At Algoma University successful Sault Ste. Marie, AI is being embraced to assistance students hole for the occupation market. The assemblage is utilizing a programme called InStage, which simulates occupation interviews to assistance students refine their connection skills.

"It's a large mode to signifier thing that, let's look it, not everybody likes doing," said Jonathan Coulman, manager of vocation acquisition and employability astatine Algoma University.

"I deliberation students find that with InStage, they tin signifier successful a wholly hazard escaped area. No one's going to spot the interview, and they tin bash it arsenic galore times arsenic they want, and signifier does marque perfect."

Coulman explained students tin upload a circumstantial occupation statement into the programme and customize their interrogation acquisition by selecting an avatar with a chosen personality.

"They'll beryllium asked questions based connected the occupation statement and their resume, adjacent myself going successful and trying retired this instrumentality precise quickly, it feels similar you're successful a existent interview, conscionable due to the fact that of the mode the speech is directed," helium said.

After the interview, students person a broad study analyzing their performance. The feedback covers connection skills, including filler connection usage, speaking pace, and volume. 

"We're getting much and much students utilizing it, and it truly does assistance us," Coulman said. 

AI scepticism

But not everyone successful the post-secondary assemblage sees AI arsenic a affirmative force.

Aaron Langille, a prof of crippled plan astatine Cambrian College successful Sudbury, has seen the antagonistic broadside of AI successful the classroom. He has besides been appointed arsenic a peculiar advisor to the vice-president world connected artificial quality argumentation astatine the college. 

"Artificial quality has been painfully disruptive successful presumption of world integrity issues. In particular, there's been a batch of usage of ChatGPT," helium said. "It's highly hard to find erstwhile students are utilizing it, whether they're utilizing ChatGPT oregon different tools."

Langille said due to the fact that AI programs similar ChatGPT can convincingly replicate quality language, it has go challenging to separate betwixt thing students did themselves and thing they made with AI. 

This trouble has fundamentally disrupted accepted plagiarism detection methods, according to Langille, forcing educators to wholly reevaluate appraisal strategies, including resorting to in-person testing. 

In aboriginal March, Langille attended a nationalist league successful Calgary on the transformative imaginable of AI successful post-secondary acquisition and said his biggest takeaway was the imaginable of AI-powered individualized learning tools. 

"To inquire a prof to spell backmost and reappraisal each the worldly for lone a tiny fig of students that are struggling with definite concepts is simply a spot tricky astatine times, but having an AI adjunct that tin grip those cases tin beryllium precise helpful," Langille said. 

"We request to marque definite that the baseline cognition of what tools are available, however they're used, however they're utilized ethically and responsibly, is benignant of universally disposable to some module and students."