AI in Higher Education is a hot topic, sparking debates on teaching, assessment, and educational design. To support educators, CELT colleagues Robin van Emmerloot, Francesca Frittella, and Raisa van der Vegt created the AI Resource Hub—a comprehensive tool for integrating AI literacy, enhancing educational design, and ensuring AI-resilient assessment. In this upcoming interview, thyl share insights into its development, challenges faced, and how it helps educators navigate this evolving landscape.
Can you explain what the AI Resource Hub is, why it was created, and how it helps educators navigate AI integration in higher education?
Francesca: Last year, we recognized that AI would be a long-term concern for educators at UT. In response, CELT formed a working group dedicated to supporting teachers in integrating AI into their teaching and addressing its impact on education.
While many AI resources exist, the sheer volume of information can be overwhelming, making it difficult for educators to find materials suited to their specific needs. That’s why we set out to create a resource hub tailored to the UT community. Additionally, we realized that UT already had a wealth of expertise and valuable resources that we could consolidate, share, and build upon.
"Why did you choose a resource hub as the format for this initiative, and how did you gather the information and insights needed to develop its content?"
Raisa: We began our project with a needs analysis, starting with a survey and lots of conversations with different teachers. We combined this with useful insights from the master’s thesis of Saba Soleimani, who was an EST student at that time. Early on, we noticed two things: (1) UT already has in-house AI expertise and pioneers in this field, and (2) a lot of valuable content had already been written and developed. That’s why we decided to pool everything in one central, digital platform: the AI Resource Hub.
We chose Canvas over a static website because it allows for interaction through discussion boards, making it more dynamic. And instead of a self-paced e-learning format, we went with an ‘FAQ-style’ to provide quick, accessible answers for those with urgent questions.
"How does the AI Resource Hub help educators design assessments that are both AI-resilient and adaptable, while also ensuring fairness and academic integrity in an evolving technological landscape?"
Francesca: Assessment has been one of the most pressing concerns regarding AI in education at the UT and beyond. The ability for students to generate entire assignments using AI and simply copy-paste the output raises serious questions about the validity of assessment, which is a fundamental pillar of our education.
To address this, our Resource Hub includes a dedicated section on assessment, where educators can find templates and guidelines on AI-related academic integrity, developed in collaboration with Examination Boards. Additionally, we provide strategies for designing "AI-resilient" assessments—ensuring that educators can effectively evaluate student learning despite advancements in AI technology.
However, this is a rapidly evolving challenge. What works today may not be effective tomorrow as AI continues to develop. That’s why we also offer workshops tailored to educators and programs, helping them navigate these issues in their program’s context. Beyond technical measures, we also encourage programs to promote the critical and responsible use of AI among students. Effective assessment design goes hand in hand with fostering AI literacy—students should understand when, how, and why to use AI in their learning process.
To achieve valid assessment in the age of AI, we must increasingly rely on students' sense of responsibility for their learning and their intrinsic motivation to engage with assessment tasks. As AI-powered shortcuts become more accessible, students who lack genuine engagement will have even more ways to bypass meaningful learning. This makes it essential for us to design assessments that are not only rigorous but also relevant and compelling. If students see value in the learning process, they are far less likely to seek shortcuts.
In reality, this challenge has always existed—AI is merely amplifying it. We've seen it before in students guessing on multiple-choice exams, rambling in open-ended responses, or free-riding in group work. Rather than viewing AI as a threat, we should see this as an opportunity to rethink assessment—designing approaches that foster deeper learning, intrinsic motivation, and genuine intellectual curiosity.
What are some common misconceptions educators have about AI in teaching and learning, and how does the AI Resource Hub address these misunderstandings?":
Robin: The technology is in my view an exciting development that adds to all the tools we have to our disposal as professionals and hobbyists in the modern time. While I sympathize with the concerns regarding ethics and assessment, the bottom line for me is that this type of technology is here to stay: but we have to stay rational in our approach. If you read into the developers and their marketing talk, we should have with AI the solution to all of mankind’s problems in hands. The truth is that while powerful, due to the nature of how these generative AI models work there are severe fundamental flaw.
These models are designed with statistics and approximations at its core. Some critical voices might even argue whether they are actually ‘intelligent’ – and to what extend that would be. It can generate a lot of useful new things in no-time, that will seemingly look like the real deal. But small hints will give away it’s just bluffing its way through your prompt. By just merging some of its knowledge into a new reply, and its realistic writing style, users are put on the wrong track. I do believe that – without becoming AI developers themselves – users with a fundamental knowledge of this technology and its limitations will have better chances at integrating practices in their profession. Our resource hub is meant to address this fundamental knowledge: on a Q&A base to actually understand some of the limitations of this.
How do you see the AI Resource Hub evolving as AI continues to shape higher education, and what are your future plans for its development?"
Raisa: I see the AI Resource Hub as a tool to raise awareness about AI in education and to build an active UT community around this topic. I hope it will help (future) educators become more AI-literate, which is important, also given the EU AI Act’s requirements. In the short term, I’d love to add more examples - both good and bad - of how UT educators are experimenting with AI. I also hope to highlight more AI tools that can safely be used by staff. And of course, since AI is evolving super quickly, we’ll need to keep the hub updated to make sure it stays relevant and useful.
Francesca: I agree with Raisa, and I’d add that the Resource Hub is just one of the many ways we support the UT community in the area of AI. We also offer workshops, consultancy, and project support, in our respective areas of AI expertise. Educators and programs interested in learning more are welcome to reach out to us: https://www.utwente.nl/en/learning-teaching/Expertise/ai-in-education/#3-contact
Robin: I hope this hub stimulates conversations regarding this topic going within the UT, regarding its potential and limitations. I got involved with this topic and technology in a sense of play, and I hope this resource hub inspires others in that same sense too. There are examples and ideas of ways to deal with this topic in your education. My colleagues rightfully point out some of the ways we offer support with this too, and we look forward to offering more ways to do so.
